Santa Ynez Hillside with Oaks and Cows

Cream and gold hills roll gently across this 1970 scene by Eyvind Earle, painted in California's Santa Ynez Valley. Bare oak trees spread their thin branches like lace against rounded green shrubs that sit on the slopes like soft clouds. Look toward the middle of the picture and you will spot a few tiny cows grazing, small enough to miss, which makes the land around them feel enormous. A hush hangs over the whole scene, as if the afternoon has quietly stopped moving.

Before he turned to landscapes like this, Earle spent years painting backgrounds for Walt Disney, and his hand shaped the look of the 1959 film "Sleeping Beauty." That history shows up in the clean shapes, the flat blocks of color, and the neat way every tree and hill is placed. His nature is not wild or messy but organized into something graphic and orderly, almost like a stage set. Anyone who watched those old Disney films may catch a familiar feeling in the way these hills are drawn.