Tag: springs
September 27th, 2015 – Book: ‘Eternal Spring’ by Richard Martin.
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Sep.27, 2015, under Books
Eternal Spring- Man’s 10,000 Years of History at Florida’s Silver Springs by Richard A. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the third or fourth book I’ve read of Richard Martin’s. It’s been years since I’ve read his work, but this is clearly head and shoulders above the other books.
This book is superior to so many histories in it’s layout, writing, organization and even images. Martin clearly lays out the early the vast history of the area that includes Silver Springs State Park. At the time of the books publication, 1966, the park area was still privately owned and not part of the state park system as occurred October 1st, 2013.
There is a lenthy list of fish & plants to be found. Much about indians and development of a multi-level attraction.
I will quibble with the amount of writing that is outside the purview of the subject. Martin leaves the tracks at times as he chronicles indians all over Florida, seemingly just because he’s listing indians. Instead fleshing out more in the lives of the indians in the area would have been more germane.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.
July 23rd, 2015 – My watercolor painting of Whitey Markle for the Silver Springs Alliance!
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jul.23, 2015, under Caricatures, Cartooning, Florida Outdoors!
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.)
February 5th, 2014 – What I’m drawing: My Springs Symposium Watercolor Painting #1
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.05, 2014, under Caricatures, Illusration
On January 28th I was part of a symposium about the condition of our springs in north Central Florida. My part was to illustrate each of the speakers. This is one of the set of Dr. Bob Knight, one of our most knowledgeable experts about water in Florida. Knowing Bob helped me play more here than i did with the others.
Bob opened his talk by announcing he had more bad news. I took it from there.
I’ll be posting the rest over the next week or so.
January 29th, 2014 – Springing to Illustrate Speakers about of Florida Springs
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.30, 2014, under Caricatures, Illusration, Swampy's Florida
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.
January 11th, 2013: Swampy Florida art in progress
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.11, 2013, under Cartooning, Illusration
Got the prep work done a couple days ago. Added watercolor while painting live during the Art Walk in Mt Dora at Julianne’s Coastal Cottage. I still need to work on details in the illustrations to get it to pop out more.
January 9th, 2013 – Florida Artwork in the Process!
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.09, 2013, under Cartooning, Illusration, Swampy's Florida
Penciled this during a meeting tonight as I prep for a series of watercolor paintings I need to get done. It’s part of a Swampy’s Florida series that will soon be available to interior designers through a Miami company. There will be two series. One much like this of Florida locations and Florida critters. The other series is of beach scenes around the state.
This is just the pencils of the artwork. Next I prep the art to be watercolored. I’ll be painting the art this Friday during the Art Walk in Downtown Mt. Dora, Florida, at Julianne’s Coastal Cottage store. I’ll be doing it live. If you’re in the area, please come by and say ‘Hello!’.
I did the penciling during a meeting of the Springs Alliance which I’m involved with. Certainly an appropriate time to be working on artwork about the Rainbow River.
This is from a photo taken by a friend of a half fallen cypress tree on the Rainbow River in Marion County, Florida
January 12th, 2012 – Hiking and Sketching!
by Rob Smith, Jr. 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.