Tonawanda Riverwalk Prize

Art on the Riverwalk is a wonderful Sunday afternoon show in Tonawanda along the Niagara River. This was the 14th year and I had participated once before. SInce then we were always busy that weekend with family visiting and the 4th of July weekend. This year, I was free to attend and applied.

The wind blew gustily all day but the tent stayed up and people came by to cool off with the river breezes. Kids ran around, bicycles and skates passed walkers on the path and it was a simply fabulous day to sit out and chat with happy people.

I was assigned spot #9 by trees, close to my car and the comfort station, next to two painters displaying on the snowfences and a ceramic potter.

The organizers and PArtners in Art Gallery secured prizes locally which made the exhibit extra special. The painting above took the Jenna Koch-Tonawanda City Council President Award, an Honorable Mention green ribbon as well as a cash prize donated by Jenna Koch.

The painting reflected the day as it was painted during a similarly windy event. A hurricane whirled a distance off shore. The gusting winds lifted the crests of the tumultuous waves and created roosters of mist. Sturdy clamps held my board steady on a weighted tripod. It was fun to paint it!

Wave Watching (From the Boardwalk) 9x12 oil on carton 

Studio painting from a plein air reference.

Using my own plein air painting as a reference for a large painting is pretty unusual. I have 'tried' it twice before and although I like to work on large paintings I do not like to work from flat references. I have become used to working from life, in real places, with real items, real people, not photographs or paintings.

This is an original plein air painting, 'Slack' which is 9"x12". I did it at my favorite jetty, the end of Ohio Street in Long Beach NY in 2013.

I reproduced it in the winter of 2015-16 for a gallery that wanted large images of my ocean scenes. This was a challenge but also fun, and a bit frustrating. It was hard to capture the sparkle of a summer morning on the shore while I was standing in the studio with a snowy winter window view next to me. The larger rocks on the easel picture are the size of the original plein air painting. The painting is 30" by 40" and is curing in the studio now. It takes a long time for oil paint to thoroughly dry after the surface seems dry.

Day 3 of 5 paintings Facebook Challenge

Day 3 of the 5 day art challenge to post 3 artworks a day for 5 days. In the spirit of celebrating friends from the past, and showcasing their art, today I nominate Sarah Louisa Burns to join this challenge and post her amazing knitted sculptures-or other work- hopefully with her hilarious comments 3 each day for 5 days.
Today's subject is the ocean-all plein air, all from the same spot by the Ohio Street jetty, Long Beach, Long Island, NY. I am visualizing warm sunshine and bare feet on sand as snow gently falls in my yard.
1. Incoming Tide, 8x10 oil
2. Waiting For the Big One, 12x24 oil
3. Slack, 12x16 oil

 — with Sarah Louisa Burns.

Off the Boardwalk in Long Beach

For the past two years, I have been told that I should paint on or near the boardwalk in Long Beach. Finally, I went, to the exact spot I was told to go, which was by the fancy new and expensive hotel. It was fairly quiet there when I started, but as the tide went out more people were set up in all directions, tanning, reading, scrolling on their phones and partying with scrumptious picnic baskets. It got fairly crowded and full of rented chaise lounges and blue umbrellas from the hotel.

I was the only one standing around, long sleeves, long paints, wide brimmed hat, flimsy white umbrella hoisted high like a flag and the interesting thing is...I was invisible. No one spoke to me or stopped to look, or apologized for walking in front of me (that normally happens a lot). The hoi polloi did have exquisite bathing suits, matching towels and sandals, spray on tans, perfect hair and skin, nipped tucked, plucked and primped like models. The one mile between my normal painting spot and this one could have been a hundred as it was another world altogether. This 12x16 oil came out perfect, so I'm glad I went!

'Near the Boardwalk', 12x16 oil on board

'You Are There' a P4P art exhibit

Eight plein air ocean paintings based on the Ohio Street Jetty are displayed at Artists Space Gallery on Main Street in Buffalo as part of the Painting for Preservation group. The title of the exhibit is "You Are There". Without a written explanation, I hope you would feel the power of water and weather, the changes around an ocean barrier and the mood of an ocean.

Sara Zak invited a group of the P4P painters and photographers to show, but the focus was not our preservation paintings, rather, work of our own choice that illustrated the theme. Looking at the work, I was intrigued by the powerful images displayed. 

They are shown here grouped within an architectural plaque on the entrance wall, but by the time the final show was hung they were moved a bit further down the wall, into a wider format. 

'Sand Painting' 9x12 oil on birch with plenty of authentic beach sand in the paint.

Back to Long Beach, Long Island. This is the jetty directly to the East of Ohio Street and the first time I strayed from my usual rocks. It attracted me because the ocean had piled the sand so high on one side while it was deeply carved on the west. Later in the week a hurricane was out at sea, causing the surf at high tide to push this particular sand right over the rocks, making it more even on each side. The pleasures of plein air: documenting change.

Setting up, preparing my palette and unpacking my supplies proved to be the source of the title, a fresh palette of paint (and probably more paint than I usually use as I was planning two) acts like a frisbee when buffeted by the wind. Not bungeed down yet, the wood palette landed fairly sideways in the sand. Sounds safe? No. Enough sand had been carried in the air and kicked up that the paints were fairly tan. I used it anyway after scraping some of the worst lumps and gained a painting with an awful lot of texture. My main brush took a beating as well, pushing around the paint wore out a fair number of precious hairs, leaving me with a ferrule full and a brush partly worn.

Sand Painting, 9x12 oil on birch board

Plein air sand

Late in the day, families pack up, as beach blankets and umbrellas are set up for the day and used from morning to sunset. These late afternoon umbrellas attracted me as their vibrant colors contrasted with the slightly overcast sky.  There are a series of spots near the center which are sand from the day of the painting. I could easily brush them off, but they are too authentic! Pure plein air with proof!

Beach Sentries 11x14 oil on panel

Hurricane Arthur painting

A long planned vacation and family get together in Delaware was an opportunity to paint at the beach...right off the balcony of our apartment as this painting happens to be. The beach is actually deeper than this and the water does not come so high, but this was from a storm that had hit the Outer Banks and was visible as it careened out to sea.

"Arthur" was painted the morning of the first US hurricane of 2014. The waves were picking up and eventually crashed onto the beach, halfway to our apartment. It was thrilling, but hard to paint a moment as the light changed so quickly in the storm. 

'Arthur', 9x21 oil

A Published Painting

My painting, 'Coffee Time, Long Beach Morning' is featured this week in 'Why This Works' by Jeanne Mackenzie. Click HERE to see the article published in an international online magazine.

Part of the pleasure of being a plein air painter involves crawling websites for great new artwork, sharing ideas and techniques with other artists and discovering how much wonderful art is being produced worldwide under the banner of 'plein air'.

Weekly letters and magazines, blogs, personal websites, journals and social media keep us connected. I have been fortunate to know painters all over the country, to meet and often paint with my artist friends at parks and vistas wherever I travel. The Publisher's Invitational event in the Adirondacks is one of the best places to meet new people and share experiences as artists. I joined them the inaugural year and returned to attend 3 times, the 4th event coming in 2014 may be the first I miss. However, my friendships are permanent. One site I was introduced to there is at OutdoorPainter.com, an online weekly magazine that features events and people, which chose this painting for a feature.

Coffee Time, Long Beach Morning, oil 10x20 K. Schifano

Long Beach, Long Island Paintings August 2013

Coffee Time in LB, AM., oil on canvas board, 12x24
Maybe this seems a little dark, but morning on the ocean is hazy and peaceful. The tide came in, swirled around my ankles sinking the easel supports just as I finished.

Living the Salt Water Life, oil on board 8x16
Beat flat by Hurricane Sandi in September 2012, the sand dunes along the beach were plowed back and planted with hardy beach grasses. The light on the dge of the dune stopped me right on the street. It will be interesting to see how much more has grown by next summer.

Observation, oil on canvas board 8x10
Love these rocks! As the tide and sunlight changes, the green starts to glow on these boulders, nearly underwater during high tide, but full of swirling water, shells and bubbles the rest of the time.

I painted this jetty angle twice, the more abstract of the two remains in Long Beach, collection of Francis Marion.

Slack, oil on canvas board, 9x12
Perhaps my favorite of the week, this is the same composition I painted with pastels last year. No matter how devastating the storm was to homes and the city of Long Beach, these boulders were impervious, stalwart in their assigned locations. The title comes from slack tide, when the incoming and outgoing forces of tide water is fairly even.

Summer's Missed, oil on BFK paper 8x22
This panorama is emotionally charged, a Labor Day painting symbolizing the end of summer lifeguards and lazy days as well as beach and salt water time I gave up by moving off Long Island and across the state. I miss the ocean, but not much else.

Van Gogh at the Beach, oil on board 5x7 
After completing one of my 'stand up at the easel' oils, I sat on the blanket as the waves came in right at my eye level. I took a few photos, but realized that I wanted to paint this power, and I had a spare little board with me. Trying to catch this enormous power right in front of me, I poured on the paint, frequently using a painting knife to sculpt the color.