Clouds Moving in Over Mexico Beach

This is a painting I produced during “Florida’s Forgotten Coast Plein Air Invitational.” It was painted on site at Mexico Beach, which is in Northwest Florida. Cloudy days make for some nice opportunities to paint at the beach since there is less of the blinding glare that is prevalent on sunny days. The gray in the sky also changes the colors in the water, making them a little darker and more moody.

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Mexico Beach

I painted this piece on beautiful Mexico Beach, Florida. Mexico Beach is in Northwest Florida or what we refer to as the “Panhandle.” It’s where I usually bring my family when we want to spend a day at the beach since it moves at a much slower pace than neighboring Panama City Beach but you still get to enjoy the sugar white sands and the gentle waves from the Gulf of Mexico. I had a few onlookers at times while I worked quickly to capture the changing afternoon sun. A special “Thanks” goes to Janet Young, who stopped by to watch and shot a few photos of me painting that she later emailed to me.

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Rosa Marie

I painted this piece as a demonstration at “Florida’s Forgotten Coast Plein Air Invitational.” The location is Veteran’s Park in Apalachicola, Florida. This was the last day of our ten day event and a multitude of people showed up and watched myself and several other artists paint. This is a very popular spot in Apalachicola where you often see tourist taking pictures of the old fishing boats and I’m sure the “Rosa Marie” has been in quite a few. She has such a majestic presence contrasted by low profile existence of the sunken boat resting behind her. I'm pretty happy with the results and think I'll use this piece as reference for a larger studio painting.

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Going For A Swim

You wanna know what’s so awesome about painting on location, from life? It’s the experience. It’s observing a scene over a period of time. It’s the special things that take place during the process. It’s the way things evolve . For example, this piece was going to be mostly about the fishing boats and the subtle colors in the cloudy sky but when I looked back and saw this lady in a small boat paddling my way, I knew that was about to change. She looked so picturesque in her flowered dress, straw hat and with her dog riding at the bow. I asked where she was going and she replied, “To a small sandy shore up the way where I often take my dog to swim. I snapped a couple of photos as she passed by and added her to the painting later, creating a new meaning to the piece. You never know what you’re going to end up with when you go out painting.