Ever since Sam Vinikoff laid his eyes on the Everglades, he hasn't stopped painting the national park.

``You can't get bored of painting it,'' says Vinikoff, a London transplant, whose work hangs in galleries today and has amassed quite a following throughout the years. ``There's always something new to see when you go there.''

At 90, and battling severe arthritis, Vinikoff, who lives just north of Coral Gables, still manages to pay homage to nature -- only with a painting brush instead of pen.

While he is known best for his work on the River of Grass, his latest masterpiece to receive acclaim is actually an oil painting that shows an entirely different image.

Titled ``A View From Matheson Hammock,'' the painting illustrates just that at the park.

There are egrets and sea gulls hovering in a twilight sky, lush mangroves jutting out from beneath brackish water and in the distance Miami's skyline.

The painting was selected as the 19th Annual In the Park With Art's commemorative poster.

``We chose it because it depicts South Florida and the famous Matheson Hammock Park,'' said Yolly Buchmann, the president of the Cultural Council, a nonprofit made up of volunteers that brings artistic and cultural events to the South Dade community.

In the Park With Art continues this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Palmetto Bay Village Center, 18001 Old Cutler Rd.

Copies of Vinikoff's painting will be for sale as well as some of his original works.

Vinikoff began participating in the fair when it first kicked off in 1986. He says he is flattered by the council choosing his painting for its annual poster.

``It's a great honor,'' he says. ``I still get emotional when people say they like my work.''

His eyes sparkle with excitement when he recalls the first time he was recognized for his talent.

He was 9 and was asked to draw a few pictures, one of them being the House of Parliament in London.

``All the children were asked to do it and the headmaster liked mine so much he made a big deal of it,'' he says.

The praise prompted him to keep drawing, then painting, even while growing up poor. He had to go to work at age 12. He toiled in a garment factory.

``I always found a way to paint and to take classes whenever I could,'' says Vinikoff, the son of Russian Jews who fled the Communists taking over in 1917.

His parents met and married in London, where Vinikoff was born.

He has been passionate about continuing his painting even when he worked other jobs.

``The only time it was hard was when I was in the British army,'' he says.

He served for seven years and fought in World War II, working mostly as a radio operator. It is an experience he doesn't like to speak about.

After years of working in the garment industry for a company called Windsmoor, he decided to move to Miami in 1957 with his family. Here, he was able to earn a living as an artist by drawing caricatures at hotels in Miami Beach and at weddings. He even penned a book, How To Speak Yiddish: One Easy Lesson.

The book he says was filled with caricatures of all the characters he had met in his life.

These days, Vinikoff prefers to paint the characters he meets.

And he still ventures off to the Everglades as many as four times a week to paint there.

From sunrise to sunset, he will be with his easel, canvas and paint, peacefully absorbed in his surroundings. Sometimes, the park rangers who all know him will take him deep into the Everglades on swamp buggies so he can paint certain scenes.

Neither the heat nor the creatures bother him.

In fact, he'd rather not have it any other way.

``I'm an outdoorsman. I spent most of my life indoors working,'' he says. ``Coming from London where it's dark and gray outside -- [but] the Everglades has color and trees and animals. In the Everglades, you never know if you're going to see a bear or a panther or a snake ready to bite.''

He says he has seen them all. The thrill of it is just as exciting as when he notices something like the layers of color on a tree bark.

``You don't see them right away,'' he explains. ``But there are purples and Indian red and browns.''

Only the eyes, of an artist like Vinikoff would notice such a thing and he knows it.

``I consider myself a very lucky person to be alive,'' says Vinikoff. ``I may have a few days left, but I'll continue to do this till my dying days.''

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