Reportedly today marks the beginning of Spring in South Africa. Cape Town clearly didn’t get the memo, and we’re swamped in grey moody clouds. My memory is sketchy at the best of times, but according to @Mallix on Twitter the weather is supposed to be crap this time of year.

Come on now people – everyone knows September/October is our coldest season. Harden the fuck up! #capetown

When one thinks of spring, it conjures up happy images of rebirth… of new plants springing forth… of colourful bikinis. We contemplate the latter in this post through the art of 68-year-old master painter, Hilo Chen. The artist is famous for his photorealistic oil-on-canvas paintings of nudes and flowers, with critics saying the skin tones on his ladies are so “real” you’d want to reach out and touch them. Have a look at some of his beach paintings after the jump. I have covered up the naughty bits but you can click on those images to see the uncensored images.

[via Ufunk]