MOTTO FOR 2011

Life is full of magic . . . find some

Thursday, January 27, 2011

"Heaven's Morning"


11 x 14 (plein air)


Ditto.
Just another day in paradise.

Thanks for looking.


Friday, January 21, 2011

"Power Lines"


8 x 10 (Plein Air)

Does every painting have a story? Today is an experiment. I randomly and blindly selected this painting from my computer file of completed paintings from 2010. The reason for this random selection was related the reason for this blog. Believe it or not, this is post number 407 for this blog. That's a lot of paintings and a lot of writing. What do you make a blog about? That's a giant question. It goes to that core issue that is the best explanation for why there are times when I don't post for a while -- who really cares and why are you doing this?

I've had some recent feedback from people (most related to me in some way) who indicate that they like to check out my blog. So I thought I need to be more regular in my posting. But what do you post about? So this was my contention -- every painting has a story. Just tell the simple story of the painting, and testing the proposition I randomly selected this one.

I painted this from Bird Island. The island in the painting is not Bird Island. In fact I can't remember the name but it is privately owned by family members of the owners of Bird Island. I thought the electric lines were interesting, both for their compositional importance and for idea of this isolated island that survives on a lifeline of electric current. The tide was coming in and the islands around the poles were quickly disappearing. Not my favorite painting from Bird Island, but does it have a story. I don't know. Does it?

Thanks for looking.


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Beach Daisies and Palm


14 x 11

One of my best trips last year was a weekend trip to Bird Island off Horseshoe Beach on the west coast of Florida. Horseshoe Beach is just north of the where the Suwanee River enters the Gulf and south of Steinhatchee. This is a very isolated area of Florida. It's a lot more of a forgotten coast than the actual "forgotten coast" up here in North Florida. Bird Island is a small island (maybe two arces) which lies about a half mile from Horseshoe Beach. It is privately owned. I was invited to come paint for the weekend during October. It was glorious. The owners have a neat two story home and we threw cast nets for mullet and ate great meals and were treated like royalty. The island was built up by the Indians that inhabited the area. They had a collection of artifacts such as arrowheads, pottery shards and even human bones. When the hurricanes came through in 2005 they had whole skeletons uncovered in the tidal flats. (Makes for an interesting thought as you are nodding off to sleep. Brought to mind the movie "Poltergeist", but I was so tired it didn't matter.)



Looking at the sunset. From the dock you could watch the sunrise in the morning and the sunset in the evening. I did 5 x 7's of both.


View of the island coming from Horseshoe Beach. Theres's an umbrella there near middle of the photo. If you look close it is one of the artists already painting away. Anyway, it was truly one of those trips I've heard other painters talk about and thought "I wonder when someone is going to invite me to something like that?" So be advised that if you can one-up this trip I am ready and available to accept your challenge. My new slogan: Have pallette, will travel!



Thanks for looking.


Saturday, January 15, 2011

"Ahhh . . . Punkie"


11 x 14 (plein air)

This is another from Canaveral Paint Out. This is near Eldora House. As I understand it, when the government bought the owners out to make it a wildlife refuge, one option was to have a life estate to the original owner. This means that the owner could stay in the house but when he or she died it would pass to the government. This was one of the last boat houses standing from the original owners. After letting all of them fall in the water, the park service finally decided to save and restore this one. I painted it from the dock at Eldora House.

One really cool thing happened while painting this one. There was another painter on the dock and at one point she was talking with an elderly man. She mentioned that she was from Orlando and he said that he had grown up in Orlando and even went to the how-closed Orlando High School. I guess this part of the conversation caught my ear and when he walked over to me I told him that my parents had both attended Orlando High School. He asked their names and I said "Dick Andrews and Mary Dettmer". He got a big smile on his face and said "ahhh . . . Punkie". (That was her nickname and her grandmother name for my children.) He had been best friends with my dad's oldest brother. We told some stories and he confirmed most the crazy ones I had heard. He had nothing but good things to say about Punkie and all of the Andrews. It was neat.

You never know what you'll find when your painting. Its a small world.

Thanks for looking.




Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Canaveral Palms


5 x 7

From Canaveral Paint Out. I'm a sucker for the view across the water. This is a little 5 x 7 sketch. This was done after the quick draw at the Eldora House. Eldora House is a renovated home that is used by the wildlife refuge as a small museum with artifacts from the area. This is a really beautiful area. If you are in the area you should visit it. Canaveral Seashore National Wildlife Refuge was purchased by the federal government when the area was selected to house the space program. If you look at a map of Florida there is cape about half way down the east coast of Florida. That is Cape Canaveral -- now called Cape Kennedy. Because it was taken over by the government it was not developed like the rest of Florida. All of the area has been protected. The part north of the space program is a National Wildlife Refuge. This fact had an enormous economic impact of the town of Titusville where I grew up. Unfortunately, that impact has been negative, at least compared to other similarly situated Florida cities. Economic times are really tough now. The space program is being phased out and jobs are being cut. There is very little tourist industry in Titusville. Thirty of forty years from now the wild refuge will be a major asset for the area, but that doesn't help if you are unemployed. How do you create an industry around viewing wildlife? Maybe thirty or forty years from now people will rather see an unspoiled beach and wetland and wildlife than ride the E ticket rides at DisneyWorld. I guess we'll see. If you take a trip to Florida, go visit and see what you've been missing.

Thanks for looking.


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Sunrise - New Year


8 x 10

From Lake Weir. Among the best things to happen in our family this year was the purchase of a lake house on Lake Weir in Central Florida. If you've been following this blog for any time, (yes, all three of you) then you know that my wife's family started going to Lake Weir every year for a week of summer vacation when she was just a child. Our family has continued that tradition. We haven't missed a year. About five years ago my wife's sister's family bought a place on the lake. It's was right on the same street we stayed on all these years.

One of the realities of vacationing at the same spot over many years is that you see the area grow and the prices of real estate escalate. Until about two years ago those prices had reached astronomical levels. Last summer after returning from vacation I bookmarked a couple of sites that had listing of Lake Weir real estate. In October, I found a house listed that was three houses down from Aunt Dina. Through a lot of tribulation, things worked out and the deal closed in November. I got to spend the week after Christmas there, and I woke up every morning early watching the sunrise, and drinking coffee, and painting. This one is looking east across the lake. It is a heavenly place. (Is that sacrilegious?) My goal is to make paintings that communicate that heavenliness. (Is that hokey?) It won't be easy. I have my own limitations. It is flat Florida . . . a stripe of water, a stripe of land, and a stripe of sky. But I know I am going to enjoy the challenge. Stay tuned to find out.

Thanks for looking.


Sunday, January 09, 2011

Slice of Green


16 x 20

I told you I painted a bunch of paintings this year from State Road 46 near Titusville. It's a lot of open space with all kinds of non-human life for as far as you can see. This is near Hatbill Park (I think thats what they call it). No telling how many alligators there are per square foot. When I was growing up the alligator was an endangered species and was protected. Now there are so many around Lake Harney that I'm not sure its safe to swim anymore. That's a big change. I remember one day my brother Rick took a shot with my bb gun at a small one that had surfaced in front of our cabin. It was a pump bb gun, but you could pump it up pretty good. I guess he hit just right because it went down and about five minute later it surfaced right in front of our beach and walked right up on the shore and just laid there. I remember it being only about three feet long and we turned it over on its back and rubbed its belly and it went to sleep just like they show on TV. After a couple of minutes it regained its sanity and started hissing and walked back in the water. That was the last time we shot at one.

"Slice of Green" is across that marsh grass that holds all those animals. Palm trees claim any area of high ground and the grasses spread out like carpet. There are so many different colors and sometimes the sun hits an area of grass just right. It seems to glow. That's what I'm aiming for here. Dull grayed colors in the trees, grayed almost lavender sky and a slice of screaming yellow green. That's what I saw.

Thanks for looking.


Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Orange Lake Overlook


16 x 20

One of the events I participated in this year was the Evinston Paint Out. Evinston is just south of Gainesville off of Highway 441. I stayed down on Lake Weir and drove up in the morning using 441. Just south of the town of McIntosh there is spot where the road crests a hill and you get a great view of Orange Lake. This particular morning the sun was rising and the fog lifting. I had to stop and take some photos. This was done in studio right after the paint out. If I do the paint out again next year I will just set up my biggest easel right there on shoulder of 441 and paint a big one. I wonder how that would work out? Anyway the whole area is just beautiful and I had a great time painting and meeting the people. It was one of the best weeks of painting I had all year.

Thanks for looking.


Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Field Corner


20 x 16

The day after the Blue Line 100 (a bicycle century run through North Florida and South Georgia), I took a ride in my truck along the route and took some photographs of the scenery. Fog was lifting and the land was being turned for the new season. I like the colors, but it's about the light and the quiet.

Thanks for looking.