Remembering Frank

 "Afternoon At the Jetty", oil on panel, 9 x 16 inches
                                            c. 2003 by Susan Barnes


I first met Frank on the beach in Beach Haven, NJ in 2005.

Often I take pictures while on the beach to use as reference for future paintings. I noticed Frank would come to the beach in the afternoon and stand by the jetty with a fishing net. He would stand facing the ocean with the net held behind him. Something about his demeanor interested me. I decided to use his image in one of my paintings.
 
The next summer I saw him again on the beach and mustered up the courage to go over to him and tell him that I had used his image as a reference for one of my paintings. I also said I had just delivered the painting to a gallery in Barnegat Light, North End Trilogy. He quipped that he wanted royalties.

We spent some time talking I told him that I also was an ICU nurse and he said he served on the board of a big hospital in Staten Island. We had an instant connection. Frank was the same age as my mother.

The next morning Frank was at the gallery when they opened and purchased the painting. When I saw him again on the beach I walked over to him to say thank you for buying the painting. He told me how much he loved it.

We became friends. Each summer I would see him and we would talk. Frank told me he was also a musician. He played trombone in a band. I told him I would like to to paint him playing music but he thought that would not be very interesting.

We exchanged notes and cards at Christmas. One summer I saw him sitting on his porch. I stopped and we talked. He insisted I come and see where he had hung my painting. He told me how much his family also loved the painting and thought I had captured him perfectly.

I last met up with him a couple years ago sitting on his deck in Beach Haven. We talked briefly. He told me he had been recently hospitalized. I could see his health was failing.

I was so sad to discover he had passed away in November of 2013. He will be missed.

"To the Shore Once More, Volume III"

"To the Shore Once More, Volume III"
Three of my paintings are in this newly published coffee table book . 
It is filled with beautiful prose and poems by Frank Finale and artwork by 45 artists.

Available from the Jersey Shore Publications
Also from Amazon

Book signing is scheduled at Things A Drift, 406 Long Beach Blvd, Ship Bottom during LBI Open Studio & Gallery Tour June 25th and 26th from 11am-3pm.

Susan Barnes Fine Art on facebook

Sandy Survivors

January 7, 2013

Today I went to LBI to retrieve four of my paintings that miraculously survived Hurricane Sandy in Swell Colors, a Glass Studio and Gallery in Haven Beach. Mary Tantillo, the owner and glass artist, told of the destruction within her gallery. The large heavy workbench had floated in the four feet of seawater within and had smashed the front window and the wind had blown the door open.


This was the first time I went to the south end of the island. All along the boulevard were businesses being emptied of their contents or contractors working on their restoration.

I drove around past all the places where I had stopped to paint in previous years since they all have special memories. Some were almost unrecognizable and others were damaged but less so. The damage increases as you head south. When I got to Holgate there was a sign stating only residents and contractors were allowed to go further. I really just wanted to check on the fisherman's cottage, built in the 1920's, that sits right on the bay. I love to just look at it. It would be a perfect studio for a painter like me. Heeding the sign, I did not see it today.

My heart was heavy. I decided to go back to Beach Haven, to the lifeguard house, to see the ocean and beach which usually lifts my spirit. Benches sit in front of the twisted building with damaged doors and windows. There was yellow caution tape surrounding the building. I walked past the building and climbed to the top of the large piles of sand and stood looking down to the sea which was flatter than I had ever seen it. Not even a breaker just flat, licking the sand. As I looked out I thought how could this calm have turned so ugly and caused such destruction, this wolf in sheeps clothing.

After the Great Storm 2012

Living in New Jersey my entire life, the shore has been loved and cherished as the most beautiful special place on earth. Cape May, Stone Harbor, Margate, Atlantic City, Seaside, Lavallette north to Asbury Park and the place I love the most Long Beach Island have all experienced natures wrath. The coast is the place where nature is complete. Sky, earth and sea, serenity and great power at the same time. The negative power of nature has always been considered but no one could possibly envision the devastation that has taken place to these towns over the last few days.

Everyone I know has some connection to the coastal areas affected. Homeowners, boat owners and business owners all are experiencing unimaginable loss. There are people still in those areas that decided to ride out the storm never imagining the dangerous conditions they would encounter. Walls of ocean so powerful they overtook dunes, crashed though anything in their path with ease and connected with the bay on the other side of land. Fires burning through the sand in some areas, adding a second assault to already damaged homes, destroying what remained. In other areas there is a strong smell of gas adding additional anxiety for people who still have not been allowed to return. No matter what section of the coast, it has all been turned into what looks like a bombed out war zone.

Many people, who live year round in these areas, took only enough for a few days away from their home. They have the suffered the greatest unimaginable loss.
My mood is one of great sadness for every one's loss and gratitude that we were forewarned and optimism that it won't be as bad as it looks when we actually are able to return. I keep thinking of the devastation in NYC on 9/11 and how their recovery progressed. It gives me hope.
I am grateful that people are spared, property can be replaced.

The painting shown here was done on 9th St in Barnegat Light on Saturday afternoon as the surf was starting to churn and the wind was kicking up announcing the beginning of the worst storm experienced in all time.

The Making of a Painting- How Long Did It Take?

March, La Jolla, CA

People often ask how long did it take you to make that painting?

The answer is not an easy one. There is so much that comes before and after the actual process of applying paint to the support.

First comes the education which as it turns out is a lifelong process. This is one of the things that most attracts me to painting. I have always been strong-willed, determined to succeed, and painting presents a formidable challenge. Learning to paint is like the internet you can never reach the end. The more you know, the more you realize you do not know.
Workshops, videos, books all offer valuable information but the only way to really learn is to paint and paint a lot. Only then does the real understanding begin.
Each painting is begun as a challenge to myself to apply the paint in a new and improved way. It may be a particular palette of colors that I am trying out, with new mixtures of paint, and how they appear when applied next to each other. Sometimes it is different or more challenging subject matter. It could just be to paint the light as it appears at a given moment.

What else goes into a painting?

Ordering supplies-paints, supports, frames
Photographing the finished work.
Cataloging into my database.
Varnishing and framing the piece.
Delivering to the selected gallery.
More paperwork - log location of work into database

Art and Survival in the New Economy

When the economy was booming everyone seemed to want large paintings to decorate and fill the large walls of their newly built or purchased homes. Then came the bust. There are still those people out there. They just seem to think a little bit longer before making a big purchase but they do still buy.

How would I continue to maintain income from sales of my art?

My thought process was to create a mixture that included an increased percentage of smaller, lower and moderately priced work, along with larger paintings.

With this in mind, I started doing monotypes using gelatin as the printing plate. Painting directly on the gelatin, using both additive and subtractive methods, tonal areas and areas of visible brushstrokes can be acheived. The printmaking process is thoroughly enjoyable, both playful as well as painterly. My choice to use only black was deliberate. I wanted to keep these prints distinctly separate from my paintings in oil.

The resulting prints have been well received both with sales and awards.

There are always people willing to spend on work they love, including me. I, too, have continued to purchase pieces of art each year that speak to me.

My strategy seems to have worked and I am thankful.