How about some recent birds?

Roseate spoonbills are always popular in Southwest Florida.

A male osprey flew above me.  Females have a brown "necklace" while male breasts are either white like this one or have only a very pale necklace.

A juvenile brown pelican flew just above the water.

A male blue-winged teal duck led its female.

Red-bellied woodpeckers seem nervous, always looking around.  Maybe because they are worried that someone will discover that their bellies have barely any red on them.

Got to be ready to catch the moment a great egret takes off.

Matisse

Naples Art's current exhibition shows 140 of Henri Matisse's later works.

The exhibition includes line drawings and colorful prints.

One of Matisse's most famous works is The Dance, a colorful exploration of movement.  The large original painting  is in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia,  Matisse made numerous prints of The Dance, including this one. 

The exhibition also included a video, including discussion by Matisse's grandson.

DAAS CO-OP

DAAS Co-OP shares a property with the Alliance for the Arts.  It is an art gallery and artists studio cooperative. Their gallery operates under a unique system of community and cooperation, which means that all artists participate, collaborate, coordinate and tend to all business matters as one team.

 I visited and had lunch with friends.  It is a wildly colorful place.

Alliance for the Arts

Alliance for the Arts is a small gallery in Fort Myers, primarily for exhibitions of works by amateur or little known artists.

 This sculpture is Space Cadet by Paul "KINI" Firmin.

Trees of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates

 Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and their friend Harvey Firestone planted many exotic trees on the Edison and Ford properties in an effort to find a good supply of rubber for Ford's automobiles.

An absolutely massive banyan tree stands beside Edison's laboratory.

This big tree stands at the edge of the property, overlooking the Caloosahatchee River.

Other huge trees are on the lawns of the Edison and Ford houses.  The root systems fascinate me.

Edison and Ford Winter Estates

 

Thomas Edison first came to Fort Myers in 1885. He was a well-known inventor in search of a warm escape from the cold northern winters. On his first trip to Southwest Florida he purchased more than 13 acres along the Caloosahatchee River. 

Edison returned to Fort Myers in 1886 with his new bride, Mina. For the next six decades the Edison family enjoyed their winter retreat, a main house called Seminole Lodge and an adjoining guest house.

In 1914, Henry and Clara Ford, along with their son Edsel, visited Fort Myers at the invitation of Thomas Edison. They enjoyed the visit so much that two years later, Ford purchased the home adjacent to the Edison Winter Estate. The two-story riverfront home was built in the Craftsman architectural style.

Ford's home is called The Mangoes.  Mrs. Ford sold Seminole Lodge to the City of Fort Myers in 1947 and a subsequent owner of The Mangoes sold it to the City in 1980.  Both have been open to the public since 2000.

Happy Birthday, George Washington

Our country's first President deserves his annual birthday post.

Gilbert Stuart's 1810 Allentown Portrait of George Washington.

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Mismatched

In Southwest Florida we often see a grand house next to a modest one.

 

  The usual explanation is that the big one is relatively new, after an owner or developer acquired another modest house, knocked it down and replaced it with the current big house.

Gulfshore Boulevard North

Along Gulfshore Boulevard North in Naples, in the vicinity of the Village Shops on Venetian Bay, there are numerous towers with apartments or condominiums.  This one has interesting lines.

Le Jardin is a luxury beachfront, condo development, a 20-story building with 52 units.  It was designed and built in 1998 by the Lutgert Companies. Some Le Jardin units look out on the Gulf of Mexico, others on Venetian Bay and the city of Naples.

Olde Naples

 The area north and south of Naples' main dining and shopping street, Fifth Avenue South, is called Olde Naples.  It can be quite beautiful but is also quite pricey.  Many streets are lined with beautiful old trees.  

This is a stretch of Third Avenue South, near Third Street South.  In Olde Naples, "avenues" run east and west, while "streets" run north and south.  Gulfshore Boulevard is what would otherwise be called First Street; houses on the west side of Gulfshore front on beaches and the Gulf of Mexico.  So, this is three blocks east of the Gulf beaches and two blocks north of the busy dining and shopping street.

Apartment Complex

 Driving north on U.S. Route 75 from Naples to Fort Myers, I have been noticing a colorful and attractive new apartment complex.  A week ago I exited the highway in that vicinity and drove up Estero's Three Oaks Parkway to take a look.

I applaud whoever came up with the color scheme for this large apartment complex.   There weren't any signs identifying it, but an internet search identified it as The Centro.   

Buck's Backyard

On Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fort Myers, there is an excellent mural honoring the famous jazz pianist Duke Ellington by Roland Ruocco.  It is one of many colorful murals by and about Black life in Fort Myers.  The murals are in a park where there was a music venue called Buck's Backyard years ago.

Many of the murals depict Black people dancing and Black musicians performing at Buck's Backyard.

Linked to Monday Murals.

FGCU

 

I visited the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University last week for some talks about the work being done by FGCU scholars to understand red tide, coral bleaching and other water issues affecting Southwest Florida.  FGCU is less than 30 years old and already has about 16,000 students. 

Journey of Hope

 

Cecilia Lueza's new two-part sculpture of an African American woman's head in front of a yellow sun circle stands in a small park on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fort Myers.

Valentine's Day

Let's see what love photos I took in the past year (apart from photos of my family, of course).

In June, the New York street artist HEKTAD showed some works at Ridgefield's Colabella Fine Art Gallery.  HEKTAD uses hearts in many of his works, like this excellent Marilyn Monroe painting. 

In Norwalk, Connecticut, I came across two murals by @5ivefingaz about love.  Nice messages.

And in Hartford, Connecticut, I found a brightly colored "Love" mural by  Lisa Marie Thalhammer on the side of Parkville Market.

Happy Valentine's Day, folks.

License Plates

 Four cars with good license plates.

I was driving on the road to Sanibel.  Stopped in front of me was a car with a SANIBEL license plate.

I saw a gorgeous purple Porsche with a PRIMATE plate.  The owner said his wife and he operate a sanctuary for rescued primates.  They have about 120 primates.  It began when a friend's young monkey began to bite and misbehave as it got older, so his wife and he took it and created the sanctuary.

The owner wasn't around, so I couldn't ask if the car with a VTGAL plate belongs to a woman from Vermont or a woman who went to Virginia Tech.

ONE OF 60.  McLaren's "Triple Crown Stripes" Edition 750S supercar from 2024 is limited to 60 vehicles worldwide to celebrate McLaren's 60th anniversary and pay homage to McLaren's unique achievement in capturing the "Triple Crown of Motorsports" through winning the 1974 Indy 500, 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, and 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans races.  At Cars on Fifth last Saturday.