Happy New Year 2014. I hope everyone had wonderful and blessed holidays this season. I just wanted to thank everyone on my list and give you this little gift of places you might want to visit in 2014. For those people who do not live in California I hope these sites inspire you to look for places of inspiration in your own areas. Here are some wonderful places to visit, paint, and just feel creative in Santa Cruz County, California. I have painted at each of these sights and they offer me endless inspiration.
painting sites
6. Arboretum Tree
The Arboretum in Santa Cruz, CA is a wonderful place to paint a variety of exotic species nurtured by the UCSC horicultural students. Actually filmed in August, 2012, I painted an old and wonderous Eucalyptus tree. I had been meaning to paint this tree for a long time and originally started a painting in watercolor but never finished it. Here you can see my process in oil from start to finish.
Trees have been considered sacred, if we go way back in history. In about 800AD, there is a reference to Charlemagne destroying a temple that housed the wood of the famous Irminsul tree thought to be the "pillar of the universe which, supports all things." There are many references to sacred tree pillars in Celtic and German spirituality. Even if we don't think of trees as sacred today, we do feel the strength of the spirit of a very old and developed tree. Part of our fascination stems from our primordial roots where the Gods were thought to dwell in the sky. A tree trunk points our eyes into the heavens and then the branches spread out and appear to try and touch the essence of the sky. The tree that I painted at the Arboretum has beautiful curving branches that remind us how we try in our own lives to reach the heavens from many different angles and perspectives.
3. Painting at the Arboretum
Artists, this is a great place to paint in Santa Cruz, California. Follow High Street until it turns into Empire Grade. You will find the Arboretum on your right. This place makes you really think about the abundance of God. Your eyes feast on numerous blooming plants that create a kaliedescope of contrasting and analogous colors and shapes. This place makes my spirit want to sit here and just bask in the beauty. Beauty is one ways that humans experience transcendence. Many Native American sacred spots were chosen because of the awesome beauty you experience while standing there. Have you ever visited Crater Lake in Oregon. That was considered a sacred place for the Indians to come and be cleansed. The beauty of that spot lives on in your memory as will the Arboretum
2. Davenport Cliff Painting
Here is a nice place to paint an ocean scene. There are many cliffs by the ocean at Davenport, California. Follow a path and choose a site. Remember that it is usually windy almost everyday. Secure your canvas before you start to paint.
1. Painting at Camp Joy
This is a beautiful spot in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.