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/panel
Coyote Hills in the Distance
oil/panel
12" x 16"
$200.00

Coyote Hills in the Distance
Impressed by a beautiful group of flowers
in a nearby field, I returned to an earlier painting of Coyote Hills and modified it by the
addition of the flowers and a change in the source of illumination.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
The Castle #3 (The Castle in Hot Colors)
oil/canvas
30" x 40"
$600.00

Several of my paintings of Coyote Hills (including the two seen here) use the same composition, abstracted from an actual view of a mountain pass. The “castle” is my name for the portion of the Coyote Hills where the hill appears to be cut through to create a rocky summit. The notch created here divides the scene in two: the right side overlapping the left side and revealing another hill behind the first. The challenge in painting this scene is how to balance the two sides using simplified shapes and strong warm colors. Many of the earlier attempts were more naturalistic. Heightening and intensifying the colors and simplifying the shapes helped me to organize and unify the painting.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills in Hot Colors
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

The title says it all. Instead of the usual blue sky I have used a hot yellow with pink clouds. The dark blue and green create a unified pattern, uniting the foreground with the distant hills.

 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/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
oil/canvas
28" x 26"
$400.00

So named because the rocky configuration seemed like a castle. I have probably made a dozen paintings of Coyote Hills, modifying the compositions with simplified shapes and adjusting the color to create a balanced painting remained the chief goal of this series.
 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, 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/canvas
The Buddha #2
2010
oil/canvas
24" x 28"
$400.00

An impressionistic landscape where the central
sunlit peak can stand for Buddha among his disciples. Natural lighting derived from studies of the Southern California Coyote Hills scene.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Big Cloud Over Coyote Hills
2014
oil/canvas
20" x 22"
$400.00

A central steep cliff surmounted by a billowing cloud hovers over a depthless chasm while a row of sun-baked Eucalyptus trees frames the scene. Thinking of great early Twentieth California landscape painters - Edgar Payne and William Wendt.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills Canyon Stormy Sky
2019
oil/canvas
30" x 26"
$400.00

A return to the visual idea of the “castle”, where a large stone form reaches to the sky and a partly shaded mass lies opposite. Twisted areas of warm color in the foreground stand for trees and echo the swirling movement of the clouds above.

 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
Untitled Coyote Hills - Fullerton Hills
oil/canvas
26" x 30"
$400.00

Although this painting still represents Coyote Hills, it was the last canvas painted in this series and the most literal. The view across a somewhat open field to a settlement with houses and a barn. A large group of trees marks the middle ground, while in the distance rises a profile of the hills. The sloping range of clouds was painted as a contrast to the serenity of the rest of the scene.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills Landscape #2
2016
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

A distant view of Coyote Hills. The warm
tones of the limestone hills dominate the lower
two thirds of the painting. The whole scene is structured on a restful framework of zig-zagging diagonal lines. From the left horizon across to the “castle” on the right, to the shadowy ravine at the middle left , across the bottom third of the scene to a bush on the right side, and finally up the foreground slope to a large tree at the bottom left corner. All of this without sacrificing the naturalism of the place.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Lateral View of Coyote Hills
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

A green belt of trees separates the sunny path near the top of the hills from the pond below. Above the trees the landscape fades to lighter shades of pink and violet.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills Landscape #1
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

Early in my searches of the landscape North of Fullerton I came upon this view. It is my favorite view of Coyote Hills, and what I later came to call the “ castle” because of the craggy peak in the upper right corner of the painting. Among my paintings there are at least a dozen versions of this motif. In this one and several others I liked the feeling of deep space and extreme verticality that comes from contrasting the foreground trees with the implied depth of the ravine below them. And in turn moving from that depth to the height of the peaks above.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
The Buddha
oil/canvas
12" x 16"
$400.00

Framed in a thick black frame.

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Harsh Clarity, Clark Park
oil/canvas
8" x 10"
$400.00

Framed in a thick black frame with a hint of gold.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Road in Clark Park
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00

Coyote Hills to the right.

Framed in a thick black frame.

 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
Clark Park, Afternoon
oil/canvas
14" x 14"
$400.00

 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Coyote Hills #1
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00

The view is of a hilly landscape near Fullerton, CA where the artist moved in 2000. The primary interest for the painter was how to construct a gently receding landscape along two major diagonal axes that led the eye upwards through changing terrain with consistent lighting. The artist used many sketches in pencil and watercolor to prepare for this painting.
 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
Carved Vista #2
oil/canvas
24 x 28
$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
Partly Cloudy #3
oil/canvas
26 x 30
$400.00

Deep Vista # 4. 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
Entry into Clark Park
oil/canvas
17" x 14"
$400,00

Orange house. Clouds in pastel colors.

Framed in a thick black frame.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Majestic #7
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
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.
 GEORGE TAPLEY (home)          Clark Park & Coyote Hills oil/canvas
Hazy Path Clark Park
2017
oil/canvas
15" x 19"
$400.00

Framed in a thick black 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 on panel
Parking Station Nine
oil on panel
15" x 17"
$400.00

Framed in a beautiful gold colored frame.