Summer In The Cottage Garden

This is a sister painting to The Cottage Garden and continues my endless fascination with a little botanical garden just south of Santa Barbara called Seaside Gardens. I fell in love with it when G and I chanced upon it a few years ago and from that first moment I felt like it had been placed there for me to paint. It felt like destiny. I hadn't planned on painting this scene again but when we went back a few weeks ago I was struck anew by how amazing it was: the tall trees dancing in the background, the bursts of pink, purple and yellow flowers exploding everywhere, the little stone fountain happily enveloped in a sea of colour, the path running like a river through it all. The entire scene seemed to be set in motion beneath a clear blue California sky and what an absolute joy it was to paint!