Fair Oaks Residency- Day Three

Pond View

8x10

Oil on panel

Oaks and Palmettoes

12x16 inches

Oil on canvas

Notes From My Residency Journal

The best thing that ever happened to me was my discovery of Fair Oaks almost seven years ago. For a north Florida native, there is no better place. It has all of the elements that touch my heart. These giant Live Oak trees and Cabbage palms reach deeply into my soul. 

I've been watching and listening to the cranes circling up for there migration soon to come. I wish they would stay year round. There is a pair who live here year round. I love to creep up on them slowly. They know I'm behind them and stay just ahead of me, then burst into flight!

Last night Mark, the land  manager and do everything man, hauled in a trailer full of new trees, including several kinds of oak trees, long leaf pines, and a red cedar. They look so pretty bundled together, standing tall and proud.  He has an idea to put my favorite field three into planted pines and native grasses. I think it will be so pretty and I love to paint pines. I hope he will leave the path around the edge of the field for me. 

One of the things I love the most here, are the hidey holes, portals between fields, and the lanes hidden from casual observation. They are like the secret spaces of my childhood in my parents' yard. I would have stockpiles of food and toys hidden away there and spent hours exploring. 

I have gotten used to a new golf cart now that old blue is gone. This was the first one I used when I started painting here. This afternoon Chris and I did some repair to the holes in the seat and it is tip top now! It has my official paint on the seat so I am happy. I need to find a new head ornament. It used to have a cow scull wired on but it fell off at some point. I will need to find something. 

The time is racing by. I wish I could slow it down. I always hate to leave paradise.