Clark Park & Coyote Hills
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills
The Wind
26" x 28"
$400.00

I call this painting The Wind, because of the
dramatic clouds, seen as swirls of white paint
above the hills. The warm reds of the rocks contrast the green of the vegetation and the
cool blues of the shaded slopes. This somewhat abstract view of Coyote Hills was based on my earlier drawings and paintings of this view.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Dark Rocks #1
oil/canvas
26 x 30
$400.00

Coyote Hills. The warm reds of the rocks contrasts to the greens and violets of the vegetation and the shadowed slopes. The "castle" effect allows endless variations on this theme. All of these depended initially on either drawings or photographs or both.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Smile of Coyote Hills
oil/canvas
30" x 40"
$600.00

This painting has the same basic configuration found in other paintings of the “castle”; at one point in its development it seemed to show a smiling face. Hence the title: Smile ofCoyote HilIs. These hills are located on the north side of Fullerton. They rise up a couple hundred feet and overlook the city. A fence closes off much of the unused land which at this point seems destined for housing developments and perhaps a nature reserve. For two decades I have lived nearby and can walk to an entrance in a few minutes, which explains my many landscapes of Coyote Hills.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Road in Clark Park
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00

A blue shadow cast by a darker blue pine tree
crosses an unpaved road in Clark Park. Coyote Hills are visible in the upper right corner
while the road, shown in sharp perspective,
carries the eye into depth.

Framed in a thick black frame.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills, Up the Road From Rosecrans
oil/canvas
14" x 14"
$400.00

Drawings for this scene were made from the
closed-off entrance to a construction site near off Rosecrans near the fire station. The painting foregrounds the deep shadow of the late afternoon sun as it climbs a grassy hill at whose summit lies another “ castle”- like formation of sandstone. I was intrigued by
this rich opposition of light and shadow as well as the powerful contrast of near and far which met my eye as I looked up the hill along Rosecrans.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil on panel
Parking Station Nine
oil on panel
15" x 17"
$400.00

This painting records one of the parking stations that visitors may use as they drive around the circumference of Clark Park. The tree limbs with their sparse leaves and the ground cover of reddish orange reflect the season when this was painted. Framed in a beautiful gold colored frame.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil on panel
Hazy Morning.
oil on panel
6" x 6 "
$250.00

A variation on Parking Station Nine. Taken from the same spot, this small painting captures the mood of the sun burning through the morning haze. Frame is included.

Framed in a thick black frame.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/panel
Coyote Hills #2
oil/panel
11" x 14"
$200.00

Afternoon light on Coyote Hills viewed from the
West brings a new richness in form and color to
the steep cliffs and to the trees at their base.
You can almost feel the force of the glacier that
cut through the stone millennia ago and left behind this magnificent set of hills.
I am particularly pleased with the rhythm created by the yellow-green trees which recede from lower right to upper left. This rising action of the trees is circumscribed by a path or roadway which ends at the horizon. The upper third of the painting, including rocks and sky, became a key area of interest. Painting the face of a great cliff which has split into two parts, while maintaining a unified horizon, was a major challenge.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
The Castle #2
oil/canvas
16" x 18"
$400.00

This painting of Coyote Hills is one of the oldest
in the series. Seen in the early morning from a high and more distant and viewpoint the landscape appeared to divide into warm foreground and cool background. The “ Castle”looks lower here at the right hand edge of a long diagonal ridge which casts a shadow on the cliff side below.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills Landscape #3
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

These Coyote Hills landscapes, while seen at different times of the day, have the same goal: to capture the ruggedness of the terrain by emulating the play of light and shadow as it crosses the landscape. A shared palette of warm reddish tones and cool gray-greens reflects the dryness of these Southern California hills.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Bridge in Clark Park
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

Clark Park is a short walk from my house in Fullerton. It is usually filled with people. This day it was deserted and I was able to set up an easel and record the scene en plein air. The focus of the painting is a bridge seen from a steep height and the light reflecting off the water beneath it.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Where Golf Balls Go
2013
oil/canvas
12" x 14"
$200.00

This delightfully shady path covered with pine needles is a favorite place for walkers at Clark Regional Park in Fullerton. And because it is next to the Coyote Hills golf club, it is also a good place to look for stray golf balls.