The 3rd annual Painting the Region event featured 30 plein air artists painting live in the public art venue for an entire week along the north east Atlantic Coast of Florida. The event is produced by and beneficiary to North Florida Land Trust. Painting the Region has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the little town of Switzerland on the St John's River (where I had the pleasure to stay with Stetson Kennedy at Beluthahatchee) to this lovely week along the coast. The event features plein air painters in the Jacksonville area and offers the support of hosts to out of town painters like myself. This year we had artists from as far as North Carolina and Rome, Italy!
Day one had us at the extreme north end on the south shore of the St John's River in the tiny little fishing village of Mayport where after some searching about, I found the lighthouse and a good view of it. The only problem was, there was a tall, razorwire topped fence between us. I decided to leave it out until the end and I thought it would add an interesting element to the perspective. During the course of my 3 hours working on the piece, several folks stopped by to chat. By far the most interesting was an elderly woman who was born there and could tell me anything about anybody in the town, past or present. She said she hated that fence and thanked me very much for ignoring it in my picture!
Each day we would work our way south painting from town to town, Mayport to Hannah Park to Atlantic Beach to Neptune Beach to Jacksonville Beach to Ponte Vedra Beach and all the way to Vilano. I tried to get out on the beach itself and paint everyday in the afternoon. At Vilano I had a beautiful swim in the rough surf. I painted the moon a few times. Each night a display was set up at an upscale happy hour that showcased the works that were produced on that day. We had nice crowds for all of it.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I found 2 very challenging subjects in the bronze life size statues of the girl and the turtle in Atlantic Beach and the boy and the dolphin in Jacksonville Beach. These high profile locations provided me an excellent venue to promote the event to the community. I was interviewed and photographed by reporters, ending up on the front page of the BEACHES LEADER with a color photo of me working on Sea Express. Driversby for the most part would just pause and look but one fellow yelled enthusistically Bravo! Bravo! That's pure energy that the performance artist can pour into their work. These subjects gave me the perfect inspiration to go out of the box a little. I painted the bronzes faithfully but took some creative license with their backgrouds and placed them where they belong! This kind of thing can take the boring out of too many repetetive representational works.
On Thursday the weather turned stormy and provided an opportunity to observe some dramatic weather and catch a squall line driving ashore. Such a change from the beginning of the week when the skies were clear and cloudless. On Friday we had the chance to go back in time down the road less traveled on to the Stockton property, 40 acres of primevil forest, a sanctuary haven in a world long gone. I had not been up in this part of Florida for at least a couple decades and it was a shock and depression to see how pretty much all of it had been built on, one multi-million dollar mansion after another with little exception all the way down the beach. The Stockton property was the cure. There were huge oaks and palms and dense forest. There were animals everywhere, horses, pigs, goats, ducks. These provided excellent subjects for quick handed artist Donna Grasso, whose charming painting of the pig was fought over before it was ever hung. I got what I think my best paintings of the week here. NFLT is trying to find a way to preserve this property.
The show will be up and paintings are for sale at the Ponte Vedra Cultural Center until Oct 24th. A sales commission of 40% benefits both the North Florida Land Trust and the Ponte Vedra Cultural Center. The Gala event on Saturday evening was a delightful time for all and a huge success. My gratitude to Bonnie Barnes, Exec. Dir. NFLT and Paul Gruenther, Watson Realty, for hosting me this year.
About Me
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- Tim Malles Art Studio
- Gainesville, Florida, United States
- Astronomy themes, landscapes and public art are some of the targets of my work. These are the best of times as we stand on the threshold of unprecedented discovery in space. As a space artist, I am grateful for and inspired by the amazing images of faraway places that the great telescopes of our generation have given us. As a plein air painter, I am inspired to quickly capture light, color and movement with the focus on our rapidly changing environment. As an artist within the live public art venue I am inspired by the opportunity for creativity, spontaneity and exchange.
