Sycamore Hill Path

Sycamore Hill Path, 10x8", oil on canvas panel,
©2013 Cindy Greene

Last Thursday I painted at Sycamore Hill in Irvine Regional Park with Kim VanDerHoek's plein air class. We have a standing joke that Kim picks the most challenging weather and location combinations that she can find in our idyllic area of Southern California. How bad can it be in May in SoCal? 

Well, the prediction was for 93F, and I noticed the wind symbol on the weather app on my phone. While driving over the hill to the park, I was having to dodge palm fronds and eucalyptus branches in the street. When I found the meeting location, I spent about five minutes picking a parking spot away from the large trees — leaves and branches were everywhere. It was really windy.

My main goal was to find a sheltered spot that had something "paintable." I knew an umbrella would never work in the wind, so I also looked for shade for my easel.

I'm pretty happy with the result. I picked out most of the bugs and bits of dirt and leaves that blew in, and managed to get the painting home safely. My challenges for this painting (other than dealing with the weather) were to paint larger (8x10), and to do a landscape without a sky. Done!