Saturday, April 19, 2008



Annie Pais peeks out of the wet room in Evinston



This is the tent where dry paintings were hung in Evinston.



Trish Beckham painted many of the beautiful vegetables in the Wood Swink Store.



Wet room for the paintings in Evinston.



This is Florida's oldest working post office.



One of my paintings from the Wood Farm in Evinston.

The Heart of Florida Paint Out has come and gone. It was a great experience. There were 42 artists painting in three main locations so there were several that I never really saw until the opening on Friday night.

Stewart Thomas and Annie Pais ran a very professional paint out. There were over 400 paintings at the sale. I don't really know how many paintings were sold in total, but I sold five. Three from the wet rooms and two from the opening.

There was fresh hot food offered each day from one of the churches in Evinston. I enjoyed BBQ, Fried Chicken, collards, field peas, corn, squash and corn bread each day for lunch.

The Wood family offered hay rides each day around the town and farms, with great information about the history of the old town. They were the highlight of the paint out for me. I went twice.

We were allowed to paint on the large cattle farms in Evinston, which was wonderful. The farms backed up to Orange Lake and had many tall graceful palms, silos, old buildings,beautiful sleek cattle, and huge Live Oaks to paint. The painters could also paint at the Orange Lake overlook and the little town of McIntosh. I spent most of my time in Evinston at the farms and the Wood Swink Store. My special thanks to the people of Evinston for their generous support and encouragement to me personally and to the other artists.

There were several dinners and parties offered to the artists throughout the week, including parties at Gary Borse's farm, Jean and Ty Tyson's Cracker farm on the prairie, and at Ellie Blair's home in Gainesville. Thanks to all of them for their kindness in including me.

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