JORDAN RANCH : Artists Invited to Paint New Parkland

Artists and photographers can get a sneak preview of the newest National Park Service acquisition, Palo Comado Canyon on Jordan Ranch, during an “Autumn Paint-Out” Thursday.

The oak-studded tract, which runs parallel to Cheeseboro and Las Virgenes canyons, will officially open Oct. 31. But park rangers are inviting artists to visit the 2,329-acre ranch early so that they can paint the grassy meadows, sandstone cliffs and oak valleys.

Works from the paint-out will be displayed at the canyon’s outdoor dedication ceremony Halloween morning.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday. Participants should bring a picnic lunch, walking shoes and their own art supplies. A parks official will escort artists from the end of Chesebro Road to the parking lot behind a security gate.

“We’re hoping we get some really nice paintings of the area so we can motivate the public to come out and look at the new open space we’ve acquired,” said Garrie Mar of the nonprofit Mountains Conservancy Foundation.

Mar noted that similar paint-outs of Yellowstone and Yosemite wildernesses more than a century ago convinced Congress to preserve them as parkland. Gigantic canvases of cascading waterfalls and sharp-edged cliffs “swayed people into realizing the land was so beautiful that we should save it,” Mar said.

For more information on the Palo Comado paint-out, call the Mountains Conservancy Foundation at (310) 456-7154.