september 7, 2013, our last day of our plein air painting excursion, and we came across Whitehouse Pool along Highway 1 near Inverness.

while Kevin and I were painting this landscape, we noticed someone swimming in this pool. after some minutes, she approached us to tell us a story about the mountain that I was painting. I think she said she grew up in the area. she told us that the area we were looking towards used to be called Blacks Farm (owned by the Blacks family), if I remember correctly, she also said that the Blacks rented a house to a relatively well known pop group during the 60s or maybe 70s. I think she was refering to The Youngbloods. they fondly named this mountain Elephant Mountain because the ridges look like the foreheads and trunks of elephants. they titled one of their albums Elephant Mountain. The Youngbloods—Elephant Mountain on YouTube

by the way, this painting was sold yesterday, and it is going back home to California.