One Day at the Art Park

One of the best parts of my job as the Arts Studio Coordinator at the East Area Family YMCA is teaching the summer Art Camps at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park. The next best thing is documenting the camps by taking photos our art camps in each of our locations: the Arts Studio, Camp Iroquois and of course Stone Quarry. Although I am there to take photos of the campers, teachers and the art projects, sometimes I get lucky enough to find subject matter for my own work. For instance, one day back at the beginning of August, I arrived at Stone Quarry when all of the campers were out for a hike around the park, so I took a little walk myself. Walking along the Ridge Trail I came upon the scene of two painters set up in the shade of the trees looking over the valley. A couple of people had stopped to talk to them...and probably inspect their artwork as well. I loved the setting, and the lighting created by the dappled sunlight, so I took a few photos. I wandered off in the opposite direction, then came back a few minutes later, and decided to take a closer look at the artists and their paintings. I was delighted to discover that I knew both of the artists, Wendy Harris and Linda Cohen. And of course, their work was lovely. A few days later I began a painting based on that scene, using the photos for reference. I was scheduled to teach a landscape painting class that week to adults, so that painting became my demo piece. Most of the painting was done in the Arts Studio as part of the class. I painted along with the students and used the painting to help each of them work out issues of under-painting using complementary colors, color harmony, atmospheric perspective, glazing and handling foliage. I finished the painting at home in my studio, found a great frame which sets off the colors very well. I plan to return to the Art Park to do some plein air painting, probably in September as the colors start to change for Fall.