Sand Island

I haven’t posted in an age!  Summer is flying by and I haven’t found much time to paint. Here is a work in progress, NOT a finished painting but I wanted to reconnect with you all.  I like the watery beach and will work on making the trees more voluminous and the sky more open. The island will shift to the left too and get pushed back to the middle ground so I can create more space.  I thought it might be interesting for you to see the stages of a painting.  I’ll post more as I go along.

The view is from the Broadalbin town beach on the Great Sacandaga Lake. My brother, father and I made a recent visit to the Smith/Ahnert/Joslin homesteads in upstate New York and visited the beach as well.  I spent all of my childhood summer afternoons here. As kids, my brother and I would take the “Beach Bus” (provided by the town Parks and Recreation Department) to the lake after lunch for a few hours.  It was always a special treat when we would go after dinner with my dad and have races, swim out to the raft, and generally climb all over him.  As a teenager and through college, I worked at the beach, first as a gate guard, and then as a life guard and beach director.  It was by far the best summer job I ever had.

Sand Island is a popular boating destination on “The Sac.”  In the winter you can actually actually walk out to the island from the shore on a sand bar. As a lifeguard, we would work in all kinds of weather as it was an hourly wage.  We all became proficient in Pitch, Spades and Hearts, and occasionally we were serenaded by Lee, who would bring his guitar.  We always talked about swimming to the island, which seemed pretty close until we actually did it one day.

I’ll be up that way again in  a few weeks, visiting friends, so stay tuned for more paintings from the Adirondacks!