Still Here

I am sorry for my absence from writing and visiting blogs for the last couple of weeks. It has been an extremely busy time--mostly in a good way.

I hope to have a more extensive new post ready for you soon, but wanted to say hello in the meantime. The photo shows a view of our beloved St. John's River, this time from the wide lawn of a Victorian home whose owners hosted one of Mark's Master Gardener events a couple of weeks ago. It is a lovely, characteristically Jacksonville, Florida view. Life is definitely too short for painting all the beauty in our area!

New Painting--Lyons Club Park Boardwalk on the St. Johns River

Join me on a spring walk in Lyons Club Park along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. This new painting is nearly finished, but rather than waiting to post it, I decided to show it to you today. The revisions I still plan to make are so minor that the differences are unlikely to be noticeable in a blog photo. The piece is a 16" X 20" acrylic painting on gallery wrapped canvas, so can be hung without a frame. The scene wraps around the painted edges.

Today, I am showing you the painting and one of the reference photos I used. Next post, I will include some close-up photos of details in the painting and more information about the painting process.

You can see that I departed from the reference photo in terms of the viewpoint, the palette (colors), and some other details. The painting's viewpoint is a bit further away at a higher point along the walk by the marshy river bank.

Among the Jacksonville area's many lovely parks and preserves, Lyons Club Park is a well-kept jewel. Birds sing along wooded trails, and fish and other water creatures are abundant. We saw a number of people fishing along the bank while others paddled up to shore in canoes and kayaks. The water currents are varied and interesting as the St. Johns River runs straight north (unusual in the Northern Hemisphere) just before it turns east to flow to the ocean. We are on the east bank of the river looking north. The Trout River flows in from the west (out of sight from this view), and both rivers rise and fall with the ocean tides. So, the water is almost always in motion--sometimes lazy and sometimes powerfully choppy. Ripples and waves can run in nearly any direction, changing throughout the day, and sometimes swirling in eddies caused by the confluence of outgoing rivers meeting an incoming tide. It's a perfect place for a refreshing and renewing walk.

Question of the Day: Does your area treasure and preserve its natural habitats and beauty?

Savoring--Completed Landscape Painting--"A Sunday Afternoon in May"

"A Sunday Afternoon in May" has proven to be a satisfying project. Last post, I showed you some aspects of the planning process, beginning with the reference photo, which is posted again here so that you can see the ways in which I have changed the original scene to create an effective composition for a landscape painting. The St. Johns River actually flows behind the bushes in the photo, but was not visible from that point of view. However, I wanted to use the point of view in the photo because of the lovely patterns the foreground shadows made--as well as the interesting verticals of the tree trunks.

Rather than go on about the painting process from last post's sketches through to completion, I will just let you join me in this delightful park-like spot on a private school campus in Jacksonville, Florida. I built the bench just for you.

Question of the day: Wouldn't it be fascinating to time-travel to scenes painted by the Old Masters and compare the actual location to their interpretation of it?

Exploring--A St. John's River Park in Jacksonville, Florida

I hope you enjoy seeing scenery in and around Jacksonville, Florida, because this post has more :>). Since both our super sons and their wonderful wives were busy on Mother's Day, Mark and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon. The weather was so spectacular, clear and pleasantly warm with a light breeze, that we decided to take a walk in a park we had seen only briefly before when we were house-hunting seven years ago. The Lyons Club Park (that's the way the map spells it), lies on the western edge of a point of land along the St. John's River just before this north-flowing river makes its last winding turn east to empty into the Atlantic Ocean several miles from the park. After a delightful walk, we took a peek at a second lovely park, a preserve area just across the main road on the north edge of the point. Always on the lookout for "paintable" scenes, I took some photos as we walked in Lyons Club Park. One shows typical vegetation along one of the well-kept paths. Another looks back at the way we had come, a park boardwalk along the marshy river bank. The third shows the industrial port views across the river at this point, an interesting contrast to the parks and preserves that line some of the river bank, the lucky riverfront homes, and to the city skyscrapers and urban river walk downtown. We continue to be grateful that we chose Jacksonville for our home in this semi-retirement phase of life (and beyond, we hope). The variety of wetlands, wooded areas, beaches, and extensive preserve lands--the varied habitats and ecosystems are amazing. What a super home for a landscape and seascape painter! Exploring and discovering new areas of natural beauty are an important part of creative living for us.

Question of the day: What are the best natural features of your area?

Growing--Visiting a Quaker Meeting and a Peaceful Campus

Sunday, I decided to attend a local Quaker First Day meeting, something I have been wanting to do for awhile. This is the week I gave my shy self a push to "just do it". The members were welcoming and kind, making sure I felt comfortable among them. The experience of quiet reflection and prayer, with a few thoughts offered by participants, was meaningful and lovely. I felt renewed and refreshed.

The group meets in the library of a local private school with a truly beautiful campus. I had brought a camera in case I wanted to go hunting for painting subjects after the meeting and was glad I had. A calm stroll all by myself continued the meditative gratitude and peace I felt after worship. Behind a small building labeled "Latin", a feeder stream to the St. Johns River flowed by. The bright sunshine on spring-green leaves, the chorus of bird-song, the tree shadows on the grass, the caress of a warm breeze--the entire morning was a gift.

Question of the day: What recent experience has refreshed your spirit?

Savoring--Contrasts in Jacksonville Harbor, Nature & Commerce

Following up on the previous post, I have two more photos to show you from our dinner cruise on Jacksonville's beautiful, wide St. John's River. At one point, three dolphins greeted us, playing all around the boat as we enjoyed their company. I wish I had a better picture of them. Although I did my best to capture an image, snapping away as they circled and leapt, many of my photos are of ripples where there had been dolphins a second before. Oh well, with or without boast-worthy pictures, I will not forget the experience. We were awed and privileged to be near these sleek, intelligent animals. They seemed to be riding the rising tide of the salt water sweeping into the river, a twice-daily flow that enriches the variety of marine life we see in the river. Even where we dock our sailboat, about 14 miles from the mouth of this mighty river, the water is brackish enough to support many salt water creatures from small crabs to those gentle giant sea mammals, manatees.

The other photo is a contrast to the rich marine life in the river and shows a ship in port--just one glimpse of the heavy shipping Jacksonville's active port supports. The graceful bridge in the background is called the Dames Point Bridge--one of our favorites among the many river crossings. Reviewing my photos from that evening, I realized again how much I enjoy living in this area. I love the varied natural habitats and extensive nature preserves in our forests, meadows, salt marshes, and ocean coastal areas. However, I am also a city kid through and through. Growing up just north of industrial Muskegon, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan, I loved to watch the activity at the commercial docks. Once the St. Lawrence Seaway opened the lake to international shipping, the loading and unloading of ships, the transfer of goods to trucks and trains, and other dockside activities increased exponentially. Yet, there too, we were near gorgeous natural habitats and preserves and enjoyed the best of both worlds, in my view.

Question of the day: No particular question comes to mind--just the thought that we are very fortunate in our home area and all the places we have lived. I hope you find beauty and fascination all around, as well.

Exploring--A New Perspective on Our City, Jacksonville, FL

These views of Jacksonville, FL, are taken from a boat on our mighty St. Johns River. I think our city looks amazing from many angles, and particularly enjoyed seeing it from the deck of a power yacht this past week. One of our friends, William Gardner, had made the winning bid at a charity auction for a dinner cruise for 25 people aboard the yacht belonging to one of our local business owners. The experience felt quite "upper crusty", well out of our usual league, with a bartender, and a caterer who produced astonishingly elegant food in the small, but well-equipped galley . However, we were among wonderful people--some of them friends and some of them fascinating new acquaintances to enjoy conversing with. The whole experience seemed quite magical and refreshed me for the rest of the week.

In a way, seeing the city from a fresh perspective feels like a metaphor (loosely speaking) for what I need as a blog writer. I am feeling the need for a new point of view lately and am trying to take a mental "cruise on the river" to see if I can find a fresh approach to the blog. It's not a matter of being unhappy with the kinds of posts I have been writing, just a matter of needing a boost to keep my own interest in it alive. On Wednesday, the blog was one year old, and the anniversary is making me reflective, it seems. Lately, I have posted less often--sometimes because of other commitments, but sometimes simply because I had trouble deciding on a post topic or getting motivated to write. I try for general interest entries on the overall theme of creative living, but find myself rejecting ideas that seem too ordinary. Yet, there have been times when an entry that seemed a bit dull to me struck a chord with some of you. Your creative comments and insights revealed deeper levels of meaning that had not occurred to me.

So, maybe the new direction I need is to be less perfectionistic and more conversational with posts. I know I need to post more frequently to keep readers interested. No promises though--I've aimed to start a better post schedule several times in the last few months and then failed to come through for you. However, my original goal of posting at least every five days or so is a good one and should be achievable. That would make for at least six posts per month--I would like to get back to that. Do any of the rest of you who blog have trouble staying with it at times?

Question of the day: Do you have suggestions for me regarding blog topics you have liked or ways to stay on a blogging schedule?

Exploring--A Pocket Park in Jacksonville, Part II

As I considered the previous post, it struck me that although I made a point of finding a park along the St. Johns River, most of my photos were of other subjects. Here are a couple of views of Jacksonville's mighty river looking west from this pocket park. The third photo shows a live oak tree with personality and character to spare. Even though the day was overcast, the unique winter charm of our city shines through.

Question of the day: What is uniquely captivating where you are this winter?

Exploring--A Pocket Park in Jacksonville--Hunting for Painting Subjects

Yesterday, Maggie The Wonder Dog, and I took advantage of an hour of free time to go hunting for landscape painting subjects. I pulled out my trusty Jacksonville map and looked for green patches--trying to find a park we had not yet explored. The goal was not to find a grand, well-landscaped, or popular park, but rather to discover one of our wonderful city's numerous "pocket parks". All over Jacksonville, FL, small patches of preserved land hold onto nature's charm, whether they boast ancient live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, salt marsh wetlands, or one of our countless lazy creeks, reflecting images of cypress or palm trees in murky water.

River Oaks Park shows as a curved sliver of green on the map, not far from our home on Jacksonville's south side, set along a dirty, neglected creek where it empties into the mighty St. John's River. Grand homes claim most of the land area along and near the prized riverfront, but this one small stretch of scrubby wild land has been saved from development. Perhaps it remains partly because it is anything but premium building land, with lots of squishy low spots along a muddy creek.

Since we were alone in the park, Maggie could be off leash and was in doggie heaven, tearing around on the large grassy area, sniffing interesting smelly, dank low spots, and cocking her head to discern individuals in the symphony of bird songs and calls. Although there was heavy overcast, the light was a bit too intense for ideal photography but I couldn't resist snapping away. The park is no garden spot, but is instead exactly the sort of unlikely place I discover interesting painting subjects. There were several old live oak trees on the drier grassy stretch, while the skeletons of dead cypress and many fallen trees and branches created tangled sculptures on the creek banks. Dark, still water perfectly reflected each scene in the clear light of an overcast winter day.

Can't say yet what I might paint from this outing, if anything. Even so, recalling the park's sights, sounds, and smells provides painting inspiration and these sensations will sink into my subconscious to percolate and bubble up in unexpected creative insights sometime in the future. I look forward to returning to this quirky little park some sunny late afternoon for a different perspective on the scene. Although the light was bright yesterday, the pervasive overcast created no shadows at all, and I missed them. The character-filled trees I photographed seemed to be lacking something without long shadows to attest to their dignity.

Question of the day: What unexpected source provides creative inspiration for you?