Marco Island Historical Society Museum Mural, Daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Reflections

6x6, acrylic on canvas

$125

When the Marco Island Historical Society began the process of building a museum, a committee chose five artists to produce series of paintings called "Art Interprets History." One of the artists, Steven Muldoon, is a Marco resident, the rest of the artists were from surrounding Collier County. Artists Paul Arsenault, Jonathan Green, Robert Gruppe, Rachael Kennedy, and Steven Muldoon were invited to participate, and the paintings created helped with fundraising and to bring attention to the project.

Now the Museum is becoming a reality, and two artists, Jonathan Green and Paul Arsenault, are vying for the honor of creating the largest mural in Southwest Florida for the museum, based on two paintings done for the above series. You can seen the paintings at Marco’s M&I Bank from July 24 to Aug. 14 and in the M&I Bank in Naples from Aug. 17 to Sept. 2.

The Marco Eagle is also taking part, and will have images of the two paintings available for viewing in their lobby. You can also vote online, here, which is a great choice if you're off-island for the summer. The results of the voting will be announced September 7th.

Artist Rachael Kennedy and I set off for a morning of painting in the Everglades. She hadn't been out for a while and didn't like going alone. We're just so used to having people around that it can be a little creepy in some of the back country all by yourself. I'm more uneasy Florida than I ever would be in my native New England, and have talked with people from here who feel the same way about there. I'm wary of alligators and they are more nervous about Moose! Doesn't stop me from wanting to paint out there, though. Perhaps the exotic-ness of it is what attracts. Anyway, we had plenty of company from the alligators on our deserted road. This old guy has been there for years. In the last couple of years he was joined by another. Yesterday we probably saw at least ten, all lying in the weak light. Fortunately all were across a canal!

We didn't actually put paint to canvas--as we dragged all our stuff out of the car some large clouds came up threatening rain and the light went flat, so we returned to the car and did some exploring. One of our stops, close to Marco was the historic Horr House. The remains of an old pineapple plantation will shell tabby walls can be seen on Key Marco. I had painted here before, but Rachael was particularly interested since she's one of five artists doing paintings for the Marco Museum. We were advised that there were snakes inside, and lots of fire ants on the property, so we approached gingerly! Then, to Artist Tabletalk, a group of professional artists who meet each month for art talk. We helped artist Tara O'Neill to celebrate a big birthday, and the conversation was all about Art Basel and wet paint.