53.  Original Plein Air Watercolor Painting, "Plein Air, 8:30-9pm, Sunset at Easton point, 7.11.24”, watercolor, 22 x 30”, 2024

Location: Easton, MD

Event: Plein Air Easton

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

This painting was the first “official” painting of my work for Plein Air Easton, meaning it was stamped on the back, made after the competition week had begun. Having already made one sketch of cormorants and two plein air 30 x 42” paintings before the start of the competition, I was confident and relaxed that all I had to do to make good work here was to use the same kinds of processes that work for me. I returned to Easton Point to paint again, loving the evening sunset clouds, the reflections of the extremely-yellow lights on the lower right water, the strips of sky-blue in the wakes crossing the inlet, the faint white of the fiberglass-hulled sailboats at the left bank. It was also becoming clear to me, having been around the organizers and other artists for a bit, that no one else in this plein-air painting world was making large-scale, optical watercolor paintings on the spot in two hours or less. I wasn’t going for showy novelty, I just like to work larger and faster, as accurately as possible, because that’s how I best feel I can share my observations with my art.