Just outside of the little town of Los Olivos, CA is a charming lavender farm, Clairmont Farms. You enter down a long driveway lined with very old olive trees with great gnarled trunks. Beyond the trees' wispy long branches waving in the wind, is a sea of lavender that spans the property with majestic oaks springing up from the masses of color. Surreal.
I wish you could scratch and sniff the monitor! The smell was intoxicating and as I made my way out to the center of the field to do the painting above it became stronger. I set up under the shade of one of the oaks... the ground underneath crunchy with dry grasses. Beyond the lavender was a farmer's field in vivid greens. Soft breezes were filled with perfume. Honey bees were buzzing happily among the flowers.
I returned the next day to paint again. The blooms were at their peak and I didn't want to miss another chance to paint. When I drove by a week later the purples had turned to blues and they had begun to harvest the blooms.
7 comments:
Totally lovely paintings and what a beautiful place!
Incredibly beautiful. I got goosebumps when I saw the photos of the lavender that you had posted from your trip - those goosebumps just got a lot bigger!
thank you! It was a really amazing experience. While I was painting, I was flabbergasted at the tourists who would drive down the driveway, roll down the window, look & drive away. Never got out of their cars! To get out and walk out along the paths carved into the fields was an amazing experience.
It is so good to see you active with DPP, after seeing you work at the Camp Hill Plein Air Festival! I still love your 19th century Engish Watercolorist style- and this is one of my favorites!
Thanks Thom! I am glad to be included in this great group of painters! Thanks for the compliment...and reminding me that I wanted to look up that genre of painting style that you talked about when I met you in Camp Hill! Nice to see you here as well.
Lavendar Fields Forever! Beautiful and I wish the monitor was a scratch and sniff...I can just imagine the peacefulness you felt walking through these gorgeous fields.
Thanks Linda... it was a surreal experience. I was very relaxed with all that lavender!
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