Santa Rosa Surprise by Southern California Artist, Marian Fortunati

Santa Rosa (Dawn or Sunrise?)
© Marian Fortunati
12" x 16" Oil on RayMar Canvas Panel

 $370 + s/h
Please click on this link HERE for more information and for PayPal details if you would like to purchase this painting!

The Painting
Santa Rosa Dawn -- Santa Rosa Sunrise --is another piece I painted after coming home from our island adventure.   I really like it and think I captured the spirit and the reason I was drawn to paint this scene.  But as always, I'm nagged with doubts:

• Which of those two titles do YOU like best?
• Is it "finished"? --   I wish I could decide .... In a way I think painters that paint together -- especially trusted friends -- share an amazing gift... that of talking about each other's work and working out the kinks... so to speak.
 

Starting out on Day Three
 On the third morning I woke up early.. (I usually got up pretty early to get showered and out before the sunrise.)  I walked out on deck and saw that we were getting ready to drop anchor at a spot off of Santa Rosa Island. 

As I watched the captain and crew maneuver around, I wondered how in the world we would manage to get ashore.  Even in the calm seas we had at San Miguel, one of the group had banged up up her shins when a wave tossed the kayak back onto her as she debarked.  THESE swells here off Santa Rosa were huge and I was thinking it would be pretty tough to get all of our gear ashore safely through these seas.

While ruminating on this I was also held in awe as the morning sun began to emerge from behind the island cliffs.  Then I turned around and looked back toward Santa Rosa and caught my breath!  The sun was striking the cliffs and just glowed with warm colors.   I hurriedly got out my gear so that I could begin to try to capture the moment.

Too late... right away the engines started grumbling and the boat began moving off.  I asked one of the crew what was happening and he said that the Captain had decided that landing would be too dangerous so we wouldn't be staying the day on Santa Rosa.  Instead we would move on to Santa Cruz.

I was disappointed because Santa Rosa is an island I had never visited before, but I totally understood why we couldn't stay and was glad the Captain had our safety in mind.  Looks like I'll just have to make another trip!

***********************
I'll be sending out my free monthly newsletter sometime next week.  If you haven't already signed up and would like to receive it, please click on this link to add your email address to my mailing list!
http://marianfortunati.com/email-newsletter

Thanks so much!