This grove of trees is part of where the Monterey Downs Development is proposed. All around me, and as far as I could see, the trees would be cut down. It is a solid forest of amazing oaks in this area where they would like to put in 1280 homes instead of leaving this alone! It must not happen!
When I was painting there the second day, a coyote was coming through until it saw me reach for my camera. It was just about forty feet away when it turned around to go along another way. This painting was created over five days. Here is an article by Walter Ryce in this week's Monterey County Weekly about the art show to inspire people to help save the land proposed for the Monterey Downs development. Click on photo below for larger view. Here is your opportunity to win an original painting by Paola Berthoin of the historic San Clemente Dam Removal. There are hundreds of artworks donated by artists for this event that raises funds for the Monterey Museum of Art and their programs.
If you live in the Monterey Bay Area or plan to visit in the next few months until January 15, 2016, you can purchase tickets to place in the box associated with this painting. Tickets will be drawn January 15 to reveal the winner! World Rivers day happens the last Sunday in September. It is celebrated around the world and was started by Mark Angelo in British Columbia
Here is a link to their website. Marie Butcher and I explored a hidden section of the Carmel River and did trash clean-up...finding beer cans, yogurt containers, a plastic goose decoy, mylar balloon...In the midst of the drought, this part of the river still has a deep magical pool with steelhead living there. Here are some photos from that day. Click on the photo(s) and it will open to see all at a larger size. Click on the image to see a larger view.
The dam used to be here! To the left of the image is an 18" pipe that the Carmel River is currently being piped through. Soon I will do a painting from this vantage point..before the winter rains come gushing through! This view and the one below represent the last three groupings (A,B, & C) of step pools under construction...approximately 6,000 boulders in all for the fifty-six (approx.) step pools! and a lot of precise engineering and team work. Quite a large onsite sculptural installation!
Click on the image below for a larger view. They have reached to the bottom of the dam and are preparing the site to finish the installation of the step pools. The Carmel River is currently being pumped through the 18" pipe running about halfway through the painting. The remains of the dam cement in the face of the canyon wall will stay so as to not create more instability in the rock face. Forever the dam will be memorialized in the land.
Here is a link to this week's article in the Monterey County Weekly about my documenting the San Clemente Dam Removal . Click on photo image below for larger view.
Being involved in documenting the project, I had the opportunity to be invited to the Granite Family Fun Day at the project site. We got to wander the whole site on our own! So I did just that! I got to view the canyon that is now free of the dam for the most part and the machinery up close, the step pool construction, large woody debris piles and more. Walking along the face of the mountain cut, I saw sprouts of alder trees coming up through the cracks of the rocks..so the site is already beginning to restore itself. The step pool construction is fascinating to see, intricately and carefully constructed deep pools banked to flow like a river. It will be intriguing to see what happens this winter when the river has the first opportunity to flow through this whole site and not be stopped by a dam. Click on small photos below for larger view.
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