LBI Plein Air Event

 The annual Long Beach Island Plein Air event led me to visit the island several times.  One morning when it was foggy and cool I went to the Barnegat Lighthouse  State Park and caught a view that set the lighthouse off against the sea.  I used a little gouache on the railing when I got back to the studio.   This is a small painting , 16 x 19. 

Fog on Barney

In the Beach Haven area I joined a garden tour and painted a lush back garden that featured a long bar and stools.  The gardeners placed a huge bouquet on the bar.  A great accent piece that became the focal point of my painting.

Beach Haven Garden Bar

In the Ship Bottom area I tried multiple locations before settling on this early morning scene.  The sun is high from the east--a perfect time to get lost in a good book.  The pose was reminiscent of a John Singer Sargent painting.

Beach Read

Finally I was drawn back to the Viking Village area where the commercial fishing boats are docked on the bay side.   I thought the red boats and the red pickup truck struck  a theme.  I jazzed up the sky a little to make the scene more dramatic.

Red fishing boatss.

Summer and the Shore

 To indulge my interest in Plein Air painting I spent some days down at he Shore.  I did a workshop with Tom Rutherford, which unfortunately was interrupted with smoke related delays on the Garden State Parkway that prevented my travels at times.  Nonetheless, I got to practice some figure sketches on the boardwalk.  People walking in different directions give "action" to the picture -- dominated by the giant Octopus

Old Time Photos

The second was a bright Summer day on the Wildwood boardwalk.. Lots of figures to capture, again moving in different directions.  I'm getting better at putting people in the painting.  Thanks Tom.

Boardwalk Food

Sussex County Fair 2025

 Some local, that means rural, scenes have always appealed to me.  One is a farm I drive by anytime I am in Hampton Township.  I see it at a distance

  as I turn onto Kemah Lake road and then drive by, the farm on my right hand side.  It seemed perfect for the fair this year.

The second scene I selected was simply some horses standing amiably by a railing.  Th white horse evoked quiet equanimity that I labeled "Proud." 

January-Feb 2025

 Before heading to Florida to get outdoors for some Plein air painting and find different vistas I tried my hand at some more winter snow activities.  The first is a sledding event seen looking up the hill.

Look out below!

For many years  when the ice on Lake Mohawk froze deep and solid earlier in the season we used to ice skate right off the back lawn. It did have a hard freeze this year, but much later into the later part of January.  This painting is more my fanciful imagination of what it was like years ago,  Here looking from the ice to our house

Ice Skating 384

My colleague, Shawn Del Joyce has changed her Plein air painting  course to once a month (from once a week) so I was only able to take advantage of one of her sites,  Sand Key Park, which is near Clearwater Beach.  It is a great park with a long stretch of unbuilt beach area as well as some swampy areas and a small marina.  I chose a north view toward the high rise buildings of Clearwater Beach.

View from Sand Key

Another area worth painting was the sandy beach set up with umbrellas and facilities.  I spied some beach goers--not too many as this is not the high season in this part of Florida.  It was a warm day in the low 70s, but with a bright sun.

Early to the beach

Another trip was to Anclote Gulf Park, not far from New Port Richie. No beach here but lots of local vegetation. This young Live Oak at a bend in the road caught my eye.

 

Live Oak Anclote Gulf Park

Lastly I worked on the values in an old painting of the Rocky Mountains.  I think it helped the visual passage from foreground to background and the eye's travel around the painting.

Rocky Mountains in Colorado