New Jersey should be called the most maligned state in the country. I am not even sure if "The Garden State" is still on the license plate but it was there for a reason. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania there were all the obligatory neighboring state jokes about New Jersey and I remember being surprised when I crossed the border for the first time to see green fields and neat little houses, not the Mad Max gray landscape of our imagination. With the growth of New York and Philadelphia, more and more of New Jersey has become urban but less than 30 minutes drive from the city is still open country. I also have a special attachment to Atlantic City where I had my first art job during college. I drew portraits 
on the Old Steel Pier in the days before casinos, when there was still a diving horse and a Miss America Pageant. It was a great place then and that old boardwalk culture is gone. Were it still existing I would have headed there to paint the Belgian Waffle stand I walked past every night on my way home. Today I headed to the Delaware Water Gap area and the little area near Polkville where the early morning light and shadow on a white fence caught my eye.
on the Old Steel Pier in the days before casinos, when there was still a diving horse and a Miss America Pageant. It was a great place then and that old boardwalk culture is gone. Were it still existing I would have headed there to paint the Belgian Waffle stand I walked past every night on my way home. Today I headed to the Delaware Water Gap area and the little area near Polkville where the early morning light and shadow on a white fence caught my eye. 
