Painting Florida greens is a true challenge for beginning painters. Florida has every green imaginable. In Spring and Summer they can be overwhelming. The biggest mistake I see for painters is an attempt to match the saturation painters see in the landscape on their canvas. Over saturation is a huge problem. 

What you see in the landscape rarely translates well to a painting.  On canvas, these over saturated green look fake and ill conceived. Intensity is pleasing in small doses, but overdone not good. If you want color to stand out, subdue the area around it. Pouring more color on doesn’t work well.

My example is the posted painting. I had been looking at this magnificent Flame tree for long years. I noticed that many of the painters who love this subject handled their painting with high saturation of not only the tree, but of all the greens and landscape surrounding the tree. I did not care for that approach. To me the painting screamed to me as the viewer. 

I was keenly aware of this when I decided to do this painting. I purposefully subdued the greens and Palms around the flame tree so the tree would be the star. Nothing should compete with a tree like this. It is truly the ⭐️. Everything else is simply a support for it. It turned out to be one of my favorite paintings. I still have it. These trees don’t grow where I live, and many people are not familiar with it.

One easy way to subdue greens is by adding a tad of cadmium orange or red to the mixture.

Country painters love painting greens.... 

Someone asked me the other day about how I became an artist. I started my long career at about eight years old. I have always been an upland naturalist. I loved nature as a young child and spent much of my time out in the yard. I loved the birds, trees and animals of the wild. Art was a natural partner for that interest. All little girls love horses and dogs, so I started a horse club with the neighborhood kids. I had a swell collection of model horses and books about horses.

We drew and painted horses with pencil and watercolor paints. My parents had a closed on porch where we met once a week to hold our class. Eventually I turned it into my first small business by charging a quarter for the class.

I've always been an entrepreneur at heart and went on to have several small businesses by the time I was in high school. I was a neighborhood banker, art teacher and sold snacks out of my bedroom closet to the other kids.

Much to the dismay of my Daddy, I went to art college instead of law school. He always believed I would outgrow my passion for art and become more sensible, but it was not to be. I had lots of other jobs along the way to art success, and I never gave up. I knew this life was right for me.

Life is swell for country painters......

Own your work. I often hear artists asking when they will find their style? I don’t think we find our style. Style finds us. After hundreds of paintings, hundreds of studies, hundreds of hours at the design table, suddenly we have our own style. The individual fingerprint that identifies us and our work.

There are no shortcuts. I’ve painted for 64 years. I was 50 before I had a clue about the process of painting and I am still a student of the craft. Yes, I consider painting to be a fine craft indeed. I also consider myself to be a painter. I leave the title of “Artist” to those of loftier persuasions. 

Style is quite flexible, wandering around from idea to idea but we carry along our fingerprint on the journey. People tell me they would recognize my work anywhere without a signature. That is what style means in art terms. Whatever the subject, palette, brush or knife, style emerges from a mature painter who has worked hard. 

In this age of instant gratification, I see too many beginners trying to go pro before their work is ready. My advice is to do the hard work for awhile first.

Musings are fun for country painters.....

I’m worried about the natural world. Florida is being strangled by human over population and by needless over development.  Our water is being stolen by big corporations and big sugar is systematically destroying the Everglades. 

Our wildlife is being fragmented by development, with fewer corridors for migration. We cannot do controlled burns, which are necessary for good forest management due to development in wild spaces. We older Florida natives remember when Florida was beautiful, clean and wild. 

I know it is easy to say all this but do nothing but wring our hands with regret. I have invested in natural Florida, supporting two land trusts and the Nature Conservancy each year. I believe that all landscape painters have a civic duty to support these organizations. They are all we have that stands for the natural world against developers.  We painters need wild Florida and so do our animals and plants. Join an organization and help. 

Stewardship is important for country painters......