Shared Visions

From my early teens I've been heading to Coney Island. Sometimes just to spend the day at the beach and other times to paint or sketch. As a young art student some of the Coney Island regulars would approach me as I was working to ask my if I knew the older guy who painted here alot. At the time I didn't know who it was.

A number of years later I was at the Forum gallery to see an exhibition of David Levine's work, after seeing his beautiful watercolors of Coney Island I realized he was the artist that the Coney regulars were talking about. Seeing what he did with a subject that was near and dear to me was and still is inspiring. The watercolor at the bottom right, "Rock Fleas" is an example of Levine's work.
The watercolor in the center is by Irwin Greenberg, a great artist and teacher. I was fortunate to have Greenberg as a teacher and to have him as my mentor as a teacher at the High School of Art and Design in New York City.

The top watercolor is one of my paintings.

I structured the composition to form a z pattern. In the narrative I liked having this grouping of people clustered together but not interacting with one another, they are alone in their thoughts.

I think it's important to find other artists who have a shared vision of a place. I never met David Levine but I know and love his work and it has been an influence on how I see one of my favorite subjects.

Some artists feel they have to shy away from the influence of other artists,

I couldn't disagree more, I think it can be an incredible resource.