Two Sundays ago we had an unseasonably warm winter day here in NJ. My sons are all surfers, and my middle son Walter checked the surf report which called for 3 to 5 foot waves with offshore winds making for nice clean “peeling rights.” I laughed and told him we don’t have winter wetsuits so we can’t go in, but we decided to head to the beach to check it out anyway. It was a beautiful day and the waves were perfect. While they didn’t get to surf, the boys were totally content to play around on the beach and take photographs.
I came across a big jetty rock and it reminded me of a painting by my good friend the painter Francis Cunningham. His painting is of a large boulder on the South East corner of his property in Sheffield, Massachusetts. I’ve always liked the painting and when I look at it I can imagine my friend standing before the huge boulder 20 years younger with paintbrush in hand.
Francis Cunningham’s boulder painting that inspired my painting. Check out the video I made about the artist.
I took a few photos at the beach that day and used one to make this painting . Making a painting has a way of etching a moment in your memory. I’ll never forget that day even though we didn’t go surfing.
Here’s my painting from the day on the beach with the boys.
