Tuscarora State Park on Lake Ontario

After two weeks of painting travels, schedule conflicts and distractions I am pleased to be home and back on schedule with the Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters and hope to rejoin my Thursday group as well. Unfortunately I missed several of my favorite locations this summer, but I did get to Tuscarora State Park with our group.

I found a clean and smooth log to sit on which turned out to be quite lumpy after the first hour as well as the high speed runway for carpenter ants and other beach creatures. After my time in the mountains with assorted unnamed critters, the ants were no problem as long as they only crossed my lap.

Sitting low in the shade, my view of Lake Ontario early in the morning was clear and colorful, the horizon was like a deep green streak against the blue sky, as the water came toward shore it changed several times in long bands, getting darker and lighter until weak bits of waves nibbled at the shore, barely creating a wake and not much more than a ripple at times. An assortment of grey and tan rocks at the water's edge balance the uneven clouds drifting over the water. Just another beautiful day!

Rainbow Lake oil 10x20, 2012

My newest email newsletter!

Kath Schifano, August 2012 news

Getting ready for Lewiston Art Festival and an evening at the Youngstown Yacht Club with my art and a few other artists, it is time to get out my first newsletter of the year. Considering the number of repeating emails we get, I cannot be bothering anybody with this one!

Ocean Painting, Long Island, NY

c. kathy schifano

At the end of Ohio Street in Long Beach, Long Island, a well worn jetty of massive rocks tangles with waves and tides to maintain the beach, just one of a series of jetties on this barrier island.

This ocean spot brought me back to growing up nearby, when Jones Beach was my playground, piles of friends jammed into cars or onto the bus, sometimes hitching a boat ride across the bay to get to the ocean. White sand for miles, huge waves and the smell of coconut oil mixed with blasting radios defined my summers.

A hot and sunny week in Long Beach was an opportunity to study the waves and tides and record a series of paintings around this jetty. Morning and evening visits with both oils and pastels created a challenge, to catch the perfect wave, observe the splash of a breaking wave and the colors of sky and sea.

Tide on the Jetty, pastel 9x12 2012