Saturday, September 1, 2007

DIABLO LAKE OVERLOOK, DAVIS PEAK


Diablo Lake Overlook just might be the busiest place in the park. I set up my paints in the morning, and talk to all kinds of people while I paint. Japanese tourists take my picture. People from Tennessee watch me paint the turquoise water.

People aren't my only visitors. A yellow-jacket grumbles around my hat, and on my palette I get a visit from a rectangular black beetle with four-inch jointed antennae. As I put the finishing brushstrokes on the painting, a woman tells me it's lovely. "All it needs is a bird." I flick in a Stellar's jay, sitting on a tree limb. Can you find it?

Then back to the visitors' center, where I paint underneath the circling bat, until a visitor manages to get him outside. What would the park be without animals?

No comments: