Ranch house on the trail

This oil painting was done from a plein air painting in watercolor of a rural area called Live Oak Canyon. The building, with its definite straight lines contrasted with the curves of the hills around. What made me want to paint this scene was the light and shadows of the hills, the building and the surrounding area. It was backlit when I started to draw the scene originally and as the sun came up, the sun hit certain parts of the scenery and made it very dramatic, which I captured in my watercolor plein air painting and then in this studio painting.