Paint Newton a Success!

Last Saturday TraillWorks was host to artists from around the state who came to set up easels on Spring Street and "Paint Newton." The weather held for a great day of plein air painting, despite the heat. Though in our inaugural event 13 artists registered, we had a total of six actually attend. One of our artists, David Ohlerking, was stranded in Philadelphia with a broken windshield and was unfortunately not able to attend. 

Painting in progress by Alison Tuday

Painting in progress by Janet Howard-Fatta

Entry to the event was not juried, but awards were given in three categories: Grand Prize, Best Student / Amateur Artist, and a People's Choice award voted by passersby on the street. The paint out was held from noon - 5pm, at which point the artists came back to TraillWorks for an awards ceremony and reception, part of our opening for our current exhibit, Contemporary Landscapes. 

Participating artists were Alison Tuday of Bernardsville, NJ, Janet Howard-Fatta, of Warwick, NY, Judy Lock of Branchville, NJ, Marilyn Rose of West Caldwell, NJ, Wendy Stamer of Sparta, NJ, and Cole Longcor of Stillwater, NJ.

Painting by Wendy Stamer of Sparta, NJ

Marilyn Rose painting

The Grand Prize was juried by me and awarded to Marilyn Rose of West Caldwell, NJ, for her watercolor paintings of Newton. Best Student / Amateur Artist went to Alison Tuday, of Bernardsville, NJ. A student of David Ohlerking, Alison's vibrant works were mainly painted with her fingers. The People's Choice award went to Cole Longcor, and young budding artist from Sussex County. And finally, from the ballots entered in the People's Choice contest, a random voter was selected to win an artist's proof of one of my giclées. Congrats to Doug DeWitte of Newton for being drawn. 

Best Student / Amateur winner, Alison Tuday

Grand Prize winner, Marilyn Rose

People's Choice Award winner, Cole Longcor

Doug DeWitte, Winner of an AP Giclée, Homage to Julia by Jennie Traill Schaeffer

Several pieces by the winners are on display at TraillWorks and are available for sale. Special thanks to the sponsors of this event, the New Jersey Society of En Plein Air Painters, the Sussex County Arts & Heritage Council, the Craft Creators, and the New Spring Street Group. For more about Paint Newton, read a review by The Alternative Press here.

Student Saturday - TraillWorks Holiday Windows and Logo Designs

Detail of my windows (TraillWorks and the Springboard Shoppes)

My students never fail to impress me! When given a challenge, they generally rise to the occasion and create more than I imagine possible. For the past couple of months, my younger students and teen students have been working on two community-based projects: designing Candy Land-inspired store logos for Spring Street merchants participating in a post-holiday parade scavenger hunt, and designing my holiday windows which the entire community will see.


This is the first official unveiling of my holiday windows! It's tough to see all of the detail because of window glare. Forgive my photography; I'm a painter. Thank you Alyse Delaney, Emily Haag, Helen Walter-Cardinal, and Jake Scordato for your initiative, creativity, and enthusiasm. Alyse, Emily and Jake did all of the brainstorming, designing, and construction; Helen joined the three in the midst of production and helped out tremendously. 

After learning about the basic tenets of window dressing and touring Spring Street looking at the good and the bad, I gave my students the theme of "Newton Renaissance" and they took off. What transpired was a collaborative design, based around David Ohlerking's work, since that will be featured in my windows. They chose to select a variety of Newton buildings on and near Spring Street to line the bottom of the windows. These were all sketched out, then drawn to scale, and cut out with X-Acto knives. We discussed back lighting the buildings with spots so they would show up at night. 

To draw our eye down, we used a lavender tulle donated by Alyse's mom, used icicle lights to mimic the stars and hung silver ornaments. I came up with the canvas panels to display the jewelry in the center window, but Alyse and Helen helped select the jewelry to be showcased. 


What is so impressive, is not only the quality of the work these kids did, but the extra hours after school and on weekends that they elected to put in to meet our installation deadline on Wednesday. Many, many thanks to them and their parents for their cooperation and support. You will have to come and see them in person, particularly at night for their full effect.

Center Window with Jewelry Display (Maxwell & Molly's Closet, Charm, Mother Moon, Courthouse)

Right window (Cheddar Alley, Springboard Shoppes, TraillWorks)

Left window (Pennies Building, English Building, Statue on the Green, Fire Museum)

Alyse Delaney, Me, Jake Scordato working on the windows in the studio

The other project my students completed this month were logo designs for sixteen merchants who participated in a Candy Land themed scavenger hunt after today's holiday parade. I taught my students (age 6 - 14) some of the basics of logo and brand design, they researched the shop they selected and then designed a logo that would be suitable with the theme. 

Here's the map that was passed out to around 300 people in Newton today. They are all terrific! I'm so excited that their work has been shared with so many.

Logos designed by (from top left) Julia Young, Jessie Sparling, Niki Manning, Cailey Pokrzywa, Miles Shaw, Hannah Manning, Maddie Chymiy, Katelyn O'Connor, Will Somma, Noa Shaw, Natalya de Waal, Rachel Young, Ava Levin, Samantha Givone, Phoebe Nezamis, and Larson de Waal