My First Florida On Location Painting!

An artist friend of mine….well known Plein Air painter, Bill Farnsworth started painting the Florida landscape on location about fifteen years ago.  We rented a couple of canoes at well known place in Venice called, Snook Haven on several occasions.  We spent the day paddling upstream and downstream on the Myakka River looking for places to pull up and paint.  We would pull up at a clearing on the river and haul our canoes up on land, and proceed looking for the spot.  We didn’t have to walk far from the river to find something worth painting.

These trips were fun and absolutely valuable learning experiences for me…and I’m sure for Bill.  The wild untouched terrain on the Myakka, along with the alligators that surpassed our canoes in girth made for interesting and fun days J stroking up current and drifting down stream. 

We subsequently had a two man show based on the works we produced.  Over the years I only have one of those paintings remaining.  It is the very first on location painting I executed in Florida.  I don’t know why I kept it in my purgatory pile for so long…..in hind site, even though it isn’t a great painting or the best painting I have painted, it has a sentimental and benchmark value to me.  I think I will keep it a while longer….unless I get an offer I can’t refuse….just saying.

Thanks for listening to my Cajun ramblings!

Hodges Soileau OPA