"Grey Morning, Cortez fishing village", 11x14, oil on panel, paintings of boats, fog, old fishing boats, Cortez, Florida

"Grey Morning, Cortez fishing village", 11x14, oil on panel

For plein air painters in southwest  Florida, the tiny fishing village of Cortez is a little jewel tucked into the larger town of Bradenton on the Gulf of Mexico.  With a rich history, the tiny maritime town is only a few blocks long. Dozens of old fishing vessels bob up and town on the sleepy waters of the intracoastal and the ever popular Starfish and Company restaurant does a booming business during snowbird season.

Recently I spent the day there during a wonderful workshop with the incredibly talented plein air artist, Mark Boedges. We watched Mark paint on a foggy morning and by afternoon the skies had cleared and the dozen or so artists attending the workshop were free to paint on their own. I'll post the painting that I did in the afternoon over the next day or so, but here is the one I was really proud of, because it captured the atmosphere of the fog lifting that morning.

Mark has a way of softening his edges that is truly remarkable, and every single stroke that he puts down is very thoughtful. I think passive learning is very important for every artist, and the experience of watching Mark paint this same scene gave me the courage to try it as well. You can visit Mark's website here, to see his gorgeous paintings.

"Van Gogh"s Boats", 8x10, oil, Vincent Van Gogh, French Boats, empaths, highly sensitive personalities, French seacapes, impressionism, Bouzique, France, old fishing boats, Maryanne JAcobsen art

"Van Gogh"s Boats", 8x10, oil

Nothing is sadder than an artist that cannot find his footings in a cold world. Such was the case with Vincent Van Gogh.

Today we have a name for people like Vincent. They are called empaths, or highly sensitive personalities, or whatever. I understand Vincent. Sometimes the world is hard. Sometimes the world is cold.

And sometimes the world is beautiful!

 Empaths struggle to find their footing because everything is bigger for empaths than the life that most individuals see and live each day. Bigger and scarier.

Anyhow. That's all I have to say about Vincent's mental state. Vincent painted colorful fishing boats in a  painting titled, Boats at St. Marie.

Here is an image of his painting:

These colorful old fishing boats dating back to Van Gogh's era can still be seen in the small fishing port of Bouziques, in the south of France. How cool is that?

This little painting was painted a few years ago and I took it out recently and re-worked a couple passages. If you like it, send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com

"Mister Chris", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen

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"Mister Chris", plein air, 14x11, oil on linen

I feel as though it's been ages since I have written in my blog! The past couple months have been a whirlwind of Paint-outs, paintings and plein air workshops, and I will confess that I am tired!

I truly enjoyed my back to back workshops with Katie Dobson Cundiff, Kim English and last week with Morgan Samuel Price, and I do feel that the expert teaching and all the plein air painting that I did has helped me gain confidence in my future plein air endeavors.

The above painting was painted this past Tuesday at the quaint old Cortez fishing Village in scenic Cortez, Florida. It is very hard to find a place with so many amazing birds, little islands with mangrove trees and fish shacks, and turquoise waters filled with old working fishing boats galore! There are scenic views of Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach, and Sarasota Bay (north end) and even a crazy restaurant (I say crazy because the rules are more in line with Seinfeld's Soup Nazi then a traditional seafood restaurant!) that serves some really fresh seafood straight off the dock! I will confess that eating at the Starfish Company restaurant is an experience, but not necessarily one I would want to repeat during spring break or snow bird season!

In order to paint this boat, called the Mister Chris, I had to stand for a few hours on a rickety old dock in the blazing sun, smelling gasoline fumes from the rags in the boat docked next to me, and hoping to remember that if I stepped backwards the wrong way, I'd end up in Sarasota Bay. Yeah, it was fun!

I am going to work a  lot more on water reflections in the future, but Morgan's workshop was very helpful in teaching us how to capture these tricky reflections. This painting is part of the "Paint the Town" Paint-out exhibit and can be seen along with many other gorgeous plein air paintings at  Art Center Manatee through May3rd. If you are in the area,stop by and see the paintings created by some of the area's finest plein air artists.