Blue Cypress Gator Bait

This is a plein air painting completed in 2 1/2 hours at Blue Cypress Lake near Vero Beach, Florida. I had just completed setting up and blocking in the composition when someone yelled from a nearby pier that there was a very large gator headed my way. I have never seen a gator in the wild before, so I was more curious than afraid. The gator is not in the painting because it was resting just to the left of the canvas view. I was close enough to the bank for it to take me out if it wanted to...they run very fast, I found out later. But I knew that in about a half hour, the sun was going to hit the orange colored lake bottom and light up the little patch of water that was my subject, and I refused to leave. I moved very slowly as to not startle or arouse the curiosity of the creature. Normally, I spend 3 hours on a plein air painting, but I finished this one in record time at 2 1/2 hours.