Artist Inspiration Month, and Evergreen, by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Everglades View, 2015, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on board, 5" x 7" 

August is Artistic Inspiration month.  I'm not sure if it's a formal designation, but it seems generally accepted  among my artist friends.  Artists are responding by writing posts and articles about their own artistic inspiration.  

Here's my inspiration story:

Although I have painted since my youth and always loved the natural world, it was really my encounter with the Everglades Landscape that changed my life. Suddenly, I fell in love.  After more than 20 years my delight with the Florida Landscape continues.  I'm still inspired by the simple form of the clouds, palms, water, and ever-changing light of the Florida Everglades.  

We can all be inspired by the work of the very special Marjorie Stoneman Douglas.  She fell in love with the Everglades, too, and fought until the last year of her life (at 108!) to ensure Everglades protection. 

There are many artists I admire and have learned from as my artistic explorations continue.  For contemporary artists Wolf Kahn first comes to mind. I love his book Pastels.  Even though I'm not a pastel painter, I can open that book to any page and find an idea about painting to ponder to greater depths or to move me to get going at the easel.  His colors are fabulous, and his knowledge of how they work together admirable.  Wolf Kahn's paintings inspire me to continue to explore color, and to find new ways to both see and interpret the landscape I love.  

more to come...Who inspires you this month? 

Vegetables, a shell and some Wolf Kahn paintings!

Shell Post Card, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn
Watercolor on paper, 4"x6"

Visiting New England was a lot about eating and shared meals with family and friends.  I attended a fabulous lobster feast in Rhode Island, with fresh caught steamers, yummy salad overlooking the sea the Ocean House in Watch Hill, (ask me about my new shoes, purchased in the lobby after lunch!)  Fried Clams in Gloucester, Fruit and chocolate birthday cake in Hopkinton, Chinese in Maine.  There's more, but you get the idea that I came home with a few more pounds than I needed.

But what really stands out is what good cooks my daughters and their families are, and how wonderful fresh vegetables can be.  New England, which so far is not severely affected by drought was bursting with harvest.  Beet and carrot soup, cucumber salad, fresh BLT's, and the best ever fried green tomatoes, much of it homegrown. Garlic salad!

 It was almost enough to make me want to stay, until I saw this

reminding me why I really love living in Florida.  No mittens!

While in Kent, Ct, my daughter and I enjoyed a visit with William Morrision at the terrific Morrison Gallery.  It's a beautiful, clean-space gallery with great light, and almost always has some Peter Woytek, sculptures to enjoy.

I knew that the gallery had hosted a Wolf Kahn exhibition, but was expecting it to be over by the time of my visit.  We were excited to see that the show was still hanging.

Wooooooo, what a treat! 

Ah, delightful!  Fat and content I rolled my way home.   Energized, and ready to get back to work.

The shell at the top of this post?  It's to remind you that the Artist Colony at the Esplanade's ArtWalk theme this month will be "We sell Sea Shells."  Save the date, August 27th!

Working through, End of Summer painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

End of Summer, Jo-Ann Sanborn

20x24, acrylic on canvas

Just a couple of weeks ago this Everglades painting was not working for me. I spoke about it's problems here. A few hours in the studio and the whole came together in a much better painting.

The first thing I did in my correction attack was to glaze the whole painting with a transparent Yellow Azo. The colors took on a unity they had been lacking. The yellow neutralized, or toned down the purples, exaggerated the greens and softened the sky, giving the painting a nice glow. A this point I felt there was some hope for this painting.

Without letting that dry thoroughly I painted out some of the brush clumps and merged others, giving a much better flow to the greenery, put more distance between the water and the background which helped the scale of the palms, and added the cloud reflections to the right places in the water. My final step was to soften the more distant brush line to keep it in feeling with the rest of the painting.

The changes are not huge, but make a big difference in the final product. Wolf Kahn, one of my favorite art teachers, paraphrasing, says that a painting should always show the struggle of the painter on the canvas. I find that working through problems gives a painting depth of character it doesn't have when all comes more easily.

Traveling Light

There's an interesting article in American Artist Magazine (there's no link here because I couldn't find the article on their web pages) about an upcoming fall show at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Ct. Conservators and curators there are mounting an exhibition examining what's behind some famous paintings in an effort to learn more about the materials and creative process building to the final layer of the painting. Some previous underlying layers show preliminary work for the painting such as sketches, others show painted-over paintings or parts of paintings. While this is most interesting, I sometimes re-used canvases, or drastically changed a painting that had strayed from the original intention. The idea that the struggle to the final layer of my work may someday be open to examination is most unappealing. On the other hand, the great artist and teacher Wolf Kahn, in his pastel book says "the moment you know how to do certain things, you should by rights stop doing them. You would be ceasing to search and starting to perform." I'm definately still searching!

Today's painting will be one of the paintings featured at the Marco Island Center for the Arts Wine & Cheese on August 5. Hope you can join me there!

Traveling Light
30" x 24" (76.2cm x 61.0cm)
acrylic on canvas
$900 with FREE shipping and handling in the US
E-mail me for International shipping rates or other inquiries.