North Florida's Natural Beauty

     Recently, my friend Dee and I brought our cameras for some time exploring  my immediate neighborhood and a roadside creek view a couple miles up the road. We both appreciate the natural beauty in coastal North Florida and often share tips about places to see and photograph water birds, hawks, eagles, or other wildlife. Dee had borrowed a camera from a friend to see whether she would like that brand and that particular zoom lens for herself. I just used my usual humble camera, but we both captured some good shots. Now, I will consider which of my photos might make or be a part of a future painting.

     The egret haunts a retention pond just a few houses away from our home. The grey skies and soft winter light made for subtle scenes at the creek.

     

 Question of the day: Do you take time to look around you daily?

A Walk in the Jacksonville Arboretum

     On a warm winter day last week, my husband, Maggie the super dog, and I enjoyed a magical afternoon walk on the trails at the Jacksonville Arboretum. This delightful preserve, reclaimed from the edge of a former waste dump, has been creatively transformed into a multi-use park and education center. Husband Mark, a master gardener and member of the area Native Plant Society, participated in that transformation, along with many other tireless volunteers. They cleaned up trash, cleared and leveled trails, labeled some trees and plants, and selectively planted others--carefully adding only true native specimens (plants that would have greeted the first European visitors to Florida centuries ago). The 120 acre arboretum is notable for housing several distinct ecological zones in an accessible, walkable whole. 

     We hiked the easy lake trail and then ventured onto another trail above a ravine, where several streams flowed through the area. The experience was fun (doggie delight adds a wonderful dimension), refreshing, and renewing. Although we were within the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida, it felt like a faraway adventure into forests, scrub land, and meadows. I was particularly grateful to be able to walk for over an hour and a half--exercise that would have been difficult and painful before my recent total right hip replacement. It feels miraculous to consider further exploration and gradually greater walking distances in this amazing coastal North Florida region. And, of course, I took a number of reference photos for future paintings, so stay tuned for what that might bring.





    For more information about the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens, the web site is here. Other than that, the photos can complete the story of a wonderful day.
















Question of the day: What are some of your favorite walks or hikes near home?

Intracoastal Waterway Views Near Jacksonville, Florida

     Among our lovely wetlands and waterways here in Coastal North Florida, the Intracoastal Waterway provides a variety of views both for the boater and from the land. During an unusual warm spell last week, my friend Dee and I had a pleasant lunch to celebrate her birthday, sitting on the deck of the Ponte Vedra Beach Barbara Jean's Restaurant, situated on this waterway.


     Dee had suggested that we lunch there some nice day to enjoy the views from this waterside restaurant. A true friend, she keeps my landscape painting in mind wherever she goes and has guided me to discoveries and scenes I might not have found otherwise. 

     These photos show the bank across from us (you are looking west at the mainland from the long, narrow off-shore island on which the Jacksonville area Atlantic Ocean beaches lie). The vegetation is so thick here that it is difficult to pick out an ideal painting composition from what naturally presents itself, but every element is good background for inclusion in possible paintings. The bare cypress in the vertical photo (say hello to the osprey perched at the top) could anchor an excellent painting and provide a strong vertical and a perfect contrast to a green expanse. 

     As we ate and chatted, the tide began to run out (headed north--to our right from here) and revealed a growing beach-like area on the opposite bank that also added variety to our view. And various dead trees, stumps, and angling tree trunks serve as sculptural elements that could enrich a painting composition.

     I am grateful to Dee for showing me this area, which is markedly different from some nearby stretches of the intracoastal waterway bordered by flat, wide salt marshes (like the views in the old movie "Prince of Tides"). In other areas, thicker wooded areas include stately, centuries-old live oak trees dripping with Spanish Moss. And of course, the stretch of the intracoastal that runs straight through the heart of the city of Jacksonville, following the St. Johns River, provides boaters a completely different kind of view of tall buildings, our symphony hall and live theatre venue, along with riverside restaurants, shops, and entertainment sites.

     Just as I did the last time Dee took me on a find-some-paintings tour of some of her favorite spots, I'll let you know when any of these elements--or perhaps, a full scene--appear in a painting. 



Question of the day: Aren't observant friends, appreciative of the natural world around us, a treasure to cherish?

Painting of a Wooded Path

Here is the painting of a wooded path I showed you as a work-in-progress a couple of posts ago. Loosely based on a scene at our nearby Kingsley Plantation (which has appeared in a few previous posts and some other paintings), the piece is nearly finished. I have adjusted the light and shadow patterns on the path and have added some details in the upper right quadrant (the intended focal area). There will be a few more adjustments, but nothing that will be very noticeable in a snapshot. At least, that is my current thinking. Sometimes, I get a new insight after putting a nearly complete piece away for awhile.

However, I am wary of overworking a painting, a real temptation for a detail-oriented perfectionist like me. So, it's smart to stop before I feel that a piece is totally "there" and put it away for a time. I am much more likely to detract from a work by continuing to fiddle with it at this stage than to improve it much.

Given the sort of person I am, painting has been very good for me. Artistic pieces are never "perfect" or "correct" in the same sense that something like an algebra solution is. I am learning to enjoy the process above all and to let go of the need to keep trying to improve a painting that is "almost there". In art, there may be no "there" there--as someone said in another context. Looser work with some imperfection is often fresher, livelier, and easier for viewers to relate to. Stiff, overly fussy detailed work misses the mark in terms of communicating an artistic vision. Nature, after all, achieves its beauty in the variations, asymmetry, and yes, imperfections of living things and natural features of the landscape. So, for a representative landscape painter, letting go of perfectionism is the perfect approach.

Question of the day: What recent project or undertaking has proven to be a helpful corrective to your personal tendencies?