Here is an artist's journal, a personal reflection of the four sweet seasons in a corner of California known as Santa Barbara, name of both an elegant seaside community and the rugged country at its back. It is home to Patti Jacquemain, the artist who created this tale of the seasons. While featuring a colorful collection of her work, this is also a book of ideas expressed in her writing and verse, sometimes humorous, always sensitive.

Time's character is seen in the regular cycles of nature, in change not always recognized by the casual observer. From year to year, the Santa Barbara region has known great variety, extremes of flood, drought, and once even a temperature matching the highest ever recorded on earth. To portray a picture of a typical year, Jacquemain turned to her journals of many years in Santa Barbara. In addition to her personal recollections, she drew upon the history of the native Chumash Indians, people who lived by the seasons.

Color is foremost in this story of seasons, color born of the eye and skill of Jacquemain. All are from original images, most created as woodblock prints. At once both charming and fun, Sweet Seasons can be seen as a love story, a personal artistic tribute to her home. Jacquemain, always an artist and close to nature's intimate beauty, brings you in these pages her joy in Santa Barbara.