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Garden flowers

We have beautiful roses blooming in our garden right now and I decided to paint them. This is the result on a 16x20 canvas. As you can see I didn't stop with the roses, somehow other flowers found their way onto the canvas too. It might have been the sunshine, the 70's music playing in the background or the garden itself, but this is the end result. I like it.

                            

Like all the paintings on my blog this one is for sale.

A Thatched cottage and flowers

I just love the thatched cottages in England. This was from a photo reference and the roofing with the thatching was very different as it came over the doorway. What a lovely touch. While visiting England I particularly noticed that some rooves showed  the thatchers unique signature with a design, along the peak of the roof, done in the thatch. The homes  look so homey and comfortable and are a pleasure to paint.

                          

As usual this oil painting on a 16x20 canvas, is for sale. I can be reached at hazels pleinair@gmail.com

Birch Trees

                                         

The weather here has been gloomy with clouds, intermittent showers, and very little sunshine. We have finally had a chance to buy our bedding plants, to fill out our perennial beds, but the ground and lawn are too wet to work in. We have had this weather for what seems like weeks now. But our glum outlook is nothing compared to those that are working every day to fill sand bags and protect their property from the rising waters of Lake Ontario. The Lake is higher than anyone has ever seen it, and the experts are saying it will not reach its maximum height until the middle of June. The people faced with these flooding challenges are not worried about planting their bedding plants, just saving their properties. When you see what challenges others have, it puts your own challenges into perspective.

Because of all of this, painting outside has not been possible. My latest attempt was painted using a photo reference and is on an 11x14 board.

An English Town

I downloaded this photo from the internet because it is so typical of a small English village. There seems to always be a river or canal with a lovely stone or brick bridge and a small street with the houses crowded closely together and bordering right on the street or sidewalk. Most of the homes are constructed of the same brick or stone and appear comfy and well-loved. I don't really know if the reality of living in one is different. The whole composition makes a lovely photo to paint on an 11x14 board.

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Like all the paintings on my blog, this one is for sale.

                            

A Beautiful Street

Someone sent me a photo of this street, somewhere in Italy, I think. One look at the photo with those beautiful flowers, tended with loving care, and I knew I had to paint it. I knew it would be challenging and I knew I could not grasp all the beautiful colours, but maybe I could convey some of the care and love that had been taken and still was taken, everyday, to keep these pots of flowers looking so lovely. I thought of the number of mornings, when people just did not have the energy, but got up anyway to water the flowers. On the second floor, who carried up the soil, to put in the window box, and who carried all those plants up the stairs, to plant in the boxes. The people who live on this street, love where they live and take pride in their homes. It shows just in the simple fact that someone must sweep their colorful street everyday because there are no petals or leaves on the pavement from all the pots above. I hope I captured some of that for you.

                    

 This oil painting is on an 11x14 board and of course, is for sale.

Our Saucer Magnolia

A few years ago we planted a Saucer Magnolia in our backyard. Finally, this year, it has bloomed in all its glory. The first year it was in, all the buds fell off. The second year, the buds and some small flowers, drooped then fell off. My husband, who has green thumbs and green fingers, decided maybe it was too dry. After it was given a very long drink with the hose, the tree perked up and the blooms looked healthier, but it was a little late in the season then, and the tree did bloom but nothing really outstanding. This year, the tree is bigger, the buds were numerous and healthy in the fall, and this spring they have bloomed. What a glorious specimen. When I wake up in the morning, I can see the blooms and they appear to glow, especially when the sun reaches the flowers. I attempted to capture some of this in my painting. I have included a photo of the tree also but it is a cloudy rainy day today and the photos certainly will not show the glow that the tree has in the sunshine. This was painted on a 12x24 canvas.

       

                   

This painting is for sale for $175 and if you are interested in this one, or any of my paintings, I can be reached at  hazelspleinair@gmail.com

Edison's Office and Midnight Garden

A few years ago, I painted in Edison's Midnight Garden and enjoyed every moment. This year, when we painted at Edison's Estate in Ft. Myers, I felt myself again drawn to his wife's Midnight Garden behind his office/laboratory . It is a very quiet corner of the Estate, where the thousands of tourists, who visit everyday, by the bus load, tend not to explore. They are busy exploring the swimming pool that Edison erected, beside this small laboratory. When Edison was in his eighties, his wife had this small building erected where he could work if he did not want to face the quite lengthy walk to the main house. There was a couch here, where he could rest and a small lab that could double as an office. After working in the lab, most of the day, he and his wife, could relax together in the Midnight Garden. Most of the flowering bushes and bedding plants were white and the reflecting pool reflected all the candles that would have been  lit around the garden for them to enjoy. What a peaceful scene, that I hoped to capture in  my oil painting.

                            $175

I can be reached at  hazelspleinair@gmail.com if you interested in any of my paintings.

Back Bay

Since Fort Myers Beach is a narrow island that stretches down the Gulf coast of Florida, there are two bridges to get on or off the island. This morning one of those bridges is closed, to vehicles, for the Shrmp Parade.

This is the height of the "season" in Florida. This means that in this month there are the most tourists here. This includes snow birds, like us, college and university students on March break, and any other visitors. As a result the FMB town council puts on the Shrimp Festival, complete with a parade. This creates a traffic back up that is unbelievable. The cars, bumper to bumper stretch for miles. No one is moving for the whole morning. BUT the Shrimp Festival is worth it, with the wonderful small town parade, an arts and craft market and plenty of Gulf shrimp. These shrimp are world famous and definitely worth the effort to get here, in spite of the traffic. Walking is the best means of transportation, esp. during the Shrimp Festival!

But, back to the bridges. The northern bridge is very long and high so that the shrimp boats and many yachts who use back bay as an anchorage, can get in and out. There is a very large yacht basin under the bridge and south into back bay. It must hold hundreds of yachts, all tied up to buoys, with a dingy moored to the yacht. The people live on board for the winter and use the dingy to go back and forth to the many dingy docks when they need to come ashore. Sailing, needless to say, is another great way to come to the Shrimp Featival. When we were painting out this Wed., we were on back bay. We painted at an artists home which is situated on the shore in Ft. MYers Beach. I had a view of Bird Island in back bay with a yacht tied up close by. This painting on11x14 board is the result.

                            

Miracle

My friend sent me a wonderful photo of a child, dressed for the rain, on a pathway. The moment the child reached down to touch or pet the duck, the photographer snapped this photo. I thought it was lovely and as I painted it, I appreciated the skill used to get the photo. The background and forefront are hazy so that the child and ducks, stand out. They do this because they are the only items in focus. I like this focal point and tried to get the same in my painting. Hope you like it too.

                              

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This oil painting was done on a 16x20 canvas and it, and all the work on my blog, are for sale.

A Hint of THE Estate

While we were painting at Gulf Harbour one day, everyone was commenting on the very large estate on the point of land that sheltered the yacht basin. It was a rambling house with many add-ons and beautiful grounds. A rustic foot bridge connected to the island where some of us were painting. The chain link fence and sturdy lock discouraged anyone who wanted to explore further. We found out later that this was the estate where George W. Bush comes when he wants to visit Florida. We were so close!! I had taken a photo of the large porch on one end of this estate, because I liked the three palm trees and the foot bridge. At home yesterday, I was looking for a photo to paint and remembered this one. Here is the finished oil painting, of a porch, three Palm trees and a foot bridge where G.W. Bush stays. Oh the excitement of being so close!!!

                          $175

All the paintings on my blog are for sale, and I can be reached at hazelspleinair@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing any.

La Casita Mexicali

On Wednesday we were meeting at a purple restaurant in K Mart plaza. What an enticing description of where we would be for four hours painting! At 9:00, about eight of us brave artists met in the designated spot. Yes it was a wide open parking lot, with a stiff breeze whipping through it. The hardiest sort, got out of their cars, set up their easels and painted there. They had full sun, no shade and their backs to the strengthening breeze. The rest of the reluctant group walked around the purple building looking for the best angle BUT our first priority was shade. There was a cluster of thick trees behind the restaurant with a wonderful view of four large dumpsters, air conditioning equipment on the roof and the Stars and Stripes forever. We moved on. The only other spot was under palms, with a more interesting view of the purple wall, air conditioning equipment on the roof and an interesting patio, on the front and side of the building. We set up. We had started into our masterpieces when the breeze turned into a gale. Millly beside me said that when the flag blew straight out like that, the wind was 35 mph.I believed it. I put a clamp on my board to hold it in place, and pushed the whole easel harder down into the sand. We had been working for about an hour when we both realized how busy the intersection was, where we were standing. Every truck, jacked up on four or more wheels, gunned their engines as soon as they got a green light. They either had very loud Diesel engines or those kinds of mufflers that make you cover your ears. Then the motorbikes. They love to rev up as they got a green. And to top it off, an ambulance with sirens blaring, since he was going through the intersection at full speed went by. He was followed by a fire engine, also with sirens going. I don't know why but every ambulance here is followed by at least one other emergency vehicle. We usually see two or three emergency vehicles travelling together, not sure why. 

Being the hardy artists that we were, we painted on. At 11:30, most of us had completed our work for the morning and were thinking about lunch. AFter a hasty critique, during which we all were surprised by the quality of our endeavors, we headed to the restaurant for a well earned lunch. This purple building, was a Mexican restaurant, and the food was incredible and there was a lot of it. It only took us about 45 min. To get service, about 20 min. To eat and about 45 min. To try to get our bills. We left at 2:00, with a good story to write about.

                          $175

Like all these posts my paintings are for sale and I can be reached at hazelspleinair.blogspot.com

Mangroves on the Calloosihatchi River

On Wednesday we painted at Gulf Harbour gated community on the Calloosihatchi R. When we had been approved by security, we drove to the yacht basin, where there were boats of all shape and sizes. There was no discrimination between huge and luxurious and small. It was interesting to see very big yachts side by side with a small day fishing boat. What a contrast. The homes were the same with estates nearby to apartments and garden homes. We walked along the docking to a pedestrian bridge over to an island which protected the yacht basin from the waves of the river. On the river side of the island the sandy beaches were hemmed in by the mangroves, with their interesting shapes. This is what I decided to paint. I set up quickly, since I travel light, and got started.

I enjoyed painting the mangroves with their interesting shape. You can see from the finished painting that some of the roots of the mangroves come down from the branches and usually reach the sand. They take hold and grow roots to anchor themselves. Also, if you look at the sand near the hanging vines you will see there are also black sticks growing up out of the sand; these are new mangrove bushes. I am certain that the mangroves will survive with these two methods to propagate. As well, the mangroves are protected in Florida because as they grow and spread they create new shoreline and as they thicken and mature, this is where the manatee raise their young. The shrimp also use these mangrove roots to rear their  young. 

                          For sale $175

All the paintings on my blog are for sale. The larger ones that are 16x20 are $250 and the smaller ones, like this one, are $175. If you are interested please contact me at hazelpleinair@gmail.com

Flamingos

A friend of mine in FMB asked me to do a painting of two or three flamingos. It was fun to do a painting where the finished result had to look much like the photo. As the work progressed, I realized that I am becoming less and less of a photo realist artist. I enjoy being creative and changing the photo to what looks best and what I want to express. What a slow gradual journey it has been. Even during Neill Wallings course, he wanted the finished painting to look much like the photo. The exercise made me look more closely at the photo and then  I realized what I had overlooked, the subtle value changes and changes in depth of colours. It's these small changes that are important to the over all effect that I want to create in the painting. The result of this thinking is that in future I am going to look more closely at the scene and use these changes to achieve a better painting, the way I want it to be, not like in the photo. So here is the finished painting, much like the photo, but with my own personal touches.

                                        Sold

Oil painting course

During the last week, I was fortunate enough to attend Neill Walling's three day course at Ft, Myers Beach Art Association. He started the first morning with a two hour demo using a photo reference. The young  mangrove was the focal point for the painting and as you can see the result was spectacular.

             For the rest of the day we painted and he wandered around helping each of us with individual advice and hands on help.

                                     This is my effort for the rest of the day. 

The next morning he again started with a demo.

 This was accomplished in about an hour, and it was very interesting to watch Neill create this with his own unique style. What follows is my painting for the rest of the day.

 On the last day Neill showed us how  he creates an abstract. He always starts with a vision, an idea that he is working towards and which he keeps in mind throughout. This started as a sunset.

  

 The finished abstract. Of course I had to try it too and for a first abstract, I must admit I am pleased with the result. My vision to start with was a city scape.

A Better Patio under a Banyon

After looking at the latest addition to my blog, I was disappointed and realized it was not finished. I spent more time on the painting and I think it looks much better now. 

        

                         

A Patio under a Banyion

Today we painted at Edison Estates in Fort Myers. Edison and Ford, with their wives, lived in this building complex on the shores of the Caloosahatchee River. Edison's wife enjoyed gardening and many of the gardens and trees in the estate were planted for her pleasure. Behind Edison's laboratory a white garden with a reflecting pool in the middle was created. This was put in to be enjoyed at night when the bushes and flowers would be able to be seen and reflected in the pond. Hence the "white"

garden. There are trees here from all over the world and most bore fruit. But of course my favourite is the walking tree, or as I found out today, the Banyon Tree. As you can see from the painting there was a patio built under one of these trees and unlike last week, I was able to put the trunk of the tree in the painting.

As expected there were bus loads of tourists pulling in all day and the estate was busy. Most of the tour guides are volunteers and after listening to their talks all morning, I can honestly say they do a wonderful job.

                          

Old Florida

We were painting in the Old River Distrist of Fort Myers last Wed..Of course the weather was perfect, comfortable to paint and a nice breeze. Patti and I got lost getting to our paint out location so this gave  a certain anxiety to the day, since I like to be early and check sites out before everyone else comes. Pattys neighbour said to stay on a certain street and we did, regardless of what Patti's garmin was telling us, which meant we had a lot of trouble finding the butterfly greenhouse and Z Crepes. Finally, garmin told us to go around the corner, we did, and there it was. At last. I was hoping for butterflies and there were plenty, but they were inside, of course, and I wanted to paint out. The Z Crepes restaurant was part of the greenhouse complex which was  lovely; many umbrellas, white picket fences and footpaths. I didn't want to tackle perspective again this week, so I went for a walk. It was down a block that I found the old Florida homes. These homes were surrounded by huge old deciduous trees. MAny of them were the kind of trees that sent down their roots from their branches in long trailing streams. They reach for the ground and others follow. This is how they grow new roots and they are aptly called " walking trees" because as they put down these roots, those stems grow thick and strong and become trunks and roots, in the ground, and a new tree then grows. Then that tree puts down roots from its branches and so on. It walks.

In my painting I did not include those big trees but I did paint the long strands coming down from the original tree. You can see how they reach for the ground to be a new tree. In Maui, we saw a tree like this which had put down many strands and grown and " walked" for a whole city block. A craft market, a large one, was sheltered under its branches. 

The house I painted was sheltered under its branches and the sunlight only touched the corners and edges of the roof. You can see how sheltered and shaded the whole house and grounds are. Residents need this in the Floida summers. They also need heat for the cool nights and somehow the chimney was forgotten in the painting.

                This was painted on an11x14 board.

Interesting ideas

After I posted my last blog I decided that the painting needed some adjustments. It is amazing how a photo of a painting shows up errors that were not noticed before. There are a few subtle changes. Can you find them?

                        

When I was painting on location, there was an artist behind me who was working on the same cottages and she was using a lot of solvent with her oils. It was different and she was having some frustrations getting the effects she wanted. I thought  it looked like an interesting technique....so I tried it. The oil painting below is done with a lot of solvent and so the drips create an interesting water effect. I then added more paint, when it had dried. I think I might add even more paint on the next attempt of a different scene. I'm not sure. What do you think?

                         

Behind Shipwreck Motel

This morning we were very fortunate to be at the Shipwreck Motel, well not real at the  front, but at the back. There were some well shaded docks at the rear of the motel and it was here that the canal came to a dead end and the canal widened out to become a lagoon. This area is a well kept secret but someone in the art assoc. had found out about the lovely views and the motel let us paint on their docks. There were quite a few homes backing onto the canal complete with docks and decks and umbrellas. That is where we painted. I chose these two homes, raised on stilts because of the flooding during hurricanes. I liked the Florida colours of the homes but also the stillness of the lagoon.

When I returned to my car, after lunch, I was not too happy to find a parking ticket on my windshield.  I was not a happy camper as I drove home but my successful painting and the ticket made the day memorable,  at least.

                      For sale. $175

All of the oil paintings on my blog are for sale and I can be reached at 

hazelspleinair@gmail.com

Babe

One of the interesting facts about Fort Myers Beach is that they are the home of the shrimp fleet that works the Gulf of Mexico. The group of plein artists from the FMB Art association, paint out every Wednesday and last week we were at the shrimp boats docks. After wandering around and snapping photos, most of us settled on the view of Babe, at the wharf. The main reason for all of us painting the same thing was that we could be in total shade all morning. I wish now I had taken photos of all of the paintings of the same thing; they were so creatively different. The shrimpers who work on the boats wandered around us and felt free to offer advise, one even asked to have his portrait done. I wish I had been fast enough to get my camera out, because like most of the shrimpers he was a real personality with his saucy attitude, very wrinkled black face and rubber boots. Most wear these boots in and off the boats. I think because there is much water around on the boats from their melting ice below decks ( to keep the shrimp fresh). They are all very friendly and love to chat but one boss man who wandering around while we were chatting spoke up and said, "You're costing me money while you chat here"; Needless to say they left.

Babe  had her hull completely redone last season and this winter she got a new wheelhouse. I took artistic lisence when I put the rust on her hull and my apologies to the owner but she needed more red sienna.

                   

I have included a few photos that show more of the fleet, at the docks.