This fantastic tree is one I hope to paint soon! I photographed it at a small park in Los Angeles, California, a few years ago . Does anyone out there know what kind of tree it might be? I like to know what I am painting... :-) I will forget my copyright statement and allow this tree to be used by anyone for their own painting if you would email me its name. I will even send you some free postcards with one of my paintings on them as a thank you gift. It might be an oak ?? Trees inspire me and I think they have a lot of character, but I am not real knowledgeable about a good many of them.
Below is another tree I was going to ask you about, but I googled "red flowering trees in California" and found out it is a red coral tree, or Erythrina fusca.
Red Coral Tree
They also come with orange/coral shades of flowers. This is not that great a photo; google "Erythrina fusca" under images for some great pictures of these beautiful flowers. There is a reason my photography on this post is not the greatest; after my Nikon camera got stolen (before I went to California) I used the cheap disposable cameras you can find everywhere during my travels all over the USA. You would be surprised to see how wonderful some photos turned out from those disposable cameras! Now I have a good Sony digital camera that is excellent for my work.
The photo below is of the Silk Floss tree, also taken in Los Angeles. Somewhere along the way many of the photos of mine of that tree are missing.
Silk Floss Tree
I painted a couple of watercolors of these blossoms while in Los Angeles, using much better reference photos. This tree is unique because it has large "thorns" on its trunk and branches which serve to store water for dry times. Please google images for "silk floss tree" for much better shots of these lovely flowers. There is also interesting information on the Web about this tree's pods which contain black seeds surrounded by fluffy stuff that reminds one of silk, hence its name.
Below are a couple of my photos taken at Echo Park in Los Angeles ; I used a disposable camera for them and they turned out better than the shots above.
I hope to finish one or both of my floral still life paintings tomorrow. Check back with me !
