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For this group of artists, outdoors is the only place to be

 
A watercolor rendering of boats docked near coastal mangroves by Ed Barker, 66, of Spring Hill.
A watercolor rendering of boats docked near coastal mangroves by Ed Barker, 66, of Spring Hill.
Published Oct. 1, 2015

HOLIDAY — A gentle breeze blowing off the Gulf of Mexico and a midmorning appearance by the sun made for a productive day recently for the half-dozen members of the West Coast Plein Air group that had gathered to capture the landscape on canvas at Anclote River Park.

While some artists favor a studio setting, others find a certain solace in painting outdoors — en plein air — a practice of revered impressionist painters such as Monet and Renoir that became the rage in the mid 1800s with the invention of the easy-to-tote French box easel and ready-mixed paints.

"Your subject is right there in front of you. You just take what's here and make it into a painting," said watercolor artist Jana Somach, who makes the trek from Largo to paint with similar-minded folks.

For Kathy Detrano, an award-winning pastel artist from New Port Richey, it's a way of catching up on some of what she missed while laboring for 30 years in an office environment as an engineer for Bell Laboratories in New York.

"It's a gift I wish I could share with others," Detrano said.

"It's relaxing to get out of the house — get into the fresh air," said Spring Hill retiree Ed Barker, who had positioned himself along the shoreline to work on a watercolor rendering of the coastal mangroves and a grouping of boats docked in the distance.

Barker once worked as a machine appraiser based out of Pittsburgh, a career that took him to factories and manufacturing shops in far corners of the world.

"I've been to South Africa, Russia, Europe," he said. "I've painted in a lot of those places."

But Florida's west coast has its own appeal.

"There's so many natural spaces here," Barker said. "It's pleasant year-round."

Presently, there are about 50 members in the West Coast artist collective, one of 25 chapters of the umbrella group Plein Air Florida. Of those, about six to 12 die-hards meet at various locations to paint on Friday mornings before commiserating over lunch at a favored spot.

Additional painters are welcome, said the group's founder, Jenna Star Friedman. "We go anywhere from Honeymoon Island in Dunedin to Pine Island in Hernando County."

Mornings are particularly advantageous in casting a natural light and offering seasonal pockets of fair weather for the artists, who keep a wary eye on the clouds in the sky as they paint.

Plein air is all about natural light and shadows, offering an atmospheric perspective that is difficult to capture when painting from a photograph, said Friedman, a longtime artist and local art teacher who specializes in oils.

"There's a thrill to being so closely entwined with nature. It really heightens your awareness," said Friedman, who has painted landscapes in Arizona, New York and Florida. "This coastline, I feel, is primitive, but there's all these pockets of beauty."

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Come winter, when the mosquitoes and no-see-ums subside, the group will tote their easels and supplies to inland parks.

But for now, the coast is calling.

Contact Michele Miller at mmiller@tampabay.com or (727) 869-6251. Follow @MicheleMiller52.