It’s early Thursday morning and Katherine Larson and her fellow artists are outdoors capturing on canvas the scenes that dot our local landscape. Roadside produce stands, boardwalks and buildings, preserves and pastures are just a few of the images that inspire Treasure Coast Plein Air members, a group Larson formed not long after moving to Vero Beach five years ago.
How Larson, who has been making her living as an artist for four decades, discovered our sweet slice of paradise is one of those “once upon a time,” tales that began in 2016 when she was commissioned to paint a mural at the Sunset Beach Inn on Sanibel Island.
Larson’s brown eyes light up as she recalls what was to be a major turning point in her life. “I left my home in Michigan, where it was 20 degrees, and arrived at the inn, where it was sunny and warm. My client had put me up in a room about 200 feet from the water. The view was incredible. That night I went to sleep with the windows wide open, listening to the sound of waves, and woke up to see the sun just starting that little red line as it began to rise. I was the happiest I’d ever been in my whole life…