April on the South Branch

Well now that the weather is warmer, I finally got back outdoors with my paintbox. Here's one I did last weekend - it's on the South Branch of the Raritan River near Three Bridges, NJ:

"April on the South Branch"
8x10 oil on panel

It's funny, even though I've been painting in the studio all winter, I feel pretty rusty painting en plein air. In the studio, all your supplies are nicely laid out and organized (relatively speaking). Out in the field, you carry a pretty minimal paint kit, and setting up your spot to paint isn't always so simple. Here there was a rocky cliff to my right, and very little flat ground to stand on so I placed a big flat rock in the river, and painted with one foot on that rock, the other on solid ground. This was pretty near the spot where I setup:

Besides finding a more comfortable spot to stand, there's a certain rhythm of work you develop when painting outdoors: packing your supplies and not forgetting anything important, choosing your locations, setting up your easel and laying out supplies, working in the confined space of your portable paintbox, painting quickly since the light changes so fast, chatting with canoeists as they paddle by (one thought my painting was awesome!) and a myriad of other things that add to the challenge.

I'll be painting outdoors primarily now so it will all come back to me, but that painting on the South Branch might be the last one with bare trees for a while because it's greening up very quickly around here. With the April showers here this week it almost seems like you can watch the buds opening, things are turning green so fast. Spring has definitely arrived!

Pinot to Picasso - Vintage 2008

The Arts Council of Princeton is having their annual fund raiser Pinot to Picasso this Friday, April 25. It's a wine tasting / art auction to raise money for the Arts Council. Local artists donate paintings which will be raffled off in a tombola style lottery. This is the painting I donated - it's a scene at Coventry Farm, on Elm Road, just outside of Princeton, NJ:

"Coventry Farm Boardwalk"
8x10 oil on panel

Tickets to the event are still available, details are on the Arts Council of Princeton's website. And I just love that title, Pinot to Picasso - Vintage 2008!

Winter Drive

In honor of spring, and the warm weather which finally arrived, I painted my first snow scene of the year! I regret letting another winter go by with no outdoor painting, but there was very little snow around here this winter, so I did this one from a photo of one of the few light snowfalls that we did have. It's looking down my driveway towards the street:

"Winter Drive"
24x18 oil on canvas

Here's a closeup of how I painted the drive - click this one for a larger image - I love to pile the paint on sometimes, and that seems to work well in snow scenes like this:

The Ferry House

You might have noticed that I like painting tree shadows on roadways, but this isn't a new painting, it's a new place where I'm showing my paintings:

The Ferry House
32 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
map and directions
Reservations: 609-924-2488

The Ferry House is a very nice restaurant in the heart of Princeton, NJ. My paintings are up now and should be there for a few months. I've never painted right in the town of Princeton but I'm showing some paintings that were done very nearby.

I'll have 15 to 20 paintings on display, here are a few of them:

"Rockafellow Road"
8x10 oil on board

"Clayton Park"
16x20 acrylic on canvas

"Wertsville"
20x16 oil on board

"Montgomery Windows"
11x14 oil on board

The Ferry House can get pretty busy, so reservations are recommended. Owner and chef Bobby Trigg is doing pretty well for himself and will be opening 2 additional restaurants in the area soon. If you've never been to The Ferry House, it's worth a visit.

And maybe I will paint that tree shadow across Witherspoon Street in front of The Ferry House someday...