6X8", o/cp (Sold, private collection). This trail is part of Cabrillo Monument, and on a rare sunny morning, I took another stab at getting the color of this amazing coastal scrub. Even in sunlight, the colors are very subtle. The brightest green is Lemonadeberry, which has a Mediterranean growth pattern. The leaves grow straight up (at a vertical angle) to minimize moisture loss by avoiding direct exposure to the sun. As a result they don't reflect light the way most green shrubs do, so it's an interesting visual problem when painting them. The orangey plants are Buckwheat, and much of the grey is Encelia which survives the summer by dropping all its leaves and looking really quite dead. After the rains start again, it will green up and this scene will look quite different.
Another view, a couple hours earlier (8" X 6", o/cp; Sold, private collection):
