Turnaround

There is an abundance of spectacular landscape in New Zealand...unfortunately it has not all been visited by Google. I had a few places in mind when I started searching the map - Milford Sound, for one - but the little yellow Google man didn't have anywhere to walk down there. Another place I couldn't quite get to was the Vimutti Buddhist Monastery outside of Bombay on the South Island. I would never have known it existed except for the fact that Tim's step-brother is the spiritual director of the monastery. He happens to be visiting California this week and showed us pictures of some of the projects under way at the monastery, one of which is a new stupa. When Tim traveled there about five years ago he helped build this covered meditation path in the woods, adding another inviting element to this peaceful stretch of land.

But because this painting project is restricted to street views, I moved on from fjords and forest retreats to hedges along the roadside. :-) I found an area of countryside outside of Te Puke on the North Island that has miles of cypress walls, and I found them to be quite striking in their own right.

Turnaround, oil on canvas panel, 6x6 inches.
©2011 Amy Tennant