Creating a landscape of color and harvesting

Pickin’ Start - digital painting - Dan Beck 2006

Painting the fields is comfortable at this point. My approach with this was to just start painting - creating hills, creating waves in the landscape, but not so much caring about conveying a particular place - more of a particular area - the Salinas Valley.

The landscape was fun to create - unfortunately I don’t think the overlap of colors comes through - so I am going to step back and offer up this detail which would otherwise only be seen in an art print.

There is a vastness to this land - and clearly I am trying to show it. There is also something remarkable about the people who work the land and how they appear when one is casually or not so casually looking.

If they appear in a line, it is because they are frequently in a line. If they appear to be acrobats, it is because that is also they way they look. If they appear to be in a swarm, it is also because it looks that way. If they appear to be lost within the landscape of the valley…

I have great respect for the strawberry harvesters that dot the land around me.

See Also

• Experimental Fields
  Similar theme but even more of a statement - same print options
• Area Overview - The Californian - www.thecalifornian.com
  Revealing photo and quick overview of Salinas Valley
• Farmworkers face Exploitation in Salinas Valley » VivirLatino
  Older article - same theme now - not an easy life