Animals and Oranges

 

I set off this morning in search of the orange groves of the Algarve, which took me on roads I'd been on many times, always seeing an orange tree or two behind a fence, but not what I was looking for.  And then I took a wrong turn.  It wasn't really my fault, GPS said to turn left on a road that had median markers that would prevent a left turn.  So I ended up on road I'd never been on before.

On that very small and wind-y road, there was a windmill and ostriches and tiny miniature goats (not pictured) and then a herd of beautiful Algarve goats with twisty horns being herded by three very large dogs.  This really did happen, it felt kind of other-worldly but I have the pictures to prove it. (I found the windmill online, it's at Casa museu Custódio Bartolomeu, which houses a museum of antiques and is on a property with ostriches, donkeys and miniature goats. It didn't look open when I went by.)

And then I was in Orangeland.  Grove after grove and everywhere gorgeous orange trees. And a few production buildings with guys loading crates of oranges, but no where to buy them right off the trees.  I took a lot of photos, got some oranges at the grocery store and then came back to paint.  These are gouache on yupo paper, all 9" x 12"