Leslie Landers

Recently, I went on a bit about the beauty of Sussex County New Jersey with a post that included some of my watercolors from the trip. This was the first time I also took oil painting gear on a vacation as I was able to manage things in a way that was compact and solvent free.

The paintings in this post are oil paintings of the historic Waterloo Village State Park. The painting above is one of the many historic buildings in the restored 19th century village along the once commercially important Morris Canal.

Waterloo Village is a charming place to stroll and have a picnic and paint. There are many classically dutch buildings and working structures (sawmill, blacksmith shop and so on). Strolling around gives one a sense of things from 100+ years ago and the setting is lovely. The painting below is of one of the bridges crossing an off-shoot of the canal.

 

When you think of New Jersey, I’d bet that you don’t think of horse farms.  The one in the painting above is in Andover New Jersey. Until recently, when I thought of New Jersey, it was the urban centers across the Hudson River from Manhattan that came to mind. For others, it’s the Jersey Shore. My images of New Jersey have changed though as I now have family living in Sussex County (New Jersey’s lake district).

Our September visit this year found us enjoying apple picking at a charming commercial orchard in Randolf NJ. It was the first day of the picking season and absolutely delightful.

I love eating outside on a nice day so the wharf side restaurants on Lake Hopatcong were right up my alley. The view from Alice’s was great and The Windlass Restaurant is on a wharf which brings up images of summers on a boat.

We used our stay at a hotel in the area as an opportunity for exploration. Sussex County New Jersey is just an hour away from the Poconos in Pennsylvania and we enjoyed hiking at Skytop.

Of the local hikes in Sussex county we really enjoyed trails in the Allamuchy Mountain State Park. This watercolor was painted near Lake Jefferson along the Musconetcong River near a small waterfall.

Another hike in the area that was was great was in the Andover in the same area as the horse farm at the opening of this post. There, the trail in Kittinny Valley State Park follows the shore of Lake Aeroflex which has a tiny airstrip at the end.

Family ties will certainly take us back to New Jersey many times and that’s a good thing.

 

 

I didn’t bring oil paints to Colorado but did bring a compact watercolor set-up and painted every day. I’m working to improve my paintings of aspen trees. Here are a few paintings from this trip.

On this visit to Colorado, it was very noticeable that there were more Aspen in areas that had had bark beetle damage to evergreens. Like so many things, it’s a cycle. Small evergreens grow among Aspen eventually crowding out the light. The evergreens succumb to avalanche or fire or beetles and make way for aspen.

I am going to the Plein Air Convention in Denver in May so will certainly have a chance of more Aspen paintings then. Plus there is always my backyard birch tree which makes a pretty good stand-in.

My husband and I were recently in Aspen to celebrate our 25th anniversary. A highlight was taking a gondola to the top of AJAX to the exact spot of our wedding. The watercolor above is of the view from the top of Aspen Mountain where we celebrated champagne toasts all those years ago and again now.

Aspen is a delightful town. Unlike some ski resorts, the streets don’t roll up in the summertime. Aspen is full of historic buildings from the late 1800s when this area was awash is silver mining riches. A couple of the mornings we were there, I was able to paint at the corner of Galena Street and Hyman Avenue. The painting above includes the historic Aspen Elks Lodge.

We didd a fair amount of hiking while we were in the area. The Maroon Bells area is particularly stunning. This view is from Crater Lake which is a ~2 hour hike from Maroon Lake at the base. I painted this one fast. Just 20 minutes before we really needed to head down again.

It was our first time in Aspen in many years but we left anxious for a return trip.

My #1 goal going into last week’s plein air event in Tahoe was to have fun which I certainly did. Outdoor painters as a group are generous of spirit and fun to be around and Tahoe is stunning.

Quick draw competitions have become a thing at plein air events. The organizers of the North Lake Tahoe Plein Air Open encourage participation in a 2 hour painting sprint at the local farmers market. This means we had 2 hours to go from blank canvas to a framed painting for consideration by the judges. Sightly stressful.  Some of us chose busy market scenes. Others focused on the beach and Lake Tahoe itself. It is always fun to see what fellow painters focus on and how they tell their story in paint. My market scene “Boxed Peaches” is at the top of this post.

After four days of painting, we each hung the resulting paintings. We were each also able to bring one painting with us. In my case it is the piece at the upper left.

This was my second year participating in the event. The organizers at the North Tahoe Arts Association do a great job of welcoming us to their beautiful community. What a joy to spend a week with delightful people, painting beautiful scenery non-stop.

 

There is a wonderful landscape painting show that is opening today at the Harrington Gallery in Pleasanton. The paintings feature Bay Area Parks and will be up through July 20.

This is a juried California Art Club Exhibit. Most of the work in CAC shows are landscapes in the classic California tradition often with a modern twist.

“Ayala Pair” … my painting of the Angel Island Cove is in the show. Like all of my studio paintings, this piece began with a plein air painting completed on site.

When I think of Filoli, I mostly think of luscious blooms, manicured trees and reflecting ponds amidst the stately grounds of this historic property. In my earlier paintings of Filoli, I’ve been drawn to this organized beauty.

Last week it was a joy to paint a different type of beauty at Filoli. The rural views I painted include a caretakers cottage, a dirt road under oaks and an open field. I was somewhat surprised to learn that the farming heritage continues at Filoli. Apparently land is leased to a local farmer for oat hay production.