Florida painter, Everglades, Marco Island, artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

7/27/09

Florida Frogs, A Summer Afternoon daily painting by Everglades artist JoAnn Sanborn

A Summer Afternoon
5x7, acrylic on board
$150, framed

This Everglades daily was done in preparation for a larger painting that I'm working on with the hopes of finishing in time for the August, Blue Mangrove Gallery show. I love the fresh, sketchy feel of it.

The sky was soft grayed shades of pink and yellow and green as I picked up my morning paper. I stopped to listen to the sounds of dawn, The soft coo of the doves could be heard, but I missed the variety of hoarse, croaking sounds usually heard this time of year.

Even though we got some rain over the weekend, we just haven't had enough to fill up the swales and support an army of frogs. Normally by the end of July I'll have seen tadpoles in the water at least a few times.

Years ago, most of the frogs on Marco Island and in the Everglades were native species of Florida. Now, the larger Cuban Tree Frog, introduced in the 1920s is the most commonly found. It eats most anything, and the smaller, native frogs are becoming far less common.

With a lack of their favorite food, what are our burrowing owls eating?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're also experiencing severe drought conditions and a noticeable absence of frog sounds, usually abundant this time of year.
It's as though the Northeast is getting tropical squalls, and we're getting arid dry spells.

I like the way you've used greens in soft shades to evoke the soft grey mornings.
The large version ought to be lovely based on this 5X7.

Jo-Ann Sanborn said...

It's either deluge or drought! At least we're not (knock on wood) worried about a hurricane! Hopefully this is a temporary lack of rain.

The larger verison is a bit of a struggle. I like the freshness here, and want to get that sense of movement in so much grass. I'll post when satisfied on my website. Thanks, Bonnie!

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