One lovely summer day Jen, Pam and I were driving around the cape. We came upon this bridge in Chatham. There were lots of little rowboats, skiffs, and sail boats about. There wasn’t time to do even a color study so I had no business painting this. But I will tell you that my memory of the day was very clear. And the photograph does not really get the blue in the painting. It’s a softer bluish grey. Someday I WILL master the art of taking pictures of my paintings.
Every Wednesday morning I paint with a group of women that I adore. We choose a spot and stay with it for several weeks. This is different than my Plein Air Sun Coast Group. That group chooses a new spot every week. I like having both options.
We are painting at a farm. There are sheep, cows, horses, a farm stand, lots of fields, and barns. A painter’s dream. This is a spot down by the orange groves and the sheep. There is a river there and the meadow across turns all shades of lavender and pink. It’s a lovely spot. I was taken by the small tree that was trying to make it on the very edge of the shore.
Light Chasers: Plein Air Painters of the Sun Coast.
I belong to a wonderful group of plein air painters called PASC or Plein Air Painters of the Sun Coast. We are a group of over 200 painters and we have about 20 painters come out every Thursday morning to paint. This year we are having our very first show!
Light Chasers: Plein Air Painters of the Sun Coast
Gala Opening: March 16th, Friday at 5 PM
Show runs from March 16th through March 30th
The show is at the Celery Barn Gallery in Towles Court, 266 South Links, Sarasota, Florida.
Be there! It’s going to be the best party in town and it will have simply amazing
There is just south of Camden a little known beach called Owls Head. It’s used mostly by wise hunters of beautiful beaches and people who live around Union, Maine. This is the place my surgeon, Janey Pratt, grew up. She remembers that the school buses used to take the kids there in the afternoon. And I want to say thank you to her. So this is my second painting of the beach. It’s still too tight but I am getting there. And the spot could not be more beautiful.
Owls Head Beach in Maine
Key West is an interesting story. Through the years Key West keeps reinventing itself to keep the money coming in. Today it is a tourist destination. Once it was one of the largest salt manufacturers in the country. They dug shallow ponds which filled and then dried out during the dry season. They were left then with lots of salt to harvest. Now these ponds are largely forgotten and down near the airport. I happened to see the mangroves across the street from the ocean. Where there are mangroves, there is water. So I parked the car and made my way through down a little path. There were the salt ponds, still and eerie. And very beautiful with islands of mangroves in the shallow water. And so I painted it.
The Salt Ponds of Key West
I went to the Everglades and Key West over the holidays. I was intently watching the views when I noticed the sounds around me. There was the grass in the wind, birds calling, alligators moving out of the muck, and the buzzing of insects. And whatever else was out there! It was a symphony! I tried to paint just that….the sounds and the quiet of the Everglades.
Everglades Music
I am back in Florida getting ready for the upcoming Canaveral Seashore Plein Air Paint Out next week. Here is one of my paintings of the Phillipi Creek farm house.
In the morning in York Harbor it’s quiet. You see the fisher folk come and go out early but the pleasure boats usually don’t go out until later. I like to paint working boats so it’s always a bit of race and wonder. Is the boat going out today? Because I can’t tell you how often I’m midway through a painting and the boat takes off to check lobster traps or go fishing. It’s York Maine so it is usually a guy who is on the boat. He usually waves and laughs as he takes off. Last summer it took me about five times to get the Marie Elaine before she went out. I got her though and here she is.
This tree hadn’t leafed out yet. All the others had but this tree was leafing late in the season. It gave me a chance to see her shape in the light and the early lace of her leaves.The tree may have been in trouble. I don’t know but it caught my eye and I wanted to paint it. The light was just past high in the sky so I got good dark side and light side. I especially loved the way the very high small branches kind of blurred purple against the blue sky. I’m still rooting for that tree.