Here’s a bit of art from an upcoming Swampy’s Florida book. More as it comes along. Should be done by the end of the month.

Had a great, fun lunch today with long time friend Craig Zablo and his wife, Doralya, at Steve’s Famous Diner in Daytona Beach. We talked about Florida travel, education, Jack Davis, Jim Ivey, Sun Bank, etc., etc..

The food and company were excellent!
Thank you, Craig and Doralya!

The photo, above, is of Craig and I. Doralya had to beg off, something about witness protection or something like that. 😀

It was after this lunch and a caricature gig after that I realized how blasted out tired I was. I blew out the bulk of my energy prior to lunch taking a 1.2 mile hike in the heat in a park and literally running around the Downtown cities of Eustis and DeLand taking photos for Swampy’s Florida. Knew I was feeling a bit off during lunch and that was why! Ferget I’m adding the years on and that kind of activity is going to take a toll.

The photos taken should be showing up on the Swampy’s Florida website over the next months. I’ll be making a separate post about the caricature events in the next day or so.

My friend, Ann Archer, turns 90 and a big party is planned today. Here’s the birthday card I painted for this very patriotic woman. She has served in various political posts for decades in Dade and Marion Counties here in Florida. She still is active today despite mobility issues. She’s a great lady with a great sense of humor, something that seems to maintain a long life. Another friend, Lucile Fair, is 105 1/2 and loves to laugh and see the fun in life. We probably all need to smile more in life and Ann and Lucile are examples of that.

Here’s a caricature I’m working on. I worked from a few photographs of each person. It’s penciled and prepped for watercolor, which I’ll add tomorrow. I should be posting the finished artwork tomorrow.

Had our monthly Socrates Cafe meeting tonight and, for the first time in about a year, I broke out the sketchpad during it. Part of the reason is that I’ve been lax posting art here and knew this would give me something to place here artwork-wise.
Our discussion started with the question as to how much we carry our family history throughout life. Brought up was the ability to pick and choose our traits. Next came a discussion about a story heard on the radio about a child being left out of a game with other children and what should a person’s reaction to that be. Discussion went from cooties to hammering morality.  Last discussion involved whether we should all just have a revolution and get it all over with. This led one of the group, Robin, to declare that she is willing to take the world over, be queen, sell books and become a church onto herself for the well being of all.

Meant to post this weeks ago. Here’s the finished watercolor painting that I had posted a photo of the pencils of a while back.
This is a commissioned piece of a family’s chickens and their self made chicken coop.

Here’s the pencil drawing:

Got to meet up with old pal Jeff Parker this evening in Tallahassee during a brief stop there. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jeff in two years. Great catching up and we exchanged some goodies. Hope to see Jeff again before two years.

Here’s a flock of artwork done at Chelsea Coffee this evening. Three caricatures, a Swampy cartoon and roughs for some proposed Swampy clothing.

Finished this back on Friday during the Florida Parent Educators Association conference. It’ll be available during an auction to raise money for the American crocodile on June 29th at Reptile World Serpentarium near St. Cloud, Florida. This painting will also be available as a print soom. The setting is Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge south of Miami.

Got together with friends this evening at Stardust Video & Coffee. It was great fellowship with Neal Davies, Robert Baurle, Rich Scott and Cindy Mackey. Lots of drawing, talking about cookies, world events and Florida memories.

Before we gathered, I got a bunch of cartooning and illustration artwork done. Will post a composite soon.

Here are caricatures drawn today during an event in Moss Park in south Orange County, Florida.