Sunflowers, Chad Oliver, and me! New Day daily painting by Everglades Artist JoAnn Sanborn

New Day

5x7, acrylic on canvas

$150

The Southwest Florida environment continues to delight and amaze me. The sea of sunflowers in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, that appear in October most, but not every year, are just beautiful.

I learned about them through the newscast of NBC-2 reporter Chad Oliver, who often covers stories of interest to me and to others who love this environment. I can't seem to upload the video, so here's a link to the page that tells the story and a video of the scene.

Chad also covered the Artist Colony at the Esplanade this week. It was a pleasure to work with him and his cameraman. The segment about the artists was aired several times, but if you missed it, you can see it here. Thanks, Chad!

Ghost Orchid Walk

I've been telling you about the Ghost Orchid blooming at Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and on Saturday made the trek out to see it. It was about a mile walk out from the Nature Center on a 2 1/2 mile boardwalk. We were delighted to see that the staff had a telescope trained on it, otherwise we would have missed it. The recent heavy rain had probably shortened the life of the blooms, and I'm afraid if you haven't been to see it by now it's too late. Try again next year, it is a rare and beautiful sight. Despite the best of our cameras and a lot of trying, the best shot was taken through the lens by our friend Ken and edited to its best level by my husband Bob, and shows two blooms. There's one in the center left and another just to the right of that and a little lower. The Sanctuary has better pictures, and you can see them here. Since we walked at the hottest part of the day, on one of the hottest days we didn't see much wildlife, but the walk out was pleasant and the mosquitoes not bad. We were delighted to see one of the beautiful red and green grasshoppers--an Everglades favorite of mine. Hope you can see his gorgeous colors on your computer! As far as painting, I'm working on three new paintings for the Upcoming Wine and Cheese night at the Marco Island Center for the Arts, and I'll post one next.