Envy of the Neighbors

SOLD

30” x 40”

Oil, acrylic, and gouache on canvas

Envy of the Neighbors features a lush garden in California’s particularly lavish town of Montecito. The years I spent nearby during undergrad and graduate school were filled with curiosity about the folks who were able to live in the grand houses up in the hills of Montecito. The mediterranean weather in this area enables gardens to be lush year-round, and provide homes to such a diverse array of species that the botanics can be as impressive as the houses. I always found it remarkable how distinct the gardened areas are, separated by large walls and gates from the passersby, each garden a world within a world, pushing the neighbors to increase the grandiosity of their own botanical layouts in a never-ending kind of arms race.

The photos that I referenced in this piece were from a friend staying in a house up in Romero Canyon. Thank you for sharing, Max.