"Mangroves Dipping Their Toes In the Water" - 2020 Lighthouse Art Center Plein Air Festival

A few weeks ago, I wrote about John Singer Sargent's painting "Portrait of Ralph Curtis on the Beach at Scheveningen" having sand particles embedded in its surface. Yesterday, a similar fate befell my own painting.

As I painted these mangroves at the Nature Conservancy Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island, Florida, I was sitting just five feet away from the water's edge, and I kept a close eye on the rising tide. What I didn't expect was the huge yacht that came speeding past me just yards away. The resulting wave came ten feet up the beach, sending my easel and the painting face down into the sand. Thankfully, it only adds to the authenticity, and sand is completely archival.

"Mangroves Dipping Their Toes In the Water" • Oil on Linen • 14"x18"  

• Available this evening at the Lighthouse ArtCenter 

© Patrick and Kimberly Saunders, Patrick Saunders Fine Arts, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s authors/owners is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Patrick Saunders for painted works, or to Kimberly Saunders for photographs and/or videos, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.