Fakahatchee Summer, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Fakahatchee Summer, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 8"x8"

The Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve is a very special place.  The best description of the Fakahatchee is a linear swamp forest, almost twenty miles long and five miles wide, with a high tree canopy of royal palms and cypress trees.  Orchids and bromeliads are in abundance, with 44 native orchids and 14 native bromeliad species. It is a haven for wildlife, including birds, both resident and migratory. 

Much ecological damage was done to the Fakahatchee Strand in the past by clear-cut logging, road building and drainage.  However, the area had recovered remarkably well, and there are high hopes for its continued recovery as part of the Everglades Restoration. 

It is a fairly intact and functional natural system with a number of different habitats.  It's one of nature's quiet places, a place that reveals secrets slowly.  You can visit it by walking the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, or driving Jane's Scenic Drive. 

You do need to wear your mosquito protection this time of year, and if they are too bad, just move on a little and you'll find they are  no problem. 

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! 

Door in Frayssinet by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Le

Door at Le Vieux Covant, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

8x10, oil on board

Yes, you are on the correct blog but this is not the Everglades! There are so many picturesque scenes here at Le Vieux Covant in Frayssinet, France, that it is hard to decide what to paint first.

As many of you know, I am not an oil painter. I've tried them on and off over the years and decided that they were not for me, yet I am using them on this trip trying to keep an open mind about it! And, there's a possibility I'll become a convert, or at least a user!

I'm traveling with a wonderful group of artists, led by artist Dreama Tolle Perry. We are living in a group of beautiful old buildings that have been converted into a place for artist retreats. The food is magnificent, the beds comfortable, and the abundant painting scenes on the grounds are covered with fragrantly scented roses. Charm everywhere you look.

There are nearby ruins, lily ponds with magnificent bull frogs, stone steps and church bells, sheep and cows. All told, it is a painters dream, and I feel so fortunate to be here. More to come!

Posted with Blogsy

Rain Coming daily painting by Everglade artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Rain coming!  2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

oil on board, 7"x5"

It's summer on Marco Island, and the afternoon rains come with regularity.  Just what our wet season is all about.  Water!  Sprinkles and downpours!  That's how it should be, to refresh our reservoirs.  The summer rains help sustain life in the dry season and they are a welcome part of the environment we've chosen to live in. 

You can see the thunderheads building over the Everglades starting early in the day, and by late afternoon can expect to be caught in a downpour if you are out and about.  By evening it's mostly cleared, leaving the dinner crowd dry. 

Boaters need to watch the sky, and cell phone radar to watch for storms.  Summer thunderstorms can be quite strong, even though they usually pass quickly.  Being in a sail boat during a thunderstorm storm is a memorable experience--and not necessarily a good one.

The boaters in the above painting have it all under control, and will be safely in port before the rain comes their way!