Rob's Blog

Tag: florida water

July 23rd, 2015 – My watercolor painting of Whitey Markle for the Silver Springs Alliance!

by on Jul.23, 2015, under Caricatures, Cartooning, Florida Outdoors!

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Meant to post these earlier! This one of 5 paintings I did for the speakers at an event our group, Silver Springs Alliance, had back in May. As each speaker spoke I illustrated what they were speaking about. LAter I added watercolor.

Here’s the one for, Florida folk singer/Sierra Club leader/all around good guy, Whitey Markle. He covered a great deal of territory and it was fun for me, knowing the area so well, to poke further fun at it all in the artwork. Each painting is given to the speakers as a “Thank you!” for coming out and helping more Florida citizens learn more about our water problems in our great state.

(Been meaning to post more, but have been on the road again! Lots going on the next few days. I should be posting a lot more.)

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January 29th, 2014 – Springing to Illustrate Speakers about of Florida Springs

by on Jan.30, 2014, under Caricatures, Illusration, Swampy's Florida

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Last night I was part of a Florida springs symposium with a wide variety of speakers updating the audience about the current status of our natural springs and about upcoming legislation.

My role was creating a unique painting of each speaker during their presentation. A few are on the table below. I have a bit of cleanup to do with each and I’ll post them here in the next week.

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January 5th, 2013 – #5 – When frogs become mermaids..,

by on Jan.06, 2014, under Cartooning, What's New?

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This is the painting my father got for his birthday this year. Each year the painting involves a frog and some other subject matter. This year it’s frogs and Weeki Wachee mermaids..

The Weeki Wachee mermaids are legendary in Florida. It all goes back to over fifty years ago when young ladies donned some hand made fins to promote Weeki Wachee Springs, a tourist attraction featuring the natural springs that flow out to supply the Weeki Wachee River. The ladies used an underwater breathing apparatus developed by, inventor, Newt Perry, to be able to perform swimming routines underwater that visitors could watch in a specially made theater.

The theater is still there today as are the mermaids. The park is now part of the Florida Park system and visitors still travel there today to watch mermaids dance and swim :

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August 24th, 2012 – Charles Lee watercolor painting.

by on Aug.24, 2012, under Caricatures, Cartooning, Illusration

Charles Lee is the director of Advocacy at Audubon of Florida and came to speak at our event at Silver River State Park June 23rd. He spoke about how water is used. About 50% of our water resources in Florida are used to water grass.  As Charles points out, grass is just for decoration and yet swallows up so much of our water. Something to add is that the decorative grass is also responsible for the poisons of fertilizer and bug killer being added to the soil that filters it’s way into our Florida water supply. His talk is below and was recorded by Live Oak Production Group.

This is another in a series of five watercolor paintings of speakers from a conference I was involved with this past June 23rd.

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August 23rd, 2012 – Estus Whitfield watercolor painting.

by on Aug.23, 2012, under Caricatures, Florida Outdoors!, Illusration

This is Estus Whitfield, who has been an environmental adviser to four Florida governors and one of the most respected of Florida environmentalists. He co-authored the Save our Everglades program that setup initiates to help clean water for the future of South Florida and it’s residents. He has also steered a series of other outdoor programs critical to the state of the Florida outdoors and all of us who live here.

I recently finished a series of paintings of speakers who spoke at an event I was involved at Silver River State Park back on June 23rd. The event was created to help educate folks about water and springs issues here in Florida. I’ll feature the 5 illustrations in the next week.

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January 12th, 2012 – Hiking and Sketching!

by on Jan.14, 2012, under Florida Outdoors!, Sketchbook, What's New?

I joined the Thursday morning hiking group of the Florida Cracker Chapter of the Florida Trail Association for, what turned out to be, a strenuous 6 mile hike through San Felasco State Park. There are many more photos at the Swampy’s Florida site. You can see those by clicking here.

Along the way I got some sketchin’ done, too. Not as much as usual. Below are a couple of the slight scribblings I made along the way.

    

While hiking it’s always good to be prepared for emergencies by carrying a well stocked Pez container!

We found ourselves in an empty bed of a cypress swamp.

This should be under at least some water. Below is a lonely cypress knee.

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