Myakka State Park, Florida Landscape 14x11

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Our family visited beautiful Myakka State Park and went on this hiking trail. We also did a boat tour across the big lake, and it is infested with alligators. An environmentalist might say it is a refuge for alligators, but my word for it is infested. We learned on the tour that Florida's alligator population got down to 500, then they became protected and now there are five million. I used to wonder why we could safely jump in any lake we came upon in Florida and now we can't. They were afraid of humans then and no one was idiotic enough to feed them. 

My uncle was a gator trapper for the state until he was over 70 years old. His job was to remove threatening gators, and they can't be shot like in the TV shows you may have seen. He brought them back alive. He said they have a tiny brain, but are wily creatures. He came by one day with his boat on a trailer and it had a big chomp out of it. The gator fought back.

Carmen

Polkadot Cottage Dancing

                                       

Yesterday our painting group, Pieces of Eight, had a fun challenge. We picked a noun, an adjective, and a verb from three columns of random words. I had "Polkadot Cottage Dancing." It was a relaxing and enjoyable day of painting and drawing silly things.

Carmen  

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Dreaming of Dali, 10x8 Original Oil Painting

My niece Kate is the owner of Paradise Found, a wonderful succulent nursery in Sarasota. She gave me these beautiful eggs from her free-range chickens, and I had to paint them. We had been to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, and Kate loved his paintings with tiny figures and buildings in the background. That moved me to create this Dali-inspired painting. You have to look closely to see Kate and her chickens.

Carmen