Hermosa Beach Eucalyptus, 2026

Gouache on paper
3.75 × 7 in. (9.5 × 17.8 cm)
Unframed

From the artist's studio, 2026

2026.101.030

$400 shipping charged separately

Subject

Eucalyptus seen from below against a blue sky, its trunks rising the full height of the sheet. At the foot are a red tile roof, a yellow wall and a white fence; three palms stand in the middle distance.

Composition

Upright and top-heavy by design: the canopy occupies the upper two thirds and the buildings are compressed into a band at the bottom. The pale trunks fan from a single point low left, so the whole picture opens upward from one corner.

Palette

Three blues carry the sky from near-ultramarine at the top to a chalky pale at the horizon. The foliage is a deep olive-black; the only warmth is the roof and wall at the base.

Handling

The leaves are discrete dabs, each one a separate touch of the brush, never blended into a mass. The trunks are single uninterrupted strokes, drawn in one movement in grey, mauve and tan.

Medium and support

Gouache on paper. The sky is built from overlapping opaque passes that leave their own edges visible; light blues cover dark without dissolving. Unpainted margins on all four sides, with the right edge ragged and a nick near the lower left.

Signature

Lower right, raypatrick, in dry red-pink over the yellow wall, letters spaced apart and slightly ascending.

From the artist:

There are a lot of beautiful Eucalyptus trees in Hermosa Beach. This one stood proudly outside of Vons shopping center. The shoppers looked at me in curiosity as I set up to paint in the parking lot, but the tree knew. It was beautiful.