Painting in the Diablo Mountain Range

"Mountain Peonies"
14" x 19" Watercolor
$175

Another great day painting with the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society. We are so fortunate to live in an area with many beautiful gardens, so that is the focus for Spring outings. We visited the Chateau CharMarron Peony Gardens high above the Valley in the Diablo Mountain Range. I had been here once before with the group, in 2013, and knew I didn't want to miss this event. The owners are so welcoming. The place is also open to the public during Peony prime time.

It was sunny and hot, with temps predicted in the 90s. I had planned to find a favorite clump of flowers and paint them close focused, but I decided I needed shade. Thus I did a floral landscape, along the idea of last week's Irises in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

My models

 You can see that I had some lovely models, though I did not choose to paint all of them nor all their leaves. I liked the mountain backdrop with deep, richly colored evergreens.

Some of the day's production

After a few hours of painting we gathered under the covered structure where I had painted to appreciate the day's work. You can read more about our adventure on the SCVWS paintsites blog.

Another beautiful day of being inspired by my fellow artists.