There’s nothing like sidewalk art to bring people out of their private little worlds. Strolling along South Harrison in Easton today, we saw easels here and there all along the street. It was the start of the Plein Air Competition & Arts Festival, an annual event that draws highly accomplished artists from all over the country.
We stopped to watch as a painter put the finishing touches to a colorful scene of green metal chairs lined up in front of a shop, when suddenly a moving van pulled into the parking space in front totally blocking her view. The artist and a passerby gestured frantically but the driver shook his head and shouted, “I have a delivery to make.”
An ugly incident in the making? Not in this sunny town. The driver, realizing his faux pas, pulled the truck farther up the street and double-parked. When we looked back, he was on the sidewalk smiling and chatting with the artist.
The friendly, festive atmosphere continued. Stopping in for lunch at Mason’s, we looked over the shoulder of another artist painting a portrait of a young woman whose face was lit by the sunlight flooding in the window. Next we dropped into Troika Gallery where visitors were admiring Roger Dale Brown’s plein air works in one of several shows of landscapes in Easton’s galleries.
Just down the street, an artist was putting highlights on the window frame of a shop in her painting as a man with his son and daughter watched. As we got closer, we heard her advising the girl that if she’d like to be a painter, too, the best thing would be to start practicing drawing right away. Good advice!
There’s something honest and fresh about plein air painting that makes you see things more clearly. We found ourselves drawn into noticing the expert modeling of the feathers of Bart Walter’s goose sculpture after talking with an artist painting the sculpture in front of the Easton Armory. By then our eyes were peeled for artists at work along the streets. As we drove out South Street to Route 50, we caught a glimpse of one more, with a bonus—photographer taking a picture of a painter painting a picture of the historic Trippe House. All the way home, we saw the landscape anew, as if through the eye’s of a painter.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.