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Spring Sea © Marian Fortunati 16" x 12" Oil on RayMar Linen Panel

Southern California is known for its pleasant temperate weather.    Generally our winters and early springs are cool and damp, not cold and wet.   However this winter has been a roller-coaster of weather.  Right now we're enjoying an unusual heat wave but the last several weeks have been unseasonably cold and wet.  We even got 6" of rain in one DAY a week ago!  You should realize that normally we suffer from drought and that our ANNUAL rainfall averages around 15" per YEAR.  Despite the current warm up, we're expecting a small bit of rain at the end of this week which will cool us back down again.

However, there were several weeks when I couldn't get outside to paint like I so enjoy doing.   So I painted at home.  I dragged out my photos from earlier explorations and found several from a time about a year ago when I was on the top of Point Dume enjoying an absolutely glorious day of blue skies and bright yellow coreopsis in bloom.   I spent the day painting there and came home smiling.  Since then I have painted a few different paintings from my studies and photos and memory of the day.

The scene from "Spring Sea" was from the top of the promontory looking down the track to the sea.  There are coreopsis plants along the path and the sunlight is hitting some of the flowers and grasses, but some are in shade.  The turquoise water is swirling around the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.  It was a beautiful time.    - And remembering that time was a perfect way to spend a cold rainy day!