Every Sunday afternoon several artist friends get together here in historic St. Augustine, Florida for a couple hours of plein air painting.

Here we visited The Mission of Nombre de Dios which traces its origins to the founding of America’s oldest city, in 1565. On September 8, 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed and proclaimed this site for Spain and the Church. It was on these grounds that Fr. Lopez would celebrate the first parish Mass and begin the work at America’s first Mission. The statue I painted is St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the ecology.

I used acrylics on this 8×10″ board and my palette consisted of 4 colors. Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Indian Yellow, and Cad Yellow Light and of course white. The photo below shows the painting partially blocked in. The values were all close so I would have to rely on the nice highlights that rimmed around the back of the figure to bring it to life. The hedge in the foreground was a cool green in reality but I warmed it from what it actually was because I wanted to bring it forward so it would not recede into the background where it might get lost among the other greenery.

The painting was finished by adding more negative areas in the trees and adding the lake in the background which gave it a nice touch of additional color from the otherwise warm late afternoon glow.

This vintage Airstream was painted for our PBS television series “Painting and Travel”. It was done in Tampa, Florida at Bates RV where they have an “Airstream Corral” of similar Airstreams. The challenge of this painting was to deal with all the reflections.

This painting was done on location one Sunday morning in St. Augustine, Florida just outside the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth. It’s a beautiful street covered by old oak trees. The wall on the left is made of rugged oyster shells bound together with an old formula of lime and other ingredients.

This small painting was done on location just a few blocks from my studio here in St. Augustine, Florida. The dock leads out into Salt Run, an inlet where many sailboats are moored.

Painted in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. This barn may have once been used to dry small amounts of tobacco. I think this because of the widely spaced slats of boards on the middle part of the barn. The outer spaces are used for storage of farm equipment. The farmhouse in the background has a bit of smoke curling from its chimney and the overall look of the painting says fall and winter is coming on.

I saw this farm in England many years ago and have finally gotten around to painting it. I loved the way the light was playing on the road, grass, and buildings. It has a very warm overall tone.

A solitary American Egret stands among the grasses in the marsh. The dock in the background gives the painting a bit of a human element.

This little tug pushes a barge around the inlet where we live when they are dredging out the harbor to make it a bit deeper. It was a very cloudy morning and about to rain which made the scene very grey looking but I liked the mood it conveyed.

Carrabelle Florida is on the Gulf coast at the panhandle. The population is about 1200. We filmed two PBS television shows in this town. The other one was of a marsh scene. The painting was done in the very early morning hours. We set up our camera gear at dawn but that takes about an hour sometimes. We tried to get there before there was much ambient noise which is always a problem when filming. This is the Carrabelle River that leads out to the Gulf of Mexico and Dog Island.

Carrabelle Florida is on the Gulf coast at the panhandle. The population is about 1200. We filmed two PBS television shows in this town. The other one was of a marsh scene. The painting was done in the very early morning hours. We set up our camera gear at dawn but that takes about an hour sometimes. We tried to get there before there was much ambient noise which is always a problem when filming. This is the Carrabelle River that leads out to the Gulf of Mexico and Dog Island.