Blue Crabber
Watercolor
16" x 20"
Giclees available on Fine Art America website. (See link)


I saw this fellow rowing his boat toward one of his crab pots on Tampa Bay not far from the shoreline of Safety Harbor. While most people row facing the stern of the boat, he faced forward.

Thundering Breakers
Watercolor
18" x 24"

Giclees available.

This painting is done from a photo I took of the Pacific Ocean waves rolling in off Pacifica, CA. It was winter and we were there for a funeral. The sky was overcast which fit our somber mood. The sea was magnificent - powerful - and awe-inspiring as the waves thundered in and swept onto the beach over and over.

Honeymoon Island
Watercolor
10" x 20"

Giclees available through Pedlar's Child
Art Gallery.

Honeymoon Island is my favorite beach. It is a protected wildlife area and therefore left undeveloped for the most part. There are only four buildings on this beautiful stretch of beach.

Honeymoon Island, a barrier island, is now a State Park made up of 385 acres of pristine nature off the coast of Dunedin, Florida. The gulf side of the beach is about four miles long and has virgin slash pine and mangroves along St. Joseph Sound. The island is protected from development and only has four bathhouses along the beach – one of which is depicted in my painting of Honeymoon Island.

It was first inhabited by the Tocobagan Indians and was later populated by Spanish explorers, pirates, traders, and fishermen in the sixteenth century. Artifacts such as skeletal remains, pottery and chains have been found on the island.

In the 19th century, some attempts were made to homestead the island with little success until a hog farm was started on the island and it became known as Hog Island. In October 1921 a hurricane hit the island and split it in two with Hurricane Pass cutting between the north and south parts of the original island.

However, by the 1940's, the unattractive name was changed to Honeymoon Island, since it had become a popular destination for newlyweds. A businessman from New York by the name of Clinton Mosely Washburn had purchased the island in 1939.

He, together with Life Magazine, Newsreel, and the Clearwater Lions Club, began a contest for newlywed couples where the winners would spend their Honeymoon on the island. One hundred sixty-seven couples won a stay and came down to Honeymoon Isle. They stayed in one of the fifty thatched huts built on what was then the main beach area. World War II ended the honeymoons and the island was then used for a rest and recuperative retreat for factory workers.

The French Beekeeper
Gouache on Watercolor paper
11" x 14"

Original in private collection.
Giclees available.

This is a portrait of my great grandfather, Camille Pierre (C.P.) Dadant. He migrated with his mother and sisters at the age of 11 to the United States during the Civil War. His father, Charles, had come over a few months prior to C.P.'s arrival to build a little log cabin for his family to live in. Originally, they grew grapes, but found soon that beekeeping was more profitable in the area where they had settled along the banks of the Mississippi river.
C.P. and his father built a business specializing in beekeeping and beekeeping supplies that still exists today - five or six generations later.
This painting derives from a photo taken around 1910 as C.P. walked to work at the factory at the bottom of the hill. In the background is the Keokuk Lock and Dam. C.P. was one of the business men that was instrumental in moving to get the dam built across the Mississippi at this point.

September Mourning
Watercolor
16" x 20"

Giclees available.

I painted this shortly after 9/11. The planes were still not flying and images of the buildings collapsing were still repeatedly filling the television. Feeling lost and frightened as to what was going to happen, I wandered down to the little local marina to try to make some sense out of it all. Already a local group of artist had taken the name, WAR (women artists something or other) and were painting violent images.
I chose, instead, to paint peace-filled images such as this painting of sailboats in a marina with a flag at half staff under a rather ominous sky. I wanted to show that the terrorist's attempts to destroy our country did not succeed. Our country and way of life prevailed despite the recent tragic events.

One Thirty-Five
Watercolor
16" x 20"
Original is in a private collection. Giclees available.

There are many wee cracker houses in the little town in Florida where I live. Many have been torn down to make room for McMansions, but there are still a number of these wonderful little houses. I am trying to do paintings of them from time to time to preserve the history of what life was like. Recently, there has been an increased interest in tiny homes however. It is my hope that these little cracker houses will be recognized for the treasures that they are.
The term, 'cracker' is used locally to denote a person that is a native-born Floridian. It is not considered to be a derogatory term, but rather a term of great respect. Most of the population of Florida consists of people who moved here from other states. Crackers were born here and are proud of that fact. It is said the term originated from the sound of the cattle ranchers' whips crackin' as they moved their herds. I didn't realize that Florida actually has a lot of cattle. It isn't just all orange trees and beaches.

Poling the Flats
Watercolor
16" x 20"

Original is in Private Collection. Giclee available.

The transparency of watercolor lends itself well to the light airy atmosphere of tropical settings. This fisherman is poling the flats off the coast of a Bahamian island. A few years ago I crewed on a yacht sailing from Providenciales in the Caicos Islands up through the Bahamian chain of out islands. In this painting I tried to capture the feel of the salt air, the ever-changing hues of blue in the out island waters. The people I met along the way were mostly poor and hard-working with a deep understanding of nature and the rhythms of the sea.