On Dec 6, 2012 I was painting a small 5″ x 7″ Plein Air Painting at Fort Lauderdale Beach. I sat in the shade at a picnic table on the beach. It was partly cloudy and there is always a variety of things to see at this beach. There were many different types of birds flying about and landing on nearby palm trees as I was painting.
There is nothing like painting out in the open air looking at your scene that you are painting. En plein air is french for “in the open air”. On this day I used a table top easel that is convenient if you have somewhere to position it while painting on location. This beach has many picnic tables and benches with many different trees. I did not finish the oil painting but I hope to work on it today.
Fort Lauderdale Beach
This area of Florida has been hit with high tides and surf that has eroded some areas of the beach. Most of this damage is further north from where I am painting today. For several weeks the seawater was on A1A leaving sand and water on the roadway. There has been much discussion on how to make the repairs to this beautiful area of Florida and I hope the work is done soon. Plein air painting is recording the environment around us at any given moment in time. Besides the surrounding beauty of the beaches here in south Florida there is also a concern for the turtle nesting. Apparently this stretch of beach is in a turtle nesting zone and the severe erosion will make it difficult for the nesting turtles to return to this section of beach.
