Santa Cruz Sea Cave Adventure by Southern California Artist, Marian Fortunati

Santa Cruz Sea Cave
© Marian Fortunati
12" x 9" Oil On RayMar Canvas

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On the day we motored from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National Park, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Everything seemed to be "up in the air" as our venue and schedule had changed on the third day of our painting and discovery adventure led by David Gallup and Stephen Mirich.

I had visited Santa Cruz Island once before with my daughter, Francesca, and knew it is a vast island with lots to see inland.  But on this day the adventure featured beautiful craggy cliffs and hair raising entries into a vast sea cave.  Captain Jerry knew all the spots to see and those which would interesting to paint.

One of the events that I imagine will remain foremost in all of our memories, was when the Captain drove the huge dive boat, Conception, right up to and almost into the mouth of what I believe was called Painted Cave or Painted Grotto.   You know how you tighten up and scrunch up your eyes when you're scared???  Well, I wanted to but.... wow... it was just too amazing to miss!  One guy said it almost made him cry.... from the beauty ... not from fear!

Looking up

Are we going in???

Captain Jerry

We saw so many beautiful views.  We also squealed with delight when a pod of dolphins decided to play and jump and race the boat...  What a treat we all had!

While trying to research the names of the places we saw, I found that there is an entire web page devoted to the caves of Santa Cruz Island:

http://www.cccarto.com/santacruz/