Two Black Paper Pastels have found a home!
Could not resist spreading the good news: a young man with impeccably good taste in art has purchased two of my Black Paper Pastel babies! The ones which have been added to his collection are the banana tree fluttering in the sunshine and the Okefenokee piece of the watery cypress forest. I was very touched when I found out purchasing my paintings was his birthday present to himself!
This is the very thing that inspires me to go through this long process- knowing that I can make someone happy enough with my art that he’ll spend his hard-earned money to hang it on his wall. And I happen to know that he works VERY hard for his paycheck!
Happy Birthday, Davie! Thank you so much!
Osprey nest on the Loxahatchee River
One of the best reasons to paddle a canoe is that you gain a wonderful new perspective on your surroundings. Ever since Dr. Tom Kazo and I founded Wildlife Research Team in 1993, I’ve been able to take thousands of photographs from what we call our “Canoe View” of the waterways and shorelines we’ve explored. (You can see some of these at www.wildlife-research-team.org.)
The Loxahatchee River, located on on the lower east coast of Florida, was designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1985, one of only two in Florida. (The other is the Myakka on the west coast, which I’ve also paddled and painted.) It’s a river with a rich and colorful history; to read more about the Loxahatchee River, please visit websites such as http://www.loxahatcheeriver.org/about_the_river.php.
Although the “Lox” as it is known to its many friends, starts out as a freshwater river, it becomes more saline as it nears the Atlantic Ocean. There was a time when it was fresh for most of its route, but as rampant development occurred in the area, more and more fresh water was diverted to public use, with golf courses and lawns sucking up enormous amounts. Therefore, the river is becoming more and more brackish and salty further and further inland.
In my little painting of an osprey nest built into a dead tree, there’s a backstory. Once upon a time, these dead snags were healthy cypress trees. The mangrove trees below were less likely to have encroached this far inland. Mangroves do not require saltwater to live, but they are not able to compete with freshwater trees. So, although spotting an osprey in its nest is always a joyous sight, the realization that development is slowly but surely killing large and beautiful cypress trees is a sobering thought.
An osprey peers from its nest, built into a snag that was once a magnificent bald cypress tree on the Loxahatchee River shoreline. Now mangroves flourish in a saltier environment than the cypresses can endure.
However, at least the osprey has been making a strong comeback since the EPA outlawed the use of DDT in 1972. The pesticide found its way into the osprey’s main food supply, fish. As the DDT accumulated in the bird’s system, its eggshells became more and more fragile, so that they were crushed by the parent’s weight. Spotting an osprey nest, especially when it’s inhabited as this one was, is a cause for celebration. I love seeing an osprey dive into the water and come up with a fish! (Although of course I feel sorry for the fish…but nature is what it is…)
Below is a photograph of this 5″ by 7″ pastel in a typical tabletop frame, to give you an idea of how it could look in your personal environment. I’ve removed the glass from the frame for the purposes of this photograph. Pastel, otherwise a superb type of paint because of its resistance to fading, is susceptible to smearing until glazing is placed over it.
"Osprey Nest Along the Loxahatchee River" is 5" by 7" framed out to 8" by 10" and is an original pastel painting on black paper.
This pastel was painted on the rough-textured black paper. I am getting ready to try out a smoother paper. Although I like the effect of the rougher paper, I am looking forward to being able to punch in more detail with the smoother paper.
This painting will soon be listed in my Etsy store, http://etsy.com/shop/donnakazo.
Thanks for visiting today, and keep checking back for my next artistic adventure!
A Canoe View of the Okefenokee Refuge
My Canoe View of the flooded Okefenokee cypress forest
If this is the first time you are reading about me, then a few words of background are in order. In 1993, I was co-founder of Wildlife Research Team, which is now a nonprofit organization that uses canoes to accomplish all of our projects here in South Florida. We’ve done hundreds of waterway cleanups and even restored a hurricane-devastated mangrove forest with funding from NOAA and FishAmerica Foundation, matching our grants with 10,000 volunteer hours. The credit for this idea must go to Dr. Tom Kazo, however. He was my student, soulmate, partner, stern paddler, hero, and eventually my husband; he passed from this earth in 2006. I miss him every second of every day. You can learn more about this extraordinary man, a 2003 NOAA Environmental Hero of the Year, by going to WRT’s website: www.wildlife-research-team.org.
Canoeing has been an important part of my life since Tom and I fixed up an old Mohawk fiberglass canoe and named her Do-er. (Our next canoes were named Do-It, Did-It, Dunnit, Duzzit, and so on, because Tom was not just a dreamer: he was a do-er!) Paddling wherever we could find a place to launch has been a tremendous source of inspiration for this artist. Yet it’s also been frustrating, because I’ve absorbed too many things to paint! Such a problem for an artist, I know, I know…quit your complaining, Donna…
But with limited time, especially since I’ve had to take on the running of WRT, plus I went back to college a year after Tom died, how the heck could I get these wonderful memories into paintings? These Black Paper Pastels seem to have come to my rescue.
The painting above was inspired by one of our trips to the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. For several years, we would hook up with some good friends and paddle into the swamp for overnight camping trips. A great reason to get into good shape, that’s for sure! This particular day was a real sparkler, cool and sunny, as we paddled through the flooded cypress forest. This was the year of El Nino and the canoe trails were extra deep. In the photo I used for reference was the bow of my solo canoe, and the folks who were paddling up ahead of me, including Tom. I longed to include them, but in a painting this small, and with paper this rough, that type of detail just wouldn’t work out.
So I had to content myself with painting what reminds me of a tapestry, long colorful strokes weaving together my memories of a beautiful place, a beautiful day, beautiful people. I may do another painting on a smoother type of black pastel paper. Time will tell. But for now, I present this Black Paper Pastel to you for your enjoyment, and wish you many happy trails!
This photo is to give you an idea of how my painting could look in a 10" by 8" tabletop frame.
Donna Kazo's Black Paper Pastels 