First Annual Plein Air Invitational at Riverrun Gallery

"D&R Canal Bridge at Holcombe Farm"
11x14 oil on panel

Riverrun Gallery in Lambertville is hosting it's First Annual Plein Air Invitational, where 18 of the region's finest plein air painters were invited to show their work and I'll be one of the exhibiting artists.

The above painting is one that I'll have in the show. It was done earlier this summer at the Holcombe-Jimison Farm near Lambertville, NJ.

Truth be told, I had a small part in planning this show with gallery owner Ty Hodanish. Ty is a strong advocate of plein air painting and he thought it would be great to have a show where all of the work exhibited was painted on location. Plein Air simply means that the work was painted outdoors, on location, as opposed to being painted in the studio from photographs. At it's best, plein air paintings have a freshness and spontaneity that's hard to achieve in studio paintings.

Opening Reception is Saturday, Aug 8 from 7pm to 9pm.
The show runs August 8 through August 30 at:

Riverrun Gallery at Laceworks
287 South Main Street (Rt 29)
Lambertville, NJ 08530
609-397-3349
[map & directions]
Gallery hours: noon - 5pm daily, closed Tuesdays

Each artist will have 5 or so pieces in the show and with 18 artists, there should be a good variety of work to be seen: oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, with scenery ranging from Bucks County to New Mexico to NYC. It should be a good show, I hope you can make it!

Solebury Farm

"Solebury Farm"
8x10 oil on canvas on board

For this scene, I went to Carousel Lavender Farm in Bucks County, Pa to paint the lavender fields in bloom, but I ended up painting the view looking across the road at a different farm. You just never know what's going to inspire you until you get there.

Stony Brook Boulders

This painting was done at a place I discovered while exploring D&R Greenway properties for their upcoming plein air show. It's at the Northern Stony Brook Preserve, deep in the woods between Featherbed Lane and Mountain Church Road in East Amwell, NJ. I've walked the trails here before but never this section and WOW what a nice surprise it was when I reached this spot! It was such an incredibly peaceful place to spend a few hours painting (even though the mosquitoes were brutal). Stony Brook really lives up to it's name here.

"Stony Brook Boulders"
11x14 oil on panel

It's interesting how different my painting is from the photograph I took at the exact same spot. This illustrates one of the key ideas about painting on location: that it's not about copying what's in front of you, it's about capturing the artist's vision and feelings. When I look at my painting, it really is the place I remember being at. When I look at my photograph, I hardly recognize the place. It is the same place, I guess I just see it differently than my camera does:


People often tell me that my paintings are so good that they look like photographs. I know that's meant as the highest compliment but I hope people can appreciate that a good painting is much more than a photographic representation. Ideally it shows the artist's very personal way of looking at the world, and it gives you some sense of what inspired them enough to stop and paint.

Distant Pines

"Distant Pines"
8x10 oil on panel

This scene is on a D&R Greenway preserved farm near Lawrenceville, NJ. It's in a little valley very close to some major highways, but felt so isolated there that I may as well have been in Maine.

Palisades Highway Art Gallery

"Round Valley Dam Triptych"
16x60 acrylic on canvas
(3 * 16x20 canvases)

Palisades car insurance company will be exhibiting original works by area artists on some of the largest and most-viewed canvases in the state – New Jersey highway billboards! Artists are submitting work in an online contest where works will selected for the Highway Art Gallery. Visit their website and vote for your favorite submissions - I've submitted 10 paintings for consideration, which you can find by looking for my full name, Joe Kazimierczyk. Voters are also entered into a contest where you can win a 'New Jersey driving destination prize' (but just cancel out of that box if you don't want to enter your contact information your vote will still count).

The painting above is one of my entries. It's an older painting of the roadway atop one of the dams at Round Valley Reservoir near Lebanon, NJ. Looking out over the reservoir is beautiful, but I just love the patterns of drainage channels and access roads on the side of the dam.

On the contest website, all of my entries were cropped to a format required for the billboards. So what you'll see isn't the entire painting but I tried to pick some that worked well in that format.

Dusk, Amwell Valley

"Dusk, Amwell Valley"
11x14 oil on panel

It's hard to believe that today is the first day of summer - it's cold outside and seem like it's been raining nonstop for a month or more. So it's the summer solstice and I'm in the studio painting snowy winter paintings. I'd rather be outdoors, but rainy days are a good time to sort through my photographs and I found this one, which really wanted to be painted. This scene is overlooking some farm fields on Wertsville Road, near Ringoes, NJ.

Ribbon of Life Opening Reception

Just a quick reminder that the opening reception for "Ribbon of Life" is this Friday, June 19 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

"Woolverton Lawn Chairs"
11x14 oil on panel

The exhibit features old photographs showing vintage views of the canal from the archives of the D&R Canal Commission, as well as contemporary views by regional artists, including my painting shown above.

The exhibit is presented by the D&R Greenway Land Trust in partnership with the D&R Canal Commission and Delaware Mill Society and is being held at:

Marie L. Matthews Gallery
at the Johnson Education Center
One Preservation Place, Princeton, NJ

Exhibition dates: May 18 - August 14, 2009
Opening Reception: June 19, 2009, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Artsbridge 15h Annual Juried Show

My 2-person show "Connections" is over now and I'd like to give a really big Thank You to everyone who came - it was one of the best shows I've ever had. A few of the paintings from that show will remain at the gallery through the end of June. But this painting from Connections, I entered in the annual Artsbridge Juried Show, and it was accepted:

"Princeton Battlefield Winter"
12x14 oil on canvas

This scene is at Princeton Battlefield Park, the place where General George Washington defeated the British troops in a surprise attack on January 3, 1777, one of the turning points in the American Revolutionary War. But it's a very peaceful place now.

The Artsbridge 15th Annual Juried Show opens on June 6 and runs through June 27, 2009 at:

RiverRun Gallery at Laceworks
287 South Main Street (Rt 29)
Lambertville, NJ 08530
609-397-3349

gallery hours: daily from 12:00 – 5:00 pm, except Tuesdays
Opening reception is Saturday June 6, from 6 to 9 pm.