July and August 2016 were hot and humid in the 1000 Islands region of NY. On August 10 Plein Air Painters Thousand Islands Region (PAPTIR) was scheduled to paint in Clayton NY and it was quite warm and sunny. Fortunately Clayton gets a good breeze off the St Lawrence River. I set up my easel on a street crosswalk which is part of a circular parking area and which gets heavy foot traffic with people crossing the street, so I had a lot of public attention and comments. This is something the plein air artist get's used to. My subject was Bella's restaurant. I set the two legs of my easel up on the raised flower garden so I would minimize interference with pedestrians. The flower bed also served as earth to push my sun umbrella into. There was a large vertical 5 inch diameter electrical conduit and box for lighting and power just behind the easel and umbrella. I used that to bungee cord both the umbrella and easel to. This would keep the occasional gusts of wind from blowing both over. When I was near finishing the painting a town employee arrived to water the garden and we had and interesting chat which included the huge amount of water he had to use because of the very hot dry summer we were experiencing.
It turns out I was the only artist in our group who ventured out to paint that day. Here is my painting.
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| Bella's Restaurant (Oil 9 x 12 $240) |
In contrast to the weather in August we had some very nice days in November. Below is a painting from November 2nd done in French Creek Marina on a sunny 60 degree F day. The marina was busy with numerous boaters tucking up their boats for winter storage. I had a painting buddy that day and one other artist at another marina. We get together at 1 pm for lunch and then return to our setups to finish up our paintings. The boat on the left is Issandra from Montreal Ontario and the boat on the right is Anodyne from Black River NY.
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| Sailboat Sad Times (oil 9 x 12 $240) |
In the summer of 2015 I painted "Breaking Muskie", a 400 pound steel sculpture by local sculpture Will Salisbury. It was installed in 2014 and was commissioned and paid for by 16 local residents and fishing guides. The muskie represents the great fishery of the 1000 Islands. The chairs are to the right of a covered pavilion recently constructed in the resemblance of a train station which once occupied the space many years ago. There is a large fishing lure below the jaw of the Muskie's mouth as it breaks water trying to shake the lure and line loose.
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| Breaking Muskie (9 x 12 oil $ 240) |
Finally, outside the Clayton Village boundary but in the Town of Clayton on Route 12 E is the Lightning B Stables which boards horses. We have painted there twice and are kept company by a cat, the chickens, and a goat.There are usually 4 or 5 horses in various pastures, a pond , a large barn and other out buildings and farm equipment for subject matter. I had lots of pigeon and barn swallow company when painting the hay loft on the second floor of the barn. Below the loft is a painting of some dusty saddles on the first floor which also houses a tack room of numerous currently in use saddles and harnesses. Perhaps the latter will be captured in a future painting.
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| Barn Swallows (8 x 10 oil $180) |
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| Dusty Saddles (8 x 10 oil $180) |
