Sunrise at Boynton
16 x 20 in.
Oil on canvas
$1600
Available at the Neighborhood Gallery in Boynton Beach, FL
One of my favorite place to paint is the Inlet at Boynton Beach, Florida. For me it’s got everything! Plenty of natural beauty and excitement to capture: Fishermen and spectators on the pier while fast-moving fishing and pleasure boats zoom through this man made channel which is Florida’s most turbulent ocean inlet. It’s the closest point to the Atlantic Gulf Stream, just 2 to 3 nautical miles from shore. Over the years I’ve painted over twenty works in this location. All were different, with this scene painted at dawn back on April 8, 2007, as part of the Palm Beach Plein Air “Wet Paint Competition”.
Capturing scenes like this is a challenge in getting set up in the dark before sunrise on a surf-drenched pier. Back then, before LED lights, my canvas and palette were illuminated by two light bulbs connected to a car battery at the base of my easel. The peak colors at sunrise are gone in minutes and must be remembered and applied for the duration of the painting. Had to work quickly using a minimum color palette and ignoring the changed colors. That morning, brilliant red, yellow and orange variations drenched everything including the backlit dark blue sea. Whenever I re-look at the finished painting, as in most all of my plein air works, I can readily play-back that painting experience as if the canvas had somehow recorded and retained the highlights of that day.
Artist’s Statement
“As an artist, I find the process of creating a fine artwork highly energizing and even more fulfilling than the finished end product.
As an art instructor, I believe a fine visual artist must first be able to see accurately and be capable to accurately reproduce images with minimum effort. Equipped with those skills, artists then have a far better chance of success if they are true to who they are in creating something unique, important or beautiful”.
About the Artist
Born in 1939 and raised in New York City’s East Harlem I’ve been fascinated with drawing and painting since early childhood. Been Primarily self-taught with a natural talent and passion for art. later in my twenties, I studied art and architecture in New York at Queens College City University and painted evenings in the mid 1960s at the Art Students League.
My works range from studio paintings using real and imagined themes, to figurative, portraits and plein air painting. Many of my studio works are of larger than life faces in pensive moods with feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Beginning in the early 1980’s, I had began painted on-location in the Hudson Valley and Long Island Hamptons and later in Southeast Florida. The subjects of my paintings are often from nature, life experiences and personal reflections of family and friends. Most recent works are plein air landscapes and studio paintings of imaginative compositions that visually link with artists I very much admire.
Papa has been described as “an art activist, passionate about art and regularly teaching drawing and painting and plein air workshops throughout Palm Beach County. He is Co-Founder of Plein Air Palm Beach and is a Signature Member and Past President of the Artists Guild of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Papa also has painted in France and Italy and has been instrumental in Boynton Beach becoming a “Sister City” with Farindola in the Abruzzo Region of Italy.
Papa’s artworks are in public and private collections in the US, Canada and Europe and can be viewed at Papagallery Artists Association in Boca Raton, The Neighborhood Gallery in Boynton Beach and on his website.
