California Coastal Cypress Oil Painting – Cypress Sunset by Karen Winters

“Cypress Sunset”
6 x 6 inch original oil painting
on plein air linen panel

All along the California coastline, from San Diego up through Northern California, you can find these beautiful cypresses with their sculptural spiky shapes. They are especially typical of the Central Coast region, which extends from Oxnard up through Monterey Bay. I think that they look most dramatic in the sunset, which the light wraps around the delicate branches and makes them glow.

This looks like a landscape but it’s really a seascape. If you were to take ten steps up that sandy hill with coastal plants growing, you’d see the wide Pacific, lit with sunset light.