Painting on the Chazz

Evening on the Chazz, watercolor, 10" x 14".

It was pouring when we woke the next morning. Grateful for the opportunity to give our sore muscles a rest, we hung around our cozy cabin reading books. Later we drove down to Weeki Wachee to verify that the boat rental concession at the state park was still in operation, and stopped at the public library to check our Emails.

It started to clear up in the late afternoon and by the time we got back to our cabin, a hazy sun was trying to emerge from the clouds. I walked down to the river with my watercolor kit and set up on a bench towards the end of the strip of boardwalk. From here I could look over Chassahowitzka Spring towards the narrowing channel to the Seven Sisters. With the sun setting behind me, the colors were subdued--lovely grays and silver, with a touch of gold.

It took a while to decide what to focus on--the reflections of a few bald cypress trunks and one tree leaning over the channel seemed the most appealing. I included the large cypress next to me to balance out the opposite shore. I had completed most of the trees and land mass as the evening shadows deepened, but had not started yet on the water--that would have to be worked wet-on-wet all in one pass and there was not enough time today. Insects were starting to come out and buzz around me (I'm a mosquito magnet); it would be smart to get back to the cabin before I was attacked.

I'd been painting for a couple of hours and Herb had not come down to the river to look for me... how odd. Back at the cabin he remarked that he had gone to the river to look for me, but that I had "vanished into thin air." With a small group of people sitting by a fire pit near the boathouse, he had not seen me at the end of the boardwalk in the gathering dusk.

I finished the water and the rest of the painting two days later, relying on memory. I took some artistic license by adding a few blue-greens and golds to the water that weren't actually there, but give the painting a little more punch.