Climbing Mount Dora

Did I say 'climbing'?! No, that's just silly. There are no mountains in Florida. Although the land does gently undulate in Lake County  where the charming little town of Mount Dora is located. What I meant to say was 'painting' Mount Dora.

For the past week I've had the pleasure of participating in the Mount Dora Paint Out. Driving back and forth was exhausting, but the time I had painting more than made up for it.




Day 1. I decided to paint Donnelly Street which is the main street in town. You can see from the photo that is was a beautiful day. Here is my finished painting.

"Donnelly Street" - 8"x 10" - oil - $280

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Day 2. Unfortunately it poured rain all day. The good news is that I snagged a spot in the parking garage where I had a great view of the train. So I was able to stay mostly dry. I don't know why everyone didn't do that.

The Cannonball Caboose - 11"x 14" - oil - $462

I'll do a separate post for my 'Got a minute' progress video of the Cannonball Caboose.

Day 3. The sun came back for another gorgeous day and I set up my easel by Lake Dora. The cypress trees make the water appear tea colored.

"Lake Dora Boat Slip' - 8"x 10" - oil - $280

Here is a shot of the hawk that kept an eye on us painting all morning. 

                                         

Day 4. I returned to the lake but a different area. There were a couple of swan boats on the beach that I didn't paint. I did use them in the title though.

Lake Dora Swan Depot - 11"x 14" - oil - $462

 

Tomorrow is the show opening at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. I can hardly wait to see the works that my fellow artists painted during the week.

I'm learning so much by painting on location. There is still sooooooooooo much to learn! 

Please leave a comment or question below.

A Day at the Beach

Who doesn't love to go to the beach? The crashing waves, warm sunshine, salt air... It's great. I love to go and put my toes in the water, watch the shore birds, pick up shells and breath deeply of the fresh salt air.  It gives me a feeling of well being and contentment that I can get in few other places.

Painting the beach is a whole other ball game. Some artists manage to paint beautiful beach scenes with warm clouds and waves that feel wet. They make me feel the sunshine and smell the air. I've never been one of them. As a composition the beach seems a bit boring to me. So when I arrived at New Smyrna beach I decided to try to come up with a composition that would interest me and hopefully others.

I concentrated on the sea oats blowing in the breeze. This is the view I chose. As you can see it was a beautiful day.

Take a look at my (less than) one minute video of my plein air experience painting the beach.

Finished. -------------- I think. :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always interested in learning from you.