The Shadow Chasers - Capturing Florida's Natural Landscape on Canvas

ARTS-Plein-yolanda-lede0726 — Yolanda Barreto serves as coordinator of the Shadow Chasers, a Plein Air group that meets to paint each Wednesday, at various locations in Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Pinellas Counties. Photo | Michele Miller

Plein Air – Of or relating to painting in outdoor daylight
Miriam Webster Dictionary

Plein air painting at Hudson Beach by Mary Ellen Caesar
Photo | Michele Miller

By Michele Miller
What’s What New Port Richey

The Gulf offers a serene, placid landscape as members of the Shadow Chasers Plein Air Artist Group get to work under a covered shelter at Hudson Beach. They set up their easels. Lay out their canvas on picnic tables. Pull out their supplies. Paintbrushes. Watercolors. Oils. Pastels. Soluble ink. Acrylic markers. Pencils. Sketchbooks.

Over the next couple of hours, the Shadow Chasers create their own take of the scenery with easy conversations carried by the slight breeze and a little amusement courtesy of the group’s “mascot,” a Jack Russell Terrier named Phoebe who’s a regular and constant companion of Steven Benevides of Hernando Beach.

There’s an easy atmosphere with the artists chatting between strokes and sharing thoughts on what this plein air artist group means to them. Why they make it a point to pack up their supplies on Wednesday mornings and venture out into nature to capture on canvas or sketchbook or with a camera, a variety of picturesque spots on Florida’s North Suncoast

Among them is Patricia Hart Liegel, from Hudson, who boasts a professional background in the field, having formerly owned a gallery on Long Island, NY, before retirement.

“Now I do this just for fun – no pressure,” she said, adding that a couple of her favorite places to paint are the Botanical Gardens in Spring Hill and the historic Hacienda Hotel that abuts Sims Park and the Pithlachscotee River in downtown New Port Richey.

“For years I painted from pictures. I just like the freedom of painting outside.”

And the company is wonderful, as well.

“It’s just a really good group of friends,” she said. “We do lunch later, and that’s always great.”

For Judy Johnson, part of the lure beyond the desire to paint is the freedom of doing whatever you want – maybe even turning the beach bathrooms into a rustic fisherman’s shack. Typically she would employ oil paints, but with her art supplies packed away for an upcoming move, she was content to sketch in a notebook, coloring the rest with acrylic markers.

Judy Johnson’s sketchbook is filled with local landscapes, including this one she painted at Crews Lake Park in Spring Hill.
Photo | Michele Miller

While Judy counts herself among the regulars, she notes that others are always welcome to stop in for a day, whether they are visiting or on vacation and need a creative fix, or they are simply looking to try something new.

For others, the charm of the natural landscape that gets them out.

“I just love the wide open skies of Florida,” said Mary Ellen Caesar, a retired teacher and former principal from Massachusetts who was recently named “Artist of April” by the Nature Coast Art League.

“It’s a lot prettier here,” said Steven Benevides, another New England transplant, noting that he also enjoys the freedom to choose your own vantage point to paint from. “Usually we’re more spread out, but with the heat today, we’re all under here (the shelter).”

Yolanda Barreto, who favors watercolors, is the coordinator for the Shadow Chasers and works closely with Jana Withers, a well-known local artist. A former educator and school principal from Puerto Rico, Yolanda started painting about 2 years before moving to the United States, while taking advantage of a community arts program being offered at her school.

Joining local arts groups was an essential step in adapting and flourishing in her new home in Florida.

“This group is fantastic,” she said while painting a stretch of houses hugging the Hudson Beach shoreline. “There are no strings. No fees. Anyone can join. Just come with your supplies and sketch, paint or take pictures. Be with nature.”

“This is good for mental health. It helps you grow as an artist,” she said, nodding to the coastline to the north. “I’ve tackled this same scene in so many different ways.”

The group meets from 9 to 11:30 a.m. each Wednesday, typically spending a month or two at the same spot. Sometimes they meet outside the historic Hacienda Hotel in Sims Park, at Mary’s Fish Camp, Beasley Farms, Chinsegut Hills, Hernando Beach, Crews Lake Park, and Hudson Beach, where the plein air artists will be meeting weekly through August, since the gulf breeze and the shelter offer some respite from the sweltering summer sun.

There are about 80 members on the books, Janna said, adding that about 25 attend regularly, with attendance typically dwindling during the summer months as snowbirds have headed north.

“You never know who’s going to show up because everyone has their own schedules,” Jana said.

Many of the artists sell their art, have their own websites, and are members of other area art groups, Yolanda said. Some have placed in area competitions and juried art shows, most recently with two members of the group coming away with a handful of prizes at the Booker Creek Plein Air Festival held in February 2026.

While the group is burgeoning with talent, beginners, or those who have been away from the craft, should not be thwarted.

“There’s no judgment if you are a beginner. People are helpful. Some of our members have given workshops on plein air – the do’s and don’ts. You can’t bring all your supplies. You should bring a hat, bug spray, water, sunscreen. Things like that. “

“We socialize, and we share, but we don’t judge,” said Yolanda, noting that it’s a casual gathering that welcomes artists of all ilks, including photographers, journalers and pretty much anyone who wants to show up. “We welcome everyone. We even had a jewelry maker join us, and a homeschooling mom who brought her kids.”

And, as artists are inclined to, some skip the script to do their own thing, coloring outside the lines, so to speak, and adding their own touches.

Kathy Detrano, an artist from Tarpon Springs, has a slew of awards on her walls and an unexpected, later-life stint after having spent her working career in the high-tech field.

While others were capturing the Hudson Beach landscape, she was creating a pastel drawing of a photograph she took on a cool September morning while on an artist retreat in the South of France.

“I come to be here with the people,” she said.

In the 11 years the Shadow Chasers have been meeting, they have seen and documented on canvas changes that have occurred in the local landscape.

“We try to do as much as we can because so much of it is disappearing,” Jana Withers said, aluding to the ongoing boom in construction in area counties.

Jana, who loves all mediums but favors oils because “it’s so forgiving,” spent her time painting over an old landscape, concentrating on three palm trees and omitting the Hudson Beach parking lot from the scene.

“It’s great stress relief. It really is,” she said as the Shadow Chasers began to pack up to head for their traditional lunch date, held on this day at the Inn on the Gulf.

ABOUT

The Shadow Chasers Plein Air Group meets from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at various sites on the North Suncoast. During the month of August, they will meet at Hudson Beach in Hudson. For more information, visit their Facebook page here or contact Yolanda Barreto at 787-517-6455.