"A Touch of Red in a Sea of Blue", 8x10. oil on panel, Lighthouse Plein Air, Plein Air festival, Palm Beach, Jupiter, Lighthouse, red lighthouse, DuBois Beach Park, Maryanne JAcobsen art, beach, Florida beaches

"A Touch of Red in a Sea of Blue", 8x10. oil on panel, plein air

Just returned from a week of painting on Florida's east coast in the 4th annual Lighthouse PLein Air Festival, covering an area from Palm Beach up to Tequestra, where the Lighthouse Art Center is located.

Overall, I had a great week, lots of painting and good weather for the most part. These plein air paint-outs are much more exhausting and demanding than most people realize, with traveling with gear from one loaction to the next, painting in all kinds of weather, then going back and framing the work, cleaning brushes and palette and getting ready for the next day's events. The event culminated with a gala event at the end of the week, with opportunities to win awards and display the work you've created and just relax after a week of hard work.

In spite of a bad cold, I kept going each day and was not unhappy with the results of my work. "A touch of Red in a Sea of Blue" was my favorite painting of the week, probably because it was painted in the most delightful spot immaginable at DuBois Beach Park in Jupiter. It was afternoon and I took advantage of the shade of the palm trees to set up, and there was the most delightful balmy breeze keeping me comfortable the entire time that I painted.

This was one of those paintings that I didn't need to touch up afterwards. It was fresh and vibrant and reflected the incredible blues of the water with the red lighthouse in the background as the scene reflected.

While it was not my first painting of the week, it was definitely my favorite! Please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if you are interested in the painting. It can be sold framed as shown or unframed.

"Thatcher Island Twin Lights", plein air, 8x10, oil on panel

SOLD

"Thatcher Island Twin Lights", plein air, 8x10, oil on panel

We just returned from a lovely trip to New England where we spent a few days in Maine (York area), New Hampshire and Rockport , Massachusetts.If you follow my blog, you'll know I've been visiting Rockport for the past three years and I never get tired of the beautiful light quality there.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather, which gave me a chance to paint en plein air. The location of our accommodations could not have been any better, and I had the chance to paint out on the rocks every day. Our view looked directly over at Thatcher Island and so I did not have to look very far for subject matter!

As you can see, I could not have been much happier!

This was the first painting of the Thatcher light houses that I did on the first day of our arrival. One of the guests at the inn where we stayed walked past as I was painting and asked if I would sell the painting to her. Now don't you just love it when that happens?

I'll be posting my other plein air paintings that I did on the trip over the next few days.

I was so very happy to have the opportunity to practice painting large rolling waves and big boulders. Those are two things I never see here in Florida and boy did I need the practice!