Crystal River

I just finished a new painting of Crystal River. Crystal River is a beautiful river in Florida and the water is amazingly clear, which makes Crystal River an appropriately named river.


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I have canoed a river near here named the Weeki Wackee. Yep, that is the real name. There were many different birds along the river, but the special moment was seeing the manatees.

The water is so clear, you can see the bottom no matter how deep. These pictures do not do it justice. It's like watching nature in very high definition, but you are there. So, as I say, "get away from the big screen and get on a big stream."

Here are the manatees we came upon, a mother and calf. They are very gentle creatures, which gave me an idea for my river, lake and bay paintings. The manatees almost seem like mermaids and for the past 6-8 months, I have been adding very small mermaids to the waters of my painting. I got the idea from these two manatees. I hope you enjoyed this post.