NJ County Fair 2023

 Art in Sussex County, our local group that runs the art show for Sussex County residents has set "TOYS" as the theme for invited members.  At first I found this daunting as I was stuck in a play and games perspective until I ultimately arrived at the objects, toys themselves.   Thanks to my wife I found her trove of toys gathered for our grandchildren's play and set about to feature them in my paintings.  The first is a gathering I call "Friends" featuring Sponge Bob but also echoing a perennial favorite, the Teddy Bear.  What a great range of emotions, from Patrick's manic glee, Puss in Boots smugness, Squidward's melancholy to Teddy's affectionate embrace.

Sponge Bob and Friends

A second entry has more of a Victorian era feel to it.  I propped our young straw hatted lady friend in the rocking chair and placed the infant doll in the young girl's arm.  I also thought that the doll house over her right shoulder echoed the "toys" theme pretty well.

Rocking chair girls.

A few other paintings for the Little Gallery.  The first is a plein air I did at Millbrook Village a recreated colonial village,  Recreated here means, I think,  the buildings are authentic but have been moved to this site to create what a village looked at in that time.

Spandenburg cabin

Another intriguing  building is this cabin deep inside Stokes State Forest.  It is located near a lake and swimming area/.  I caught in in Autumn.

Cabin in Stokes State Forest

I have also been painting some farm animals since the fair is mainly agricultural.

Guernsey cow.

 

Mules

Bull (Akayushi)

 

Spring

 This spring the Sussex County Art Society renewed our do-your-own-thing sessions where members paint or draw and share critiques with others.  In preparation for the County Fair where the theme for the art show is TOYS  JW brought in a unique teddy bear which I used and fashioned an office scene.

The Professor

In the plein air mode I once again tackled the white clapboard Presbyterian Church in town.  With some studio work and a critique at our spring picnic  I reduced the foliage so that the church caught the eye more strikingly.  The goal was to capture the vertical and joyful thrust of the steeple in tension with the horizontal angle of the trees pointing toward the grave yard.  Heavy stuff!

Also on the agenda was preparing some works for "The Little Gallery" at the upcoming Sussex County (and NJ State) Fair this summer.  I chanced on some photos of sailing/racing boats and thought a group of them would make an appealing splash.

Sails 1

Sails 2

Sails 3

Sails 4

 

Winter in Florida

• Once again I spent few weeks n Florida for the chance to play golf and paint.   I hooked up with plein  air painter Shawn Del Joyce who works outdoors from October thru March in the Pinellas county (Tampa)  area.  This first effort was tasked to put birds in the picture so I tried to capture some small ducks in this marshy area across from a boat launch in the background.

Weaver Park near Dunedin

The second outing was under the causeway of the Clearwater access.  It serves as a fishing pier.  I captured a service building and some palm trees that reminded me of Winslow Homer's Florida paintings.  I also added some birds, but those atop the building could use more definition.

 

                                                          Clearwater Fishing Pier

I looked for some attractive barns, but was disappointed that most were not appealing ( mostly flat open rectangles, I assume because of the high temps) and paled in comparison to those in the Northeast  where we are rich with such structures.  Nonetheless I found one horse barn that served well enough.

                                                         Horse barn Pasco county

Lastly I found a photo that reminded my host of the scenic area and older vacation homes on the Cotee river.  This was once a retreat for Hollywood stars and famous golfers in the 1920s..  I did a rendering of that photo and left it as a gift.

                                               Reminder of New Port Richey's Cotee river.

 

2022 Hilltop Show

 These six watercolors were part of the recent show.  Each framed painting is available for purchase ($300) through the school or you can contact me at pbiesty82@gnail.com  or 973-729-5345.

East Shore Beach Lake Mohawk

Grey Barn Hampton

Jersey Marsh birds

Hillside Houses near Lk Mohawk Marina

Van Kirk Homestead in snow

Yellow Barn Lafayette

Heading Toward Christmas

 Christmas 2022

My card this year returns to one of my favorite venues, White Deer Plaza in Lake Mohawk. This year I conjured a snow storm outside the old Crane Realty office (now Coldwell Banker)  and gave them a few extra holiday lights.

October.

In the autumn I tried to take advantage of the Wallkill Valley Plein Air event, but only for the quick draw contest.  The site was the City Winery property which is in an old mill building complex in Montgomery NY, on the Wallkill river..  Artist are given just two hours to complete, frame and present their work.  There were approximately one hundred artists present and it was a lot of fun but maddening as I had never tried to hurry up a painting in this fashion before.  I had to work on it in my studio after getting home

Great practice and I think I would try it again next year. I tried to emphasize the perspective looking down an alley toward some wine fermentation vats.

Plaza Shops

One of the popular shops in White Deer Plaza is Garlic and Oil.  I tried to capture the curiosity of these shoppers on a sunny day.   The shadows give a little sense of depth.

Another summer picture was this boat house that sits on Manitou Island and is seen from my deck. I like the way the  noontime sun hits the building.

Redo

One painting of a barn in York Pa. always appealed to me because it had a mystical, other worldly quality.  Note the see through windows in the back wall of the barn.  But I decided it would have more appeal as a gritty, dirty working hands quality if I pumped up the texture of barn boards and the dirt in the road.  Mostly this was an exercise in adjusting the values to a more contrasted key and changing the old focal point from a vague blue reaper to a brighter orange, more dominant one in the lower right quadrant, even as the blue reaper is also pumped up.

 

   

Old barn --ethereal

 

New barn -- earthy

 

Trees

 Christmas trees are a common subject on holiday cards.  It was a challenge to do something original.  This is a version of the tree that we have in our living room.  Last year I did a card with a view of it from outdoors.  This is a more. sparkly indoor view.  Our Christmas card for 2021.

A different tree is the great old oak tree that stands on the Van Kirk homestead property, which is the home today of the Sparta Historical Society.  It is at least two hundred years old.  I did this from a photo that I took last May when the leaves were  just coming out.  The man at the utility shed on the right is there to give a sense of scale to this magnificent tree.

Focal Point

 I have noticed over the years that my paintings suffer from having more than one focal point.  This is probably due top my efforts to include more information than is called for.  Partly, I think, from a reliance on photo references.  So my forays into plein air is getting me to be more attentive to a single focal point.

This first painting of AJA stables is an example.  In the original painting my eye went to the side of the barn, but there was nothing to anchor it there.  So I added a few horses at the railing.  Hopefully it works!

The other info, the woman and horse, the hay bales contribute to the story.  They no longer distract.

Another focal point exercise from White Deer Plaza in Lake Mohawk is Lake House Cafe, where I try to get the viewer to attend to the pinkish umbrella and  the diners' blouse.

And the most recent plein air is the Sunken Garden  again at White Deer Plaza on Lake Mohawk.  There are many possibilities for distraction, but hopefully the arched bridge wins out.

And finally a summer plein air that now hangs in my granddaughter's apartment in South Carolina, to remind her of  vacation from college.