Painting Beautiful Places...North Florida

'Florida Dunes'          5x7          plein air pastel

It must have been 100 degrees in the shade the day I painted this one.  A group of us went down to North Florida to paint and have a get-away with friends. Our friend Susan Post graciously hosted us in her beautiful beach house.  We had plans to paint the beach near her home but it was way too hot. We really didn't have enough umbrellas for shade and the sun was much too hot and intense to paint our on the white sand.
We went on to plan B which was a great choice. We spent the day at Grayton Beach State park. This beach is consistently ranked among the most beautiful and pristine beaches and we weren't disappointed. There were wonderful tall dunes of shimmering white sand and they were covered on vegetation and flowers which added just the right touch of color. The beach was beautiful too but it was almost too hot to even walk on it nevermind paint.  Did I say it was a hot weekend!?
Fortunately the park had great covered picnic pavilions with great views of the dunes. The ten of us spread out under the pavilions and spent a wonderful morning painting followed by a picnic lunch of our usual painting fare...peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!


The painting of the dunes was done on this hot day and I feel that it does capture the hot day with the cool shady side of the dunes giving relief. Available here $50.