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!

The Florida Python Challenge and Out in the Glades, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Out in the Glades, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 7"x5"

The great Everglades Python Challenge is on, and 800 novice and experienced hunters from from 32 states and Canada are taking on the challenge.  The goal will be to substantially reduce the number of invasive Burmese Pythons in the Everglades.  

A combination of releases by pet owners no longer able to care for them, and damage to breeders cages during Hurricane Andrew in the early 90's. has lead to an explosive population of the snakes in the Everglades.  

Python numbers have reduced native Everglade mammals to nearly extinction. The pythons don't seem to have any natural predators, eat threatened and endangered species, and compete with native animals for habitat and food.  One was killed with a 76 lb deer in it's tummy.  They are very strong.

 

It takes a certain bravado to take on a snake, especially one of the largest. Pythons can grow to lengths of 23 feet and 200 pounds.  The stuff of nightmares, to be sure. But the snakes are elusive, have great camouflage, and are the winning species so far.  In the first three days of the hunt the 800 hunters registered just 11 of the reptiles.  

 

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The hunters must be registered and have a GPS.  They are supposed to kill the animals at the site of the capture, in the most humane way possible.  The remains are to be turned in for research.  

The hunt will last for a month, and there will be prizes.  $1,500 for the most, and $1,000 for the longest python in two categories, the challenge hunters and regular permit holders.  Hunting will end at midnight on February 10th, and you can pick up your prize at the awards event at Zoo Miami on February 10th.  If you're interested, you can learn the rules and take the training online here. There's also quite a lot more about the animals on the site.  

 

Me?  I'm being VERY careful out there this week.  All those inexperienced people running around the Everglades with guns and knives scare me almost as much as the snakes!  I'll be in the studio!  

Gathering, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Gathering, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

 

 

Here's a little gathering of Everglades palms.  When I see a group like this, not really touching but still making a related group, I wonder about how they come to survive in this location.  The palms can only survive where the nutrient level of the soil allows it.  Why is there enough just right here?  If I were a scientist it would make an interesting study to learn more about the soils just under different groups.   

 

You have probably been at a lot of gatherings in the last few weeks.  It's something we do more during the holidays.  It's a great time for entertaining, and including friends who you might not see all the time.  Parties are fun, as long as there's not too many and they become an obligation.

 

I've been staying pretty close to the studio myself.  Painting has always been my outlet and continues to sustain me, and the new studio gallery keeps me busy. 

 

If you don't get my December newsletter, you can see it here.  Sorry if you received it addressed to "dear contact name"  rather than to your very dear self.  It was a newsletter provider glitch that happens without warning.  

In the Distance daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

 

In the Distance, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 5"x7"

 

 

The light has been clear and lovly in the Everglades with weather perfect for humans.  We've had no rain for a while, and the Everglades animals are beginning to go into survival mode.  Alligators will dig water holes using snout and tail, and other animals will gather to share the water.

 

There are some natural sloughs, channels that will retain water throughout the dry season, and manmade construction has made other deepwater passages.  In these areas the alligators can gather without doing the work of excavation. 

 

The corner of Turner River Road, off US 41 is one such area. When I first came to Florida, almost 20 years ago, only one or two gators used this location during the dry season.  As the area developed, the channel was deepened.  Now, as the season progresses, more and more gators gather at this manmade water hole.  Today it's easy to see multiple gators there. 

 

Without the alligator holes throughout the Everglades, other animals may have to find new methods to find the water they need to survive.  It's too soon to know if the lack of alligator holes will become a serious problem to some species, but scientists are beginning to be concerned about the changes.  You can learn more about alligator holes from the Croc Doc.

Everglades Light

Everglades Light, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 11x14, sold

 

The drop in humidity and a little coolness makes it a wonderful time of year to get out into the Everglades.  There's plenty of water from the summer rains.  The sloughs are full, and in the quiet you can hear the surface water gurgling softly on it's way to the Gulf.  With a  100 mile wide river of grass to get through, and only a slight decrease in elevation, the water is on a long, slow journey.  

 

There are more wading birds feeding in the shallow water, and more overhead.  Some will stay for the winter, but others are just passing through.  

 

Much of the land from Marco Island to Miami is preserved.  Spending time in nature calms our souls, lowers the blood pressure, and makes us realize we're only a small part of a much larger world. If you're not sure what to do or where to go on your own in the Everglades, stop into the studio and I'll give you a map of some easy and inexpensive ways to orient yourselves to the wonderful Everglades environment.

 

Today's painting is a larger version of the one I did last week.    Exploring the palms standing out against a background of brush is a subject I haven't visited for a while, but continues to intrigue. It's from a place I often pass, but don't get to stop and absorb.  Last week the late day light was perfect.  Everglades magic! 

protecting the Everglades, and Beach Shade, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Beach Shade, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 6"x12"

As the world changes rapidly, we’re in danger of falling behind other countries in the green category.  The leadership of many rising nations knows that sustaining the environment will be critical to the health and well being of their citizens in the world to come.  Their most successful companies are those that are finding ways to move ahead while using practices that help sustain our planet. 

There are a lot of us humans, and we don’t always think alike.  But when we set our minds to it, we can make a difference.  With our caring, our attention, and our money, we can make the world a better place.  Places that I personally watched restored, prompted and funded in part by the Clean Water Act, are Gloucester harbor, Boston harbor, and the Connecticut River.  All were gross when I was younger, and today are restored to better health. 

The Everglades play an important part in the health of our waterways.  We need to protect them.  While I really dislike the fact of adding legislation into packages for passing, when Congress passed legislation to continue funding the government, the Everglades won a bonus, with funds to continue Everglades restoration.  I’m glad people in our government think that protecting the Everglades is important.  It is!

it's encouraging to see young people take an active interest in protecting the environment.  These young biology students are part of a group camping at Collier Seminole Park while they study the animals and ecosystems of our South Florida environment.  Kids like this are passionate about our planet, and interested in how it works.  They recently stopped in to the studio to chat about the Everglades. 

I felt really bad for them camping out during our chilly little cold spell, but they were cheerful and interesting and told me that sitting around a warm campfire at night ekpt them cosy. 

The Everglades landscape drew me to paint it because it is positively magical. After learning more about the environment, I paint with the added desire to bring more attention to the fact that it is a threatened landscape. The land can’t speak for itself, so someone must care enough to speak for it.  If I can speak to you about this landscape through my paintings, and you see it differently after viewing my paintings, then I’ve reached you on a deeper level.  You also, may want to sustain it. 

In my book, Embracing the Everglades, I discuss some of the impact of humans on the land, and will share some of the profits with the organizations that are working to preserve and protect the Everglades.  And if you have purchased a copy or received one as a gift, and if you like it, you can comment here.  Thanks! 

Clean Air and Water, Swamp daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Swamp, 2011, © Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 7"x5

My soapbox, once again!  Swamps need protection, too!

Dirty deals are being made in Washington, and Everglade’s recovery is threatened once more.  The Everglades suffer from excessive nutrient levels, the results of runoff from agriculture, particularly big sugar.  Excessive nutrients cause changes in the Everglades ecosystems 

There are attempts to add Anti-clean air and Anti clean water riders to bills that need to be passed, but have nothing to do with clean air and water, and will work around 40 year old standards.  If bills are passed with these riders attached, standards set for Everglades restoration will suffer.

Federal Regulation has been effective in turning around polluted spots.  I grew up in Gloucester, Mass, where a sewer “bubbler” in the harbor made swimming there impossible.  There were few fish, and often a stink.  The Clean Water Act was the reason to sewer the city—not easy on heavy rock ledge.  It was done, and the harbor began to improve.  Forty years later the water in Gloucester Harbor sparkles and people can eat the fish they catch off the docks.  Success stories can be found around New England, and perhaps where you live.  

Corporate concern for a cleaner planet is rare, and to be widespread and effective, clean air and water regulations standards must be consistent and mandated by federal regulation. 

Most Florida legislators know that that the Everglades are important to the well-being of the already stressed gulf, and to fisheries in Florida Bay, as well as the economics of our state, but may be outvoted on this legislation.  They are also reliant on big business, particularly big agricultural concerns, and their votes are not always consistent with providing the best for our environment. 

Let’s use our votes wisely to move forward rather than backwards, especially where our beautiful country is concerned.  Let’s demand protection for the Everglades, with clean air and clean water, and make sure our current legislators know how we feel.

Mindful, Summer's Clouds daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Summer's Clouds, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

Time is flying, and summer's clouds are all but a memory.  While writing my book, I searched for a word to describe the way the Everglades landscape responds to winter, spring, summer, fall, while retaining two distinct seasons, the wet and the dry. While the flora and fauna of the glades environment are driven by the wet and dry, the change of light and heat as the earth revolves around the sun also have an effect.

I finally settled on "mindful." It means "aware" actively attentive, or deliberately keeping something in mind. 

We are coming into the dry season. As more and more humans journey to South Florida for the dry, warmer weather, the animals and plants of the Everglades are taking actions to help them survive without much water for the next few months.


If you like knowing more about the Everglade environment, and enjoy looking at images of my paintings, you'll enjoy my book, Embracing the Everglades. Is it on your holiday gift list? It can be purchased online directly from my website and is available at my studio in the Esplanade.   

And for the holiday season, "mindfu' seems to fit.  I'm asking you to be mindful as you shop this season. 

You can be mindful of the meaning of Christmas, a time of kindness and sharing and joy and giving.

You can be mindful of the gifts you select.  Who made them?  Are they made by a real person, with love and care? Can someone answer your questions about how the gift was made?

You can be mindful of where you purchase.  Will you get great customer service from someone who knows how hard you are working to get just the right gift?  Will you get help when you want/need it?

You can be mindful of the merchants on Marco Island this year who might be suffering in the dismal economy and will appreciate your business. Bonus to you--no traffic, plenty of parking, and great customer service!

So, be mindful that you're getting exactly what you want this season, and that your money is going where you are pleased to have it go.
 
Please join the Artist Colony at the Esplanade for last Wednesday's ArtWalk, Wednesday, November 30, 5-8. for our Holiday Open House.  I've got something special for you.  Check in on Tuesday to learn the details! 

See my next post for information about my first ArtWalk SNOWMAN EXTRAVAGANZA!  I'll be serving a great mulled beverage and delicious cookies too!

Hardwood hammocks, Hammock daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Hammock, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

More Everglades:

Once much larger, these ancient sub-tropical forests serve many important purposes in the Everglades. Hardwood hammocks develop on slightly higher ground that floods infrequently.  A little rise in elevation can support the growth of a mature hardwood forest including royal palm, cabbage palm, live oak, gumbo limbo, mahogany and oak.

The hardwood hammocks provide homes to most of the Everglades mammals, who find shelter in their branches and roots. The tree leaves form a dense canopy which shades the forest floor and provids relief from the relentless tropical sun from the sun during the hotest part of the day.  Reptiles and birds, too, call the hammocks home.

The hammocks are damp, and ferns and air plants thrive in their moisture-laden air, and rare native orchids multipy and bloom.  The tree roots and leaves prevented erosion, and help remove pollutants from the water.  

Sloughs, rhymes with blues! Daily painting by Everglades artist JoAnn Sanborn

I'm continuing another week or so with my Everglades story: 

As seasonal rainfall accumulates in the lake region, water overflows onto the prairies and begins a long slow journey to the gulf.  Over time, sloughs have formed.  Sloughs (rhymes with blue) are marshy channels, dotted with tree islands.  Some are quite deep and will hold life-sustaining water throughout the year.

Because of the water flowing around them, the tree islands have developed into teardrop or lozenge shape, formed by the water flow.  Usually smaller than the hardwood hammock forests, they provide nesting sites for birds and shade and protection to species that feed on the open prairie.

Recent excavations show that the tree islands may have developed on discarded refuse from ancient human habitation, and the others have formed from an uprise in the limestone.  

FYI:
I've got a few of the daily paintings left over from 2008 &9.  They'll be on special for $50, no frame or free shipping, in the studio till the end of the month.  If you're away and see one you like, you can email me. 

Summer Newsletter, Friends of Mine daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Friends of Mine, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5"x7"

Summer Newsletter out today!

Seasons, What's in the Water, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

What's in the Water, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 7"x5"

Mindful of the movement of the sun creating the familiar seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall, life in the Everglades revolves around just two seasons, the wet and the dry.

From June until November heavy afternoon rains soak the marshes, flood the prairies, and fill the aquifers. Humidity of over 90% and temperatures in the 90s are common. These hot, wet conditions bring significant changes to the Everglades landscape. Animals, dependent on water holes in the dry season begin to disperse. Plants begin a cycle of re-growth. Mosquitoes and other insects increase in great numbers, and fish spawn and flourish.

Everglade skies grow quiet as the wet season gives way to the dry.There's less threat of rain, the water retreats, and the lush greens of summer turn to gold and then into grays as the grasses dry. Migrating birds return and fish, frogs, and other creatures of the Everglades seek out the holes that alligators have enhance to find enough moisture to keep them alive.Fire danger increases.

Human, following a path centuries olds and looking for relief from frigid northern winters,  migrate south to enjoy the climate.  Native Everglade plants and animals go into survival mode until the life-giving rains begin again,.  

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!

Periphyton, Anyone? Daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Periphyton, Jo-Ann Sanborn

Acrylic on panel, 5"x7"

A few weeks ago on a visit to Shark Valley, one of the rangers searched out a clump of periphyton in order to show to visitors, and to explain its importance to the Everglades environment.  Periphyton looks like a clump of light-colored peat, but in reality houses a tiny community containing  a complex mix of algae, bacteria, fungus, microbes, and invertebrate animals. 

In wetland areas like the everglades periphyton attaches to subsurface detritus, plants, and rocks under the surface of the water.  It sometimes floats as a mat.  Periphyton serves as an important food source for small animal and plants.

Periphyton is an  ideal indicator of water quality since it is easy to sample and has a fast response to change in water quality.  They are also important to keeping water quality good, since they will hang on to pollutants.  Periophyton is one of the indicators researchers will watch closely to monitor the effects of Everglades restoration efforts. 

So the next time you're in the Everglades and pick up a bit of earth/peat/detritus from the water or edge, it could be a whole colony of microscopic life you're holding!