Why the Glades? Waterway painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Waterway, 2010, J Sanborn
acrylic on Canvas 24"X24"

When life changes dictated a move to Florida, I wasn't sure how I'd adapt. Everthing was different from my New England hometown. Soon after arriving and on a drive to get oriented, I fell in love the Everglades landscape. It's been almost 18 years now and I'm still excited to pick up my paintbrush each day and see what the landscape will reveal.

The Everglades are defined as the land south of Orlando in the middle of the peninsular of Florida. Water from Lake Okeechobee, summer rains and hurricanes form a shallow river that moves very slowly across the landscape to the estuaries and mangrove fringes on the southern coasts.

The land is filled with bold shapes and forms. Palms thrust upward when their roots can get a footing just a few inches about the prairies. Knife sharp sawgrasses form islands of foliage that sway together in light breezes. Deciduous bald cypress trees are ghostly in the winter's evening light and delightfully playful in spring greens. And the water is everywhere, sometimes only an inch or two, and other times remaining in deep life-sustaining sloughs during dry spells.

In the summer wet season the skies are filled with gorgeous billowing clouds as storms build throughout the day. Torrential rains drench the parched landscape by late afternoon. Sometimes the humidity is so think the air practically shimmers with it, and the sunrises and sunsets are almost always spectacular.

In the winter dry season, the grasses dry to lovely soft lavenders as summer's abundant foliage dehydrates and the landscape dries. The skies are every blue in your paint box and fill with puffy afternoon clouds and the light dances in each breeze and is thick and rich and yellow.

The light is magical as it plays among the brash forms and varying colors of this exotic landscape. When you look closer even the small things amaze and delight. If you're quiet and looking for it, there's also the spiritual peace sometimes found in uninhabited places. Places that should be revered rather than destroyed.

As a painter the Everglades landscape provides me with endless inspiration. As a human, I'm concerned about the many threats to this ancient land. It's my hope that my paintings will help you to see it through different eyes, and want to preserve and protect it, too.