More trees but this time I am starting to like them more. I find that I like the paintings that have their origin in my brain rather than in reality or in a photo.

I just don't care about reality. Swamp Tree is a sort of pine tree on top and a mutant mangrove on the bottom. I keep trying to paint mangroves and messing them up. Tree in a Hollow was another botched attempt at a mangrove. I like the grass I used to cover up the mistakes. Both Swamp Tree and Tree in a Hollow were paintings I intended to do more to but then I looked at them and thought; "Nah, they are done."

OK so, Spooky Color Tree is a painting I screwed up and put too much water in and then just added colors and left it at that. I admit to not really much liking it. Look at the roots, another failed mangrove!

NOW, Light Tree, I really like. It is getting close to what I actually want to do. I am not entirely sure if I really have finished it yet...we shall see.

These are larger photos of some paintings I did on a small scale. The first is a larger version of Magnolia. I told the story elsewhere. This is on 8.5 X 11 paper as opposed to postcard sized.

The sun and beach painting is one I desperately wanted to do more too and ruin. You can see how it needs to be flattened a bit. I am not sure what I think about it to be completely honest. Perspective ....hmmm

More beaches will be coming soon..and certainly more trees and swamps--I have tons of photos of the Everglades, Big Cypress and other locales in South Florda--areas I regret will be ruined in the next generation and filled with track housing for people who will, then, have no water to drink....

The brief visit I had to 10,000 Islands Park--I forget if it is national, state or local-- was interesting. It was at the end of a day where I had trod in the Big Cypress and walked on the boardwalk in the Fakahatchee. The sun was going down, it was not a cool day even in the FLA winter. That means there were mosquitos--especially as the sun was going down. But I took a photo and both of these are based on that. I had to run out of there or get eaten alive

The devil is in the details and when I try to paint them. This isn't an abstract cliche for me. When I try to actually paint details of what IS I run into trouble.

Fortunately I do not care about what is real.

I care about the end result being what I want to be. These are not that but they are an impression. The above is postcard sized and the below is 8 x 11 (ish). I want to do more about the everglades, big cypress and other area parks. And I will--at length.

Years ago, when I was a kid, there was a magnolia tree on the border of my neighbors lawn. I somehow associated that tree with...something. It somehow meant something to me that I cannot describe. You do not see a lot of magnolias in South Florida so, in that, it was also special.

It died and was cut down but not before I painted an oil painting of the tree. I still have it somewhere. These postcard sized trees are based on that original painting and that tree.

They are not identical obviously.

Last night I was painting horseshoes. I am not sure what came over me as I have a fear of horsies. Likewise it is not at all certain why one of these horseshoes looks like Peter Max threw up all over it.

These paintings are watercolors--a medium that I have never really tried to use. And they are part of a bunch of paintings I have been working on over the past month.

This group of paintings is also the first time I have tried to paint in the past 20 years or thereabout. I will write more on this at some point.