Philadelphia Plein Air Painters: oil painting

This past week a few of the PPAP members along with myself took part in the 5th annual Camp Hill Plein Air event out in Camp Hill, PA, a very picturesque little town next to Harrisburg, nestled along the banks and rolling hills of the Susquehanna River.

Along with fellow former PAFA Alum, Charles Newman, Alina and William Sentman, I drove out from Philly to take place in the week long plein air event. For us, that was actually the hardest part-- the commute of two-hours each way along the turnpike, which added 4 hours to the long day of painting.

Even harder than that was the fact that on Monday, while driving out to have our canvases stamped for the event, my Jeep blew the 4-wheel Drive trans-axle on the turnpike as we neared Lancaster.

I hopped out of the Jeep as I pulled over just as a huge cloud of smoke billowed out of the engine! I popped the hood to see the engine or part of it on fire! Luckily I had plenty of bottled water in the back and Will and I were able to put the fire out. The Turnpike Safety Patrol rolled up a few minutes later to make sure the fire was out and I attempted to inch the jerking and clacking Jeep down to the next exit, but it was no go. The engine ran but the 4 wheel drive was toast! So a tow truck was called and $300 bucks later the Jeep and Will and I were parked at my mechanics 2 blocks from my house in Upper Darby. It turns out that a bearing in the trans-axle went bad, super-heated and blew the drive. That part of the story is still up in the air as I am still seeing if I will get a new car or fix the old 1996 Jeep.

So I rented a car for the week and a little lighter in the pocket went back to work on the strip Monday evening. Luckily the Camp Hill organizers were super nice and allowed William and Charles to drive out the next day and stamp all of our canvases for the event.

On top of that I was still under the heavy deadline of producing the Judge Parker newspaper strip all week. So after rushing out to paint and then rushing back home I'd still have to work late into the night on the strip to meet my deadlines. Needless to say this made me a bit tired, especially toward the end of the week. It was a rough week that way. I wanted to be fresh and sharp to paint but I had to many times make myself stop when painting and really think about what i was doing and not plop paint on or get lost in details too soon--all pitfalls of the tired painter.

Many participants for the event were local or fairly close and many stayed in local hotels, which we did do Friday into Saturday to be there early for the Saturday Quick Draw event. The Quick Draw--or really Quick Paint started at 9am, when you had to get your canvases stamped and then get your spot, set up and ready to paint between 10 and noon. So we would have to leave too early from Philly if we hadn't stayed over--and we were all increasingly tired each day.

The weather was not the best for us on Wednesday, the first day I was able to paint, with big periods of torrential rain. Another disadvantage for us not being local was finding a good spot to paint meant driving around and burning painting time as we were not familiar with the area. The event gave us a map of the area with suggestions of places of interest to paint.

While we were exploring spots to paint and watching the advancing and growing storms on the radar via our cell phones. The first spot we visited and eventually went back too was Negley Park. We meet 3-4 other painters there and enjoyed a little chat. Charles and William painted there on Tuesday after stamping our canvases and it offered many nice views and a large covered picnic pavillon. We drove around a bit more but it started raining really hard. After it stopped, we dropped Charles off below and then Alina and I went up to the picnic area and set up to paint.

On my phone I could see the storms building again and we could hear the thunder. Just as we found views we liked and I blocked out my painting--BOOM! I really came down.

The Passing Storm 12 x 16

So Alina and I painted under the picnic pavilion as the storms rolled past. I tried to capture the event in my painting and the storm made for some great atmosphere to paint. As the sun set and I rushed out to grab us some burgers to eat and then squeeked out this little painting in about 45 minutes.

Sunset Bridge 8 x 10

The day ended with a great sunset after the big storms.

Lunch with a bunch of our fellow painters and photographers

Alina and I drove back out to Lancaster on Thursday and searched for spots to paint, Will and Charles were not able to make it due to work. There were many beautiful sites we saw to paint as we drove around, but they were so often in spots you couldn't park or would have been set up 2 inches from the road with trucks and cars flying past you.

Eventually with the sun now past solar noon we found a nice spot with shade that offered a nice view of an Amish farm. When we pulled up there were also many cows, so we both thought-great! But as we set up, one by one the cows all got up and walked off!

Oh well.

So Alina and I went to quick work on or paintings in the hot sun, both of us in semi shade. Soon the mother and one of the daughters from the farm came over to see us and ask a few questions. The daughter even liked to paint herself-so I gave a mini-painting lesson and talked as I worked. A little later they came back, this time with more daughters and some meadow ice tea and cookies! They were super nice people and the cold tea and cookies hit the spot! I fought an constant barrage of spiders, ants and caterpillars in a steady pile-on as I painted away under the tree--I must have looked like I had some afflictions to those passing by as I was fencing and flicking bugs away. The bugs seemed to sense which paint dollop I was about to choose and plop right into it!

As we finished up our painting as the light had changed too much, the father came over with his son to watch.

After we were done and eating our cookies Alina and a stray chicken made friends!

Friday we drove back out and took our framed paintings to hang in the show. We could only choose two painting from the ones we completed during the week. I choose my two larger paintings, though to be honest I was kinda " eh" on both. I was off my grove between the Jeep, work and lack of sleep...but that's how the egg breaks.

The great news is that Charles got and honorable mention for his painting of the Bridge and the judge did give a shout out to both Alina and me for our paintings in the competition.

Another one of Charles paintings

We schmoozed and talked with many a fellow painter into the evening. It was great event but I was really drained from the week and on 3 hours sleep the roll-away cot at the hotel felt like heaven!

Yours truly in front of two of my paintings

Saturday we all got up early and hit the breakfast buffet and then got our canvases stamped and rushed to find our spots to paint for the Quick Draw! I stopped painting about 11:35 and rushed back to Willow Park to set up my painting for the judging.

The judge stopped and looked at my work about four times--so for a second I thought I might have stood a chance.

Here is my paintings of the Trinity Church

Williams painting in Willow park

And Alina's painting of the Space Potatoes which won the Artist Choice Award!

Alina with her winning painting

There were really big crowds for the Quick Draw as well as all kinds of great food and refreshments. People walked up and down the street too look at the work of all the artists lined up for the judge.

I am so happy for here and for the fact that us PAFA peeps took home a few awards from the event. So I hope to try and go back next year armed with the experience of this year and a better battle plan. Everybody at the Camp Hill Event made it a really enjoyable experience, so my hats off to them!

So it was a fun week of painting despite the obstacles that tried to make it seem as if it wasn't going to happen at all at certain points and its always great to paint with friends.

Over the Memorial Day weekend the PPAP hit the beach and boardwalk in Atlantic City for some sun, surf and plein air painting.The weather couldn't have been better, it was Goldilocks weather both days, and the beaches were crowded but not as packed as they will be later in the season when the weather and water will be a lot warmer.

The water must still be around 60 degrees and I only dipped into it up to my waste once for about 4-5 minutes before I was chilled to the bone.

Atlantic City is a fun place to paint and I want to go back and paint off the boardwalk back into the city itself. there are some pretty cool and very Edward Hopperesque buildings and spots to paint.

It gets kind of dicey pretty quick and the "magic' of the board walk doesn't stretch a block. But its in that area that you can also find interesting spots to paint some very interesting urban scenes. Lots of old and falling away places in AC that might be gone with the next hurricane of some new casino. We came across a very friendly stray cat while coming off the boardwalk and found out he was one of the many alley cats that are taken care of by the cool organization Alley Cat Allies who look after strays and take care of the many stray cats in Atlantic City and elsewhere.

The first day Will and Alina took me to a spot they had searched out already since they were staying in AC a few days before me. It was a bit of a hike was a hike to get to the spot with my gear but I had a good view of the pier and waves which increased in intensity as the tide came in. In fact I finished the painting just as the tide swamped over the spot I was in. Not being familiar with the tide we tried to gage how far up the beach it would come.

Since I didn't have an umbrella ( I'll be buying one for my easel) and Will gets sunburned pretty easy, we parked under one of the piers the first and second day to paint. Alina parked herself a lot further up toward the boardwalk.

Even on the second day I had to move as the tide came in suddenly and washed over my spot.

Will painted with gouache and set up right near me. I busted out my rig, set up quick, making sure to really push it down in the sand to avoid it getting blown over by the wind, which was pretty stiff at times and having painted off the Delaware I know at any time a sudden blast can sent my whole rig tumbling down.

We had plenty of onlookers and commenters the whole weekend. I passed out a few business cards as well to some interested folks who I hope will contact me. Its funny, you have basically two types of people, those who stop and admire, even chat a bit and others who will walk right in front of you and block your view like a dullard.

As always its a race against the sun or clouds, it might start out clear as a bell and in 30 minutes the clouds or marine layer or haze will roll in. You have to plan and try and watch and judge the sky as you work. One the second day Alina rented an umbrella to paint on the beach.

The first painting was on one of the Source Tek's panels with the awesome Claessens Belgian linen. I love these panels! The second panel I used was made by my buddy David Golas, and that was great too.

My set-up at the end of the day as the tide came rushing in.

I took these paintings as an excuse to try and paint water again, and I looked at some Sorolla, Sargent and Zorn. Will brought along some books by them to look at in the evenings back in the hotel.