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| White Heron in Big Cypress, 14" x 10" watercolor. |
During my recent trip to Miami, my friend Raquel and I took a jaunt to Big Cypress. We wanted to paint a bit on location, something neither of us had had much time to do recently. The swamp surrounding the Gallery at Big Cypress is such a lovely spot--the ancient cypresses shade and provide shelter for so many birds and other wildlife.
As we approached the swamp a great white heron posed at the base of one of the cypresses. He lingered long enough for us to take a few photos before flying off. We entered the gallery to check out Clyde Butcher's latest work and I couldn't resist buying a calendar and a couple of cards with his fabulous photos of ghost orchid flowers. This rare orchid has two long appendages on the lip (labellum) that resemble legs, and the frontal view makes the flower look like a whimsical little creature dancing. I hope someday I may get to see and sketch this fascinating orchid in the wild.
We took a leisurely walk out the gallery's back door into the surrounding swamp and marveled at the cypress knees--there were several groupings that looked like sculptures. We saw this one that, to me, evoked something of Rodin's Burghers of Calais.
After our walk we set up our gear overlooking the water and ate our lunch while contemplating what we were going to paint. I felt a bit rusty, not having done any plein air work in almost a year. I decided to include the great white heron from the morning in my sketch, but I had to do this from memory. As you can see, when comparing my sketch to the photograph below, memory makes for a poor comparison with the real thing. In fact, my whole sketch lacks the wonderful luminosity of the scene. I'll have to try this painting again, to see if I can achieve the effect from photos.
Raquel's unfinished painting looked much better than mine--the cypress roots she chose to focus on had a similar anthropomorphic quality to the photo of the cypress knees. I can't wait to see her finished painting!
