Around the Bend     30" x 24"

I was looking for information about something that took place years ago, and my old blog provided the answer!  I discovered that the blog was really a history of my art life, so you may enjoy taking a look at some of the older past entries.  No promises here, but I hate to let it go, so you may get a post from time to time.  

This painting, Around the Bend, was recently shown at the Art Ovation Hotel in Sarasota, FL.  Every few months the hotel hosts a new art exhibition.  My painting was included in an exhibition for members of the National Association of Women Artists-Florida Chapter.  If you're an artist and would like wider exposure, this organization promotes exhibitions of women's art and has two levels of membership.  Take a look here!

One good thing about the blog is that you are invited to comment, which you can do below if you're so inclined.  You know I love to hear from you.  

Light in the Sky, 11 x 14, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 

Grand Everglades Adventure #4 Video and Reflections, a daily painting

Reflections, 2018, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5" x 7"

When looking at reflections, if the subject is dark, the reflection is lighter, and if the subject is light, the reflection is darker.  But every now and then nature surprises us and there won't be much difference.  Sometimes you see amazing and unexpected light effects. That's why its important for a landscape painter to get out and see for yourself.

Follow along on my Grand Everglades Adventures thru video!  Grand Everglades Adventure #4 is a visit to Briggs Nature Center, an off-site boardwalk of the Conservancy of SW Florida..  If you want more information about the boardwalk and what you might see, click here. 

If you missed one of our Grand Adventures, the click on the links below.

Grand Everglades Adventure #3 - Process 

Grand Everglades Adventure #2 - Marsh Trail

Grand Everglades Adventure Invitation

Limiting your palette and Dancing in the Glades daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Dancing in the Glades, 2018, Jo-Ann Sanborn

Acrylic on board. 7” x 5”

The wind was blowing in the Glades on the day of this daily painting. I found a place there was no smoke and no evidence of the fires.  It didn't take long to get the feeling for the spot.  I'll work on a larger version in the studio.

In my Monday morning class we've been talking about limited palettes.  I most often use a double primary palette with some "visitor" colors, usually a neutral. Lately I'll just squirt out another color when I want it, sometimes upsetting the harmony of the painting. 

Time to return to the basics.  I've returned to a palette of red, blue, and yellow many times over the years, but would like to experiment a bit more.  I'll try several options in the next couple of weeks.  Perhaps I'll try magenta, Indian yellow and Phalo blue.  I'm also interested in doing a painting with the Zorn palette. 

Color changes will shake up my color strategies and force me to watch my values! What's your favorite limited palette?  Let me know below.  

Next /Grand Everglades Adventure Coming soon,  Links to the first three are below. 

Grand Everglades Adventure Invitation

Grand Everglades Adventure #2 - Marsh Trail

Grand Everglades Adventure #3 - Process 

Grand Everglades Adventure #4 coming 4/14

Grand Everglades Adventure - Process, and Daily Painting, Sunset Drama

Sunset Drama, 2018, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x 7"

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

The soft yellow-greens of this time of year and the abundance of flowers ready to bloom are so appealing. It's the end of our dry season, and unfortunately this fire season this year is a difficult one. The fires haven't threaten Marco Island, but the smoke is prevalent and wide swatches along US 41 show the effects of the burns. I hope that the animals are finding ways to safety.

I've seen more deer than usual, perhaps because they've been disturbed. Soon the regrowth will sustain them again. The rains of summer will be most welcome.

If you're coming along on my Grand Everglades Adventure, the videos are below. Please share with anyone who may be interested!  You can get them directly by inserting your email in the box above right.  

Grand Everglades Adventure #3 - Process, Briggs

Grand Everglades Adventure #2 - Marsh Trail

Grand Everglades Adventure - Invitation to come along

An invitation! Higher Ground daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Higher Ground, 2019, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

keep reading for some exciting news! 

Wet Paint Live

I'll be using this blog for something different in the coming months.  I've been asked to have an exhibition of my paintings at the Marco Island Historical Society in Marco of 2019.  I'd like to take you along as I prepare for the show.  Your invitation is right here!  

You'll be able to follow along right here!  

One in the Sun daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

One in the Sun, 2017, Jo-Ann Sanborn 

Acrylic on board, 5"x7"

Palm #3 daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Palm #3, 2017, Jo-Ann Sanborn

Acrylic on cradled board, 4" x 4"

Another palm.  These small paintings are fun to do on cradled board.  It's a multi-layered process, first covering the block with a textured gel, then doing an abstract color layer, then finding the palm in the paint, sometimes completely changing the background, and finally the highlights. 

They can be hung just on a push pin or set on an easel.  You can find a small spot, maybe half hidden, like on the wall under a lampshade.  Every time you turn on the light, you will get the delight of finding a little gem.   

Three in the Sun, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Three in the Sun, 2017, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on archival board, 7" x 5"

When the sun comes out in the rainy season, there's high humidity and it's very hot.  Still, sunshine is always welcome.  It makes for Everglades landscapes with strong value definitions in the palms.   

News! Early Morning Light, an Everglades Painting by Jo-Ann Sanborn

Early Morning Light

11x14, 2017

On May 1, 2017, I closed my studio/gallery at the Esplanade, and am choosing to work out of my home studio for a while.  This will give me more time to paint, more time to visit the Everglades - the source of my inspiration for painting - and more time to do some artistic exploration..

I'll still be self-representing, but am changing my business model.  Blogging will most likely have a place, with the goal of posting a daily painting often.  Sometimes I will have something to say, other times you'll just get a painting.

If you are getting this email, you will be getting a new post with a painting in your mail box more frequently. There will be a link to my website where the painting will be for sale. 

My blog is independent of my once-a-month newsletter, which will still be my main way of communicating with you.  You can reach both the blog and my past newsletters from my website, here. 

There is an unsubscribe notice at the end of both the blog and my newsletter in case you no longer wish to receive mail from me. 

Please forward to anyone you know who might be interested in having a painting in their mailbox.  More to come - later! 
Jo-Ann
 

Construction Madness and Water Babies, a daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Water Babies, 2015, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5" x7"

My studio/gallery on the Esplanade is open six days a week, Monday through Friday from 10-5, a little later on Thursdays, and till 2 on Saturdays. THis schedule will be in place until Easter.

The Smokehouse Bay bridge ajacent to the Esplanade is being reconstructed. The surrounding environment is bombarded with loud and persistant construction sounds, accompanied by the wailing sirens of emergency vehicles trying to get through almost umbearable traffic outside.

Parking has become difficult at the Esplanade, too, fueled by record numbers of visitors from colder climates.  And now, Daylight Savings, which always throws me for a loop until I adjust to the darker mornings.  

Right now, peaceful Marco isn't peaceful!  What a difference from the quiet pleaures of the Everglades.  Watching a heron slowly and patiently searching for breakfast, or a palm tree full of life and rippling in a light breeze helps to bring me back from the brink of over-stimulated madness. I'm so glad when I can spend time out there!

I've completed some new work, and placed some new large paintings on the website. If you're interested, take a look.  

An anniversary invitation by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Celebrate 2013 ( SOLD)

Please join artist Jo-Ann Sanborn
and
CELEBRATE!

20 years painting the Everglades and Marco Island !
One year Studio/Gallery anniversary !

with an

 

Open Studio Party
Thursday, October 17, 2013

5:30-7:30

Refreshments!

Give-aways! Fun!!

 

Hope you can come! 

Hanging Tips, and Departing Storm, painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Departing Storm, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 20x16

 

Some picture hanging tips for you today:

• Hang a painting about 65 inches off the floor if there is no furniture around and center it on the wall it's going on. 65 inches is considered the center of the eye for an average person.
• If the painting is to be hung in a dining room, you can go a little lower since people will view the painting from a seated position.
• If you are hanging a painting over a sofa or a buffet, hang it 6-8 inches above the back of the piece. That will help connect it to the grouping and not have it floating in space.
• If you are hanging a group of paintings, space them about 2-4 inches apart to keep them as one cohesive unit.
• If you hang a painting with two hangers instead of just one, you won't need to always be straightening it, since it won't slide around as easily as when you just have one hook. 

Everglades Digital Library, Another Rainy Day painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Another Rainy Day, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 7"x5"

 

Florida International University Libraries in Miami, FL, is compiling a web-based digital collection of Everglades material called the Everglades Digital Library. The Everglades Digital Library collaborates with scientific, government, library and educational organizations in and around Florida to make information about the Everglades freely available for use by anyone interested. 

 

It's designed to support research, education, decision making, and information resource management, and is designed to serve patrons of the greater Everglades community as well as interested people from around the world. 

 

The web service includes "ask an Everglades Librarian" and other online information services.  There is a wide range of documents of interest, including a plant-collecting expedition (A cruise to the Cape Sable region of Florida John K. Small) to historical post cards. 

 

If you'd like to take a look, you can browse here.

Abundance, and Off Rt. 27 by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Off Rt. 27, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 5"x7"

 

 

 

It's the doldrums of summer, when the ever present heat and rain really start to get to some of us.  Every morning when you open the door to the outside you gasp for breath as a blast of humidity-laden air fills your lungs.  Even though umbrellas are rarely used by those of us who live here, they are kept close at hand for the torrential downpours the beat the houses and the landscape and flow generously through the gutters.  

 

The water level is high, and the animals and plants of the Everglades rejoice as nature brings them the bounty of summer.  Frogs and fish are abundant and the wading birds and the little ground owls are growing fat. 

 

The light is fabulous, and makes the landscape come alive with color.  And if you're lucky, you'll catch a breeze under an awning or a palm, and at the end of a day see a magnificent sunset, reminding you how wonderful it is to live here.

Kemper tool, and By the Water, daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

By the Water, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 8"x8"

 

I'm really enjoying using the oil paints, and have decided to use them on some smaller Everglades paintings until I am more comfortable with them.  It's quite a change from the acrylics, so I have to adjust to the new medium. 

 

One thing that is very different is that with acrylics I cutting in to form a lot of my large masses, and then build them up again, sometimes doing quite a few layers to get just the look I want.  This method is impossible with the oil paints.  I'm trying to learn to mix a color and put a stroke down and leave it, not to mush it around too much.  I like the colors from the layers below peaking through, and it's too easy to cover a nice bit of color if I'm not careful.   

 

Sometime, such as the grasses in By the Water, I've used a Kemper wipe out tool to draw with, helping me find objects in the painting and to define them.  It cuts right through the paint to the layer below, adding texture, and a bit of linear form.  I'm also using it to sign my oil works, right into the wet paint! 

Back to the Glades, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Back to the Glades, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 8"x10"

 

 

Although some of us are getting just a little sick of all the summer rain we've been having, the Everglades are full of water right now, just as they should be.  The Everglades has two seasons, the wet and the dry, and summer is wet, wet, wet! 

 

As the water rises, animals that had congregated together during the winter dry season to share moisture spread out to mate, bear litters, and gain weight from the abundant fish and frogs, and other food sources. 

 

It's all part of the natural balance.  It's just not always perfect for people, who plan a visit to South Florida expecting every day to be a beach day, and this year seems wetter than ever.  Sorry, folks!

Knee-deep, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 36"x24"

 

I've been painting the Everglades landscape for a number of years now.  Landscape painting is a direct connection to nature, and the time that I spend in the wild nurtures my soul.  My soul is getting a little testy with all this rain!

 

It rains here this time of year.  I know this.  We have two seasons in Southwest Florida, the wet and the dry.  June 1 begins the rainy season.  Animals and plants have evolved to take advantage of this environment.  It works well for them.

 

But people?  I'm already moaning about the number of dark clouds, grey days, sprinkles and downpours.  But you can be sure there will be more to come. 

 

Forget the showers and come to tea on Friday.  We'll have a nice cuppa, chat, check out my new plein air equipment, you will be given a copy of Eric Blair's essay on how to make a perfect cup of tea, and maybe even win a watercolor postcard.  

 

4 p.m., at the studio.  See you there with sunny smiles on! 



 



On Reflection, painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

On Reflection, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 16x20

 

I've just signed a new lease, giving me another year in the Esplanade location.  It was just a year ago that I decided to strike out on my own once I was certain that the Artist Colony would no longer be able to have space for group galleries in the Esplanade. 

 

It was the right decision for me, and I'm happy to have another year in this location.  My space is just the right size for one artist, and I love working there and meeting all the visitors and Marcoites who stop in to see what I'm working on. 

 

Having a studio/gallery in the Esplanade still gives me plenty of time to visit the Everglades.  There is always something to delight me on my trips out in the field.  One day last week coming home I saw my first Bobcat!  He was larger than I expected and into the brush far too quick to take a photo, but it made me smile just it see it.  

Colorstrology, and Sherbet for Breakfast, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Sherbet for Breakfast, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

Orange again!  Sherbet colors in the Everglades!   

What could be the influence?  Fresh orange and pink grapefruit juice for breakfast now that the Farmer's Market has such good citrus?  The beautiful orangery sherbet colors in the evening sky? My new orange hoodie?  

Or my new interest in Colorstrology?  Yes, Colorstrology!  The word was new to me when I received the book as a gift, so I did some research. 

The colors have been developed from the Pantone Textile Color System.  Each color has a unique shade and number, and each day of the year is assigned a color.  The astrological and numerical aspects of each day, combined with this color system, are referred to as colorstrology.  

Alas, my Birthday color is not orange, but Azalea, Pantone 17-1842.  Maybe I should re-think the amount of orange in my newer paintings, and should try pinking it up a bit.  

Want to know what YOUR birthday color is?  I have the book on the desk at my studio/gallery and you are welcome to come and brouse.  So far, most people really seem to identify with the color designated for their day.