This painting is in the Cleveland National Forest. I had been searching for out of the way places to paint that were near my house. What I did was zero in on the area around my house using google maps. I found this road that went up into the heart of the Cleveland National Forest that had easy public access. So I got in the car and 20 minutes later I was hiking up Black Star Canyon Road. The area had been surveyed in the 30's. I found one of the national survey spikes while hiking. It was really interesting to see that people were still living on this isolated road. I could not see any signs of electrical power or running water. There were a number of abondoned homes and vehicles in various states of decompostion. There were also a number of cattle ranches along the road. Some of the views were amazing. You quickly got the feeling you were a lot further away from the suburbs than you actually were. This painting was a success for me in 2 areas. I thought I got the contrast right and I liked the outcome of the ariel perspective. These have been a couple of areas of focus for me for the last couple of months. Village Art Center Art Walk 11/9-2/10 & 11/10-3/11. This painting also showed at the In the Light of Day show at the Brea Gallery from 8/6/11-9/16/11.
