Painting in Florida

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Last weekend I took the yearly family trip to my uncle's cabin. I've been making this trip with my brothers and step-dad for about 20 years! Each trip is a nice little peek into how I've changed over the past year.

When I was about 19 or so I first brought drawing materials to the cabin. I tried drawing one of the many purple flowers around this part of Florida in spring. Lately I've been focused on painting with gouache and watercolors. I didn't have any room for gouache, so I used my travel watercolor set I usually take everywhere with me. 


The first was pretty tough because of all the greens and the overcast clouds. It can be hard to really give the landscape shape on days like that. On the bright side, I really liked the depth of the shadows I ended up getting. 


So for the second one I picked a simpler composition of a nice group of palms and trees. It's tempting to try to put everything I see in a picture, but it usually turns out better when I simplify and interpret.

Here's a nice little bonus of my nephew painting with my watercolors. This had to be one of my favorite parts of the trip! I loved seeing him become more interested in art. He told me he wanted to make "more than scribbles" now. Also that he was going to be an artist, scientist, and pig rider.




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