81.  Original Plein Air Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, 10-10:55am, Tilghman Island Road looking West, 7.9.24”, watercolor, 30 x 42”, 2024

Location: Tilghman, MD

Event: Plein Air Easton

Event Awards: Grand Prize, Quick Draw; Auto-invite for Plein Air Easton 2025

This painting was made during Plein Air Easton, before the official start of the competition. At the beginning of a plein air competition, all the artists’ blank papers and canvases are stamped, certifying that they were made anew for the competition. I elected to make this painting knowing I wouldn’t be able to enter it - just to get the practice of painting in Easton, my first time there. The heat, which you can feel in the atmosphere of this work, was intense, about 100 degrees or more, with very high humidity as well.The water I’d planned to drink for the day was gone within minutes of starting this piece. I had to dip into my watercolor-only water to stay lucid. Someone’s wife told them a person was in distress on the side of the highway, which was funny for both of us to realize when he approached me to exclaim, “Oh! You’re painting! My wife said someone was broken down in the road.” Any time I painted from my car on the side of the road in Easton, people stopped constantly to make sure I was ok, and offer their help. At one of the events for the festival later in the week, I met the man’s wife accidentally and we laughed about putting the pieces together.