Painting on the Limonneira Ranch in Santa Paula, CA...

Santa Paula is one of the most beautiful & quiet areas in Ventura County. It's the 100+ year old home of the place most of our lemons are green-grown, The Limoneira Company. Limoneira has been providing low cost housing for their steady labor force for generations, and this is one of them. The house part of a group of 3 similar art-deco homes at the entrance to the ranch offices. The challenge in painting it is that the sun really never hits the front of the home, so it is always in some kind of shade and the most interesting view is flat, head-on, directly from the front. A painting no-no. After 3 hours it all worked out in the end. I always put what I create in a frame to see if I like it. I do, especially the poles and wires and the view in the background down Cummings Road to the lemon orchard and the mountains in the distance.