Summer Heat, Central Valley -- 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (Round Two), Day 14

Summer Heat, Central Valley,  

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 9"w, 2013 #65

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This piece started quite a while ago as a study of negative painting in a workshop with the wonderful landscape artist and teacher Roland Lee. I saw this scene first when driving down to central valley on one of the little winding roads from Pinnacles National Park (at that time still only a national monument). The heat has totally scorched the land. There is only yellows, orches and browns in my field of vision. Now and then, a single, very skinny cattle or horse would been seen lying under valley oak trees, trying to get as much shade as possible from the what little shadow a lone tree could offer. It must be over 100 degrees even in shadow. Every inch in my line of vision is burnt by heat. Even the wind was choking hot, and when it titillated with the dried up grass it almost sounded like the vegetation were moaning out of pain and thirst. An old wind pump was slowly operating on the roadside, draining what little water it could squeeze out of ground into the huge rusty metal tanks standing beside it. I couldn't help but imaging how hot it would be if I put my hand on the shiny surface of those tanks... I can almost feel the thirst on my lips again when finishing this piece last night, although I was sitting in my cool, damp, comfortable San Francisco home...

I guess this is what I love most about painting -- it allow you to recall and relive the experiences that has once moved you, or forever scarred you. The pleasure and pain that has once changed us are, through the movement of a brush, fixed on a piece of canvas or paper for eternity...

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here: