Visit the Everglades

Looking at this small painting of the Everglades, you see the warmth of the sun, some puffy clouds, and the graceful palms. There's nothing in the painting to show you all the sharp, prickly, and bitey elements hidden in the greenery! Much of the lush growth and rich green leaves have spikes of some sort lying below view just waiting to prick the unaware. And each leaf and stem contain a hidden place for an insect or worse, a snake. While it's teeming with life, it's one of those places so important to the health of our earth that it's difficult for people to live there. Despite those little inconveniences, there's a beauty and a magic found nowhere else on our planet. If you live or visit South Florida, be sure to check out the Everglades ecosystem. There's information about how to do that here. The Everglades have been my muse for almost 15 years, and they still show me something wonderful to paint each time I visit.

Sold
Rich Beauty
7" x 5" (17.8cm x 12.7cm)
acrylic on canvas

I finished and delivered "Meandering Downs" much to the delight of the person who commissioned the painting. Since I'm nearly hysterical with worry when working commission, I'm always relieved when the painting is delivered and the patron pleased!

Miniature Abstracts

It was a good composition refresher to paint abstract miniatures with artist Joan Dunkle last week. The largest of them is only 3"x3" and there's not much room for error on something so small. Some are more successful than others, but I'll do some more since they are such fun. I prefer the heavy body type of acrylics rather than using them as a

water medium, but they can be used either way as long as you add some matte medium for adhesion. These will be beautiful after a few days in a heavy book! I've been spending part of each day with the Cotswold downs commission, "Meandering Downs" and hope to finish that today. Then I'll get started on a promised painting for the office of Dr. Marciano, my last for him, and start to plan for the six week class I'll be giving at the Art League of Marco. You can see more about that here. If you are planning to study with me this summer, please sign up early since the class will be cancelled if there are not enough participants!

Quiet Moment

Congratulations to the Gradys, new collectors who purchased Quiet Moment. They asked me about the pinks and purples in the painting, and I explained that there are a lot of warmer colors to be seen in the Everglades in the Spring because the grasses and leave lose moisture and begin to dry out. Spring is our dry season. Pinks and purples, and even corals might show up, depending a particular mix of sunlight and moisture in the air. Some of the effects are fleeting and you just have to be lucky and looking! Sometime in May or June the rains will come and make the back country roads wetter and often flooded, so now is a great time to get out there and take a look. You can pick up a map at the Visitor center at the junction of State Road 29 & 41, and go exploring!

Yesterday I worked on both Meandering Downs and the class demo, but neither one changed enough to show to you, so I'm showing you something from the early years. In a recent conversation with a student asking about my painting history, and I commented that my old paintings look so "seventies." Today's painting is one of the few surviving examples from that time. I'm don't know if the photo was taken level, if the painting was ever finished, or where the painting is today, but you can clearly see the "seventies" influence. What is it? I'm not sure, but it seems to have something to do with the composition and the heavy outlining. Despite the lack of cohesion in the flowers, I don't think an art historian would have a problem identifying the time period of this painting. Seventies!

Salon De Garage

Salon de Garage was a lot of fun on Saturday. Clients who wanted a special piece or a bargain came early. Thanks to you all, with special thanks to the Tribilcocks who picked up four pieces for home-building children. Lucky kids! Each artist got about 10" of space floor to ceiling, and you can see Joan Dunkle's gorgeous work off to the right in the first picture. At the end of the day I traded paintings with Joann Lizio O'Brien for an early piece of hers that will fit nicely into the plans I have for our bedroom, and picked up a great little beaded, mosaic "Joy" from emerging artist Angela Brown. Angela's work centers on nature and the fairy realm, and she's also a healer. You can see more of her work and learn more about her art here. Many of the paintings you see in today's pictures have found homes, but I still have a few pieces available for adoption. I'll keep the sale opened until Wednesday.

Meandering Downs

This Cotswold landscape is a commissioned piece for a client who wants to feel the warmth of the meandering downs in his painting. I'm just beyond the block-out stage, and it will take a little more time to get all the values and colors in harmony. It's a peaceful piece, and as I'm working on it I'm remembering how my sister and I enjoyed traveling together through the English countryside almost fifteen years ago. Have to plan another trip, sis!

A nice newlywed couple from New Hampshire stopped by yesterday to visit the studio. Jen's mother had given them money to buy art on their honeymoon. They had visited the Studio Gallery, loved my work but the pieces there were too large for them, so the owner sent them to me for a studio visit. Jen immediately knew which painting she wanted, but Dean wasn't so sure. They went off quite pleased with two paintings, one pick for each, and within their budget, too! It's so pleasing to deal with young collectors and to see their pleasure in owning original art.

Today I'll be packing up and hanging the show for Salon de Garage at the Sweet Art Gallery on Trade Center Way. Hours are Saturday from 8-4. A number of Naples artists are participating and artwork will be hung floor to ceiling, salon style. Many of the paintings will be unframed, and some will be as much as half price. This is my first ever sale! You can learn more here. Hope to see you there!

When teaching, I don't worry about a finishing a painting myself, but use demonstration to illustrate a concept or technique. Today's painting was started as a class demonstration, and has changed dramatically several times as I worked. The painting was blocked out in class as I talked about dividing a canvas into pleasing divisions. Then, responding to the colors I saw the morning the class spent in the Everglades, the sawgrasses became warm salmons and pinks. Helping students, and not having time to adjust the sky, it looked like two paintings in one for a while. Later, I demonstrated the use of some iridescent and interference colors, changing the color of the grasses and giving the painting a nice underglow. Working on it again yesterday I realized that I needed to step back and get a clear vision of where it was going before I could complete it successfully. I'll think about that today, and also start a commission that's due before the end of the month.

What a busy week it was with teaching and family here, too. Today's photos are from the Florida Landscape class. We'd spend half a day inside and half out. Some of the students had never painted outside before so they had to learn what they needed to make it easy. The first day we brought only a red, blue, yellow and white along with some water, our outdoor easels, and the usual hats, bug spray and snacks. Those three color paintings were some of the most colorful of the week. We visited the Esplanade, the beach and the Everglades, so there was something everyone liked to paint. It was a wonderful class with a great attitude and some fine artists.

As much as I enjoyed it, I loved getting home to my two grandsons each day. They'd have done something special, too, and have lots to tell. The last two days of their visit we spent boating and beaching in near perfect weather. I'll miss them, and some of my students, too! I'll be teaching again this summer, a six week class from the end of June through July. Call the Marco Center for the Arts if you're interested in joining me.

I'll be having my first ever sale this weekend at Salon de Garage. For more information, click here.

Ancient Artist Blog

Good Morning. Sue Smith has published an interview with me on her Ancient Artist Blog. Sue be lives that the voices of older artists need to be heard, so often talks with and publishes interviews with older artists. You'll enjoy her artwork and her interviews with other artists, too! I'm delighted to be included. Thanks, Sue!

If you are getting this by email and haven't visited the blog lately, you might enjoy the change of colors and some new links! Pay a visit! Thanks to collector Bloom who purchased "Rounding the Mark" It will go to Connecticut, and into a very nice collection. Thanks!

Two Palms

Best Friends? Lovers? I moved the background way back and subdued it to let these two palms take the lead and highlighted them with strong color. It's a small painting, but powerful and pleasing.
We'll be at the last Art in the Park all day tomorrow. Art in the Park is put on by the Naples Art Association on the first of each month from November to April for their juried in members. Its a quality show, but smaller and more laid back than some, without the frantic "sell" mentality of the larger shows. It's nice to visit with the other artists and see what's going on with their lives and work and to greet customores new and returning.
I won't get much painting done today, because I'm still getting ready for the Florida Landscape in Acrylics workshop I'll be teaching next week. In addition, the outside door of my studio will be replaced today with hurricane resistant glass. We've already replaced the glass in the rest of the house as part of a plan to make our home safer in the inevitable Florida storms! Then tomorrow, two of my dear grandkids will come for a spring break visit. So, it may be a while before I post again! SOLD!

Last night my husband and I traveled into Naples for an art opening at the IAG Galleries, where Jack Howard Potter's Sway and his new Goliath sit gloriously on an outdoor patio. The galleries focus is international art, and we enjoyed the beautiful drawings of an equine artist from Bahrain. We were delighted to meet owner Don Binns, a warm, generous man who offered to be a sponsor of the Marco Foundation for the Arts ArtQuest in the future. we'll take him up on that!
It's been a busy time. I'm also preparing to teach next week, which for me means a lot of preparation. I redo handouts, prepare new ones, and make sure the plans for each day make sense. Lots of stuff gets dragged to class, mediums and additives for students to try, books, paints, show & tell stuff, and canvases and my outdoor easel, too. We'll have family here starting Saturday, too, so I'll have to be ready early. I wish it wasn't the same week, but I'd much rather see my darlings part of the time than not at all! In spite of that I've still been painting, at least a little every day. I've almost finished this small, breezy painting, inspired by all the visits from Mother West Wind lately. I'll try to give it another pass today!