Early Evening, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Early Evening, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 7"x5"

Winding southward from Orlando, the Florida landscape flattens and slopes gently into a broad marshy swath known as the Everglades.  Various sources attribute the name as coming from Native Americans who called it Pa-hay-Okee, ttranslating into "grassy waters," from the Latin word “glades” as beautiful, or the old English for “a grassy place.”  Supporter of its preservation, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, called it “river of grass.”

The Everglades is all of these things, and more.  Response to the place varies widely.  Some say it’s a miserable place, full of bugs and snakes and dark secrets.  Others know it for its magnificent sunsets, mysterious wetlands, and exotic wildlife.  The world has recognized the importance of the Everglades and named it a World Heritage Site.  

In addition to serving as one of our world’s important natural purifying and providing systems, the land supports many species of flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world.  Over 60 endangered or threatened species call the Everglades home, and its glades and dells host a multitude of orchids, some found nowhere else in the world.

The Everglades environment is made up of a complex system of interdependent habitats.  They include cypress swamps, hardwood hammocks, open prairies, deep water sloughs, and deep mangrove fringes sloping gently into the marine environment of the Florida Bay.

This is the landscape that has become my inspiration and my muse.   I'll write more about the Everglades in the next few weeks.  Some of it will be revised information that I've written before, and some will be new.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks!