Vacation Idyll

Jamaica.  

Away from the beaches it feels very old and foreign.  Definitely its own country.

From the beaches the water is that glowing, translucent blue that means the tropics to us northerners.

I chose to travel with pastels thinking it might be easier.  But Jamaican customs had other ideas.

Near Negril   

Pastel 6" x 8"

Glass Bottom 

Pastel 6" x 6"

Catching Up

Not having posted this year, due to dramatic changes in my life, I decided posting was severely overdue, lest I gave it up altogether.

The painting below was started as a plein air last summer, finally finished a few months ago.  It's the painting underway in the blog post of me in the red apron under the umbrella.  The photo was taken at Duck Dance Farm, which was part of Pioneers of the Blue Ridge event.

In the coming week I'll be at the second North Carolina Plein Air Open, a great event with many interesting and talented artists. It takes place in Salisbury which has many finely restored homes and a wonderful train station.  The Waterworks Gallery is the center for this event.

The Pond at Duck Dance
5" x 7" Oil on Panel

New Pioneers of the Blue Ridge

My painting group has mounted a gallery exhibit focusing on the new agricultural practices in our Blue Ridge mountain community.   Tobacco is no longer the main crop.  Young people have pioneered organic farming and the farm to table movement.

This farmer, Jim Edwards, caught my attention at the weekly farmers' market.  He was so proud of his pumpkins.

In a later conversation he disclosed that he worked at the youngest on the some of the same land he farms now.  Then it was a dairy farm, now there are beans, corn, pumpkins and bell peppers.  To fund his college education Jim raised beef and tobacco.

The Pumpkin Man

Oil  8" x 10"

       
                                                 

The Maritime Life

There is more to the Jersey Shore than the beach.  There is also a maritime community that was pounded by Hurricane Sandy, but has been renewed.

Here's a little boathouse and dock that's been rebuilt.  Beyond is Little Egg Harbor, although vast it can be very shallow, 2 to 3 feet in many places,  making for distinctive boats with low drafts.

Maritime Life
Oil 5" x 7"

Camp Yonahnoka and Grandfather Mountain

A plein air event was held at Camp Yonahnoka with a stunning view of Grandfather Mountain and Lake Kawahna.  The best part was meeting new painters in the Linville area.  What a blast.

In this painting I was interested in creating values and thereby form with each brushstroke.  It's quite a discipline.

Grandfather and Lake Kawahna
Oil 6" x 6"

Lots of Plein Air

Beautiful weather and painting, what could be better.   Roan Mountain was not to be missed this time of year.  I was lucky enough to meet two members of the North Carolina Plein Air Painters who were there as well.   Scott Boyle, the founder, was there as well as Craig Franz.  I like painting with other painters because one is less of a novelty to the public.  The site of the painting is the old Cloudlands Hotel, only part of a foundation remaining.

Stormy Cloudlands
Oil
5" x 7"

Another plein air event at Duck Dance Farm was to gather material for the Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild exhibit "Renaissance of the Family Farm".    Since I struggled with the values of the Roan painting a monochromatic study was in order for me.  Kat Turczyn, who organized the event, was kind enough to send me this snapshots.

It's studio time now, the exhibit opens in a month.

A Very Long Hiatus

Never thought in March that so much time would elapse before the next posting.  Two trips to my old home town, Princeton, with added excursions to Philadelphia and the Jersey shore which I had not seen since Hurricane Sandy.  The devastation was much more considerable than what I witnessed in Florida as noted in my previous post.

I'm back in the Blue Ridge, plein air painting which I abandoned a year ago due to medical problems.  Today we were at the Green Toe Ground, an organic farm which started at a CSA and now sells at farmers' markets and supplies restaurants.

Lettuce Fields

Oil  5" x  7"

                                The fields have the bright glowing green of early summer.   

     The Green Toe Ground gets its unusual name from the Toe River which flows next to this field.

                                It's hatchery stocked with trout and its purity is taken seriously.

 .Plein air painting resumes on Saturday at the Farmer's Market