Monday, June 9, 2014

Warm Mineral Springs

Warm Mineral Springs, 6x8" oil on linen, plein air, ©Diane Mannion

Great Place to Paint

Painted at Warm Mineral Springs in Northport this morning with about a dozen VAC Punta Gorda Plein Air Artists.  Many thanks to Sharon for setting it up!  Great landscape views, water scenes, and lots of folks wearing colorful hats.  

People walk in the water around the edge, while many swim in the center which is 250 feet deep.  I swam across after painting... a treat!  (OK, another update... was only thinking how nice it was not to think about sharks while I swam across, never once thought about gators.  Click here for gator info. ) Click on the Warm Mineral Springs link above to read the history and don't miss watching the videos of divers exploring the depths!

Sharon, Katie, and Helga painting and view of my setup.  Painted with my Alla Prima Pochade box and used limited palette, red, yellow, blue, and white. (Updated note: also used Transparent Orange Oxide for sketching in stage.  Didn't do a thumbnail and think this painting would have been stronger if I had.  Sometimes, I want to dive right in because the light was changing fast with clouds moving in.  With such a limited palette, spent too much time spent mixing colors.  But like the idea and will do more experimenting.)
View of spring with a corner of Susie's painting... great clouds!  

2 comments:

Susan said...

I like your cheerful painting. Florida is such an awesome place with so much beauty. Maybe you'll also consider painting the ladies in colorful hats. That would be so cute and appealing.

I read the gator article that ended with "...thousands of lakes and swimming holes...have gators in them, and as long as swimmers take caution, being attacked should not be of major concern." Well, it would be of major concern to me! Gators will attack small children, so I don't understand the comment at all.

Diane Mannion said...

Thanks, Susan! You are right... never know where an alligator might be lurking! Where there's water, there's gators. Even found one in our Y pool one morning. Have heard lots of horror stories since living in Florida for over 20 years, but have never heard of an attack in WMS although a few gators have been spotted in it over the years.