Friday, September 23, 2011

The Refuge - Looking West by Julie Riker


     This is one of the paintings that I did for the Plein Air Chincoteague event.  This view of the refuge is one that I have wanted to paint on my visits to the island in the past.   It is a view that most visitors to the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge will recognize - almost everyone who stops along the road at this spot to photograph the vast marsh will see the wild ponies grazing in the distance.
    
     I was so fortunate to have some sunny days for this trip.  It was the same week that hurricane Lee was flooding Central PA, but since the storm stayed inland the coast was pretty nice.  There were some interesting cloud formations though - the large sky streak across my painting was, I think, the edge of the storm on the mainland.

 The Refuge - Looking West
12x24 oil
 
     This painting was carefully planned.  I even purchased a larger horizontal format canvas to take with me with this scene in mind.  Since the light changes drastically I worked on this 2 separate mornings and stopped at noon each time.  The painting sold at the Saturday exhibit to a nice couple from New Jersey who I had met on the beach earlier in the week and drove by several times as I was painting this. 

     I was thinking I may sometime to do a larger studio version of this painting.

If you would like to see more of my work please visit my website www.julieriker.com

8 comments:

Dianne Lorden said...

Awesome job on the reflections, Julie. It's such a great vista. Congrats on the sale!

Cecelia Lyden said...

Such an accomplishment to paint such an awesome view--you captured it beautifully.

Autumn Leaves said...

So gorgeous!!

Taryn Day said...

Very nice- so peaceful it looks as though it were a scene from before man sullied the earth. Glad you made a sale!

Julie Riker said...

Thanks all!
Taryn, I think that is what I love so much about the Wildlife Refuge - it is one of the few places I have been that is just purely nature.

Unknown said...

Beautiful painting Julie. I can see why you wanted to return to paint it. It's lovely.

Christine Marx said...

You are such a phenomenal landscape painter Julie. I love your work. The composition of this is just fantastic, and I love the way the purples and greens and blues dance together. It's lovely!

Julie Riker said...

Linda and Christine - thanks so much for your kind comments!