California Sunlight

There's a little botanical garden just south of Santa Barbara which has featured in many of my paintings and The Mediterranean Garden was the first painting I ever did there. When G and I went back the other day I was struck anew by the incredible beauty of the scene: the stately cypress tree jutting up into the sunlit sky; the purple mountain hazy in the distance; the vine-draped pergola set so jauntily between them. But, as with the original painting, it was the California poppies with their stunning bursts of orange and yellow which stole the show and had me reaching for my canvas. I had intended to call this The Mediterranean Garden 2 but when I discovered that the poppy is also known as California Sunlight I thought, what a wonderful title for a painting! It truly was glorious and what a joy it was to paint!