3rd Time's the Charm

Here's a spot is Pensacola that I've known about since I moved here ten years ago. My dad showed it to me when I was looking for places to paint in my new home. Jo Patti's is a family owned seafood market on the water that fishing boats with their fresh catch pull up to daily. Anyone one else would have seen the possibilities immediately. Open air and water, blue herons perched on pilings, and picturesque shrimp boats. But I ignored it until recently. Maybe it was some kind of cosmic payback for my initial lack of appreciation, that instead of finishing this painting in one go, I had to return three times to complete it.
On the first trip out, I couldn't find the Plein Air Painters of Pensacola who I was painting with that day. When I finally found them, I'd lost a good part of the morning and the Florida heat had become intense. I was barely able to get more than a loose sketch.

On the second painting day, the weather had completely changed and a boat was partially obscuring my subject. I went ahead anyway but when I got home I saw that the painting had become dark and murky and the boat was too large. I scraped it down.

I was determined to make something of my efforts, so, I went out a third time. Finally success! It still needs a bit of cleaning up on the building on the right, but it's basically done and will be in the Annual Show of the Plein Air Painters of Pensacola opening on September 6 at the Wright Place Gallery in Pensacola. Please stop by for the opening reception from 5 until 7 oçlock. 

A Season of Renewal

Soon I'll be returning home after a year's absence. In this past year of  visiting home only infrequently, I've come to realize that I truly do like my Florida life. I'm excited to be getting back to painting and to the teaching I had put aside.

Little Sabine Bay - oil on canvas - 18x28

This painting, Little Sabine Bay, represents an earlier new start in my life that is also centered around Florida. It was the first painting I did in Pensacola, where I moved ten years ago after the loss of my life companion and painting partner. We had painted together for years often working on the same canvas. After his passing, I knew he didn't want me to stop painting, but I just couldn't pick my brushes up. Finally, a year later, I was ready. I felt like he was painting right through me as I worked. Effects appeared under my brush that I couldn't have produced for trying. Little Sabine Bay was both the first painting I did in Pensacola and the first painting I did with the  Plein Air Painters of Pensacola. I've never wanted to sell it.
Now I'm about to embark on a fresh start again with a renewed appreciation for my home and life and for this art life I've been gifted with.