Chateau CharMarron Peony Gardens, San Jose (above Milpitas). Thursday, April 30, 2015

Readers of this blog are probably rolling their eyes and asking themselves: "What another garden?"  Yes, another garden!   We're so fortunate that there's no end of Bay Area gardens worthy of our best efforts with brush & palette.     Highs in the 90s were forecast for San Jose but, surprisingly, it was quite pleasant higher up in the Diablo Range.  A gentle breeze both cooled us and wafted the fragrance of the peonies over us and made for just a perfect day's painting.   And, as was the case last week, we were fortunate that the gardener who created and now maintains the garden, Marcia Reed, was able to share her knowledge and love of peonies with us.

Marcia, our wonderful hostess and the woman responsible for the spectacular  peony demonstration beds in the background.

For more information about the Chateau CharMarron Peony Gardens, see:  http://4peonies.com/
If you plan to visit (do so pretty soon while the peonies are still in bloom), be sure to follow the driving Map & Directions link provided on the website as it offers a much better route than heading straight up Sierra Rd.

 Upcoming  Paintsites:

• Thursday, May 7, 2015: San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, San Jose
• Thursday, May 14, 2015: Stanford Arizona (Cactus) Garden, Stanford
• Saturday, May 16, 2015: Stanford Arizona (Cactus) Garden, Stanford  (1st 2015 Weekend Paint Site)
• Thursday, May 21, 2015: Sunset Magazine Gardens, Menlo Park
• Thursday, May 28, 2015: Guadalupe Oak Grove Park, San Jose

 
This is an area of great natural beauty so if peonies weren't your "thing", we could look in any direction from Chateau CharMarron's hilltop location and find something interesting to paint...

Waiting for the paintout to start, John did this sketch of Calaveras Reservoir from his car.

Marilyn was equally taken with the Calaveras Reservoir.

Marilyn's painting of Calaveras Reservoir with Mt. Diablo in the far right background

John supplied his own shade while painting a hillside and barn to the west of CharMarron.

John's painting.

Sylvia experimenting with a new watercolor and oil pastel technique.

Sylvia's peonies (left), poppies (right) and path (center) painting.

New member Salimah joined us for her first SCVWS Paintsite.

Melanie up close with a peony that (figuratively) grabbed her.

Melanie's gorgeous painting captured all the colors in this particular variety.

Iris

Iris' perfect peonies.

Lisha, surrounded by peonies.

Lisha's painting of a "bouquet" of peonies

Mary P.

Mary's pink peony painting

Liz braved the sun to paint her perfect peony

Liz's panoramic "Peachy Pink Cobbler" peony painting 

Jane K. and Helen

Jane K.'s peonies.

Helen's sketch of the same peonies.

Marilyn took a long view of some peony beds.

Brad's painting of a particularly floriferous peony.

John, who as "The Painter of Rust" has a reputation to maintain, waited until he thought everybody else had left before tackling some decidedly non-ferrous peonies.   But he didn't reckon with Liz who was still there and took this photo to document this historic moment.

A "Belleville", but not the one that we usually see.