The Wave

This painting is of a less travelled corner of a little botanic garden just south of Santa Barbara which has featured in many of my paintings. G and I had gone back there to check on a detail for my previous painting The Oasis and as we rounded a bend in a nearby pathway we came across this glorious scene. Colour seemed to be everywhere, from the tequila sunrise pokers stacked joyfully up in the foreground, to the banks of pink and red flowers ranged gaily beneath the stately palms, to the sundrenched mountains in the distance. But it was the stunning smoke bushes with their arresting magenta flowers forming themselves into the shape of a giant wave crashing across the centre of the scene which had me lost in wonder. We went straight back with a canvas that afternoon which is just as well because that night there was a huge rain storm and when we went back the next day all the flowers had been washed away! It truly was a singular moment in time and what an absolute joy it was to paint!