Ventura's Two Trees with Santa Cruz

by Ian Donley

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Price

$1,000

Dimensions

40.000 x 30.000 x 1.500 inches

Title

Ventura's Two Trees with Santa Cruz

Artist

Ian Donley

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

Featured on I Love Seascapes.
I have painted Ventura's Two Trees before from a different angle. This view is from behind the trees looking towards the beach gives the view of Santa Cruz island in the background. The other painting I created was given to a friend and is from a vantage point on the beach. There are many stories that go along with these trees. This one is from http://www.venturawiki.org/Two_Trees I'm sure you might take this as a unsubstantiated claim, but actually there were 13, planted at the turn of the last century. Joseph Sexton, a horticulturist noted in local history books for his work with walnuts, avocados, and the introduction of pampas grass, is responsible for one of Ventura's most unusual landmarks. In 1898, Mr. Sexton, then owner of the land, hired a neighbor, Owen Marron, to plant thirteen Big Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees for him. His reason for this unusual undertaking? Just because it would be nice. Marron planted the thirteen saplings and then spent many hours hauling water to the trees, by horseback and burro, to insure their survival. And survive they did for the first five years. Then a raging fire, typical of California's brasada (brush country) destroyed all but five of the trees. And that is how "Five Trees" got its name. Now you may be wondering how there came to be only two trees on that hill? It was shortly after WWII that some Halloween pranksters decided to cut down the trees that had been sentinels above Ventura for over half a century. Citizens rallied. They replaced the three trees that had fallen victims of the vandals' saws. Again, fun-seeking dunces struck, leaving only one of the original trees and one of the new standing. In 1966, the Ventura Junior Women's Club took it upon themselves to plant trees on the hill, so that "Five Trees" would once again be shaded by graceful eucalyptus trees to the number of five. An ambitious project, it must have failed in some unknown way.

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August 7th, 2013

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