Plein Air at Santa Teresa County Park

"Spring in Santa Teresa County Park"

14" x 11" watercolor

 

"Ancient Rocks"

Santa Teresa County Park

9" x 7" watercolor

 

The real rocks

 

 

Santa Teresa County Park

April 4, 2013

 

Plein Air was a special treat for me because I live at the base of Santa Teresa County Park, a new location for the watercolor society Painsites group. The weather was damp, cool, and windy, so just four hardy souls showed up to paint. Two of us live in the neighborhood. We usually have to travel to the sites which tend to be north of us. We are on the southeast end of San Jose where country begins. I love the location because we live in a large city, but we are snuggled up to open country. The Park is a treasure with a golf course at the base, two blocks from the house.

 

Three of us took cover in the group picnic shelter and sat at a table to paint. The photo shows what I painted first -- you don't see it here because I tried a wet-in-wet approach and it simply would not dry. Thus, I turned 90 degrees to my left and painted the Santa Teresa Hills  using much less water. I like the simplicity of the piece. By now it was lunchtime and we were chilled. We were ready to pack it in for the day when the sun began to shine. We decided to linger, so I turned another 90 degrees and painted the old rocks. I think at some point that morning, all four of us painted the rocks. Eventually you can view some of our work on the paint sites blog.

 

We got to talking about the wildlife. On the way up the hill, we saw a large flock of turkeys. There were many birds around. We also have deer, wild boar, coyotes, and bobcats, none of which we saw yesterday. Today, though, my gym buddy and I were walking around the area near the gym and our heart rate went up when we met up with a large coyote sauntering through the parking lot of a high tech building and crossing the street. He stopped and looked at us in a pretty unconcerned way and we gracefully retreated.