I stood on the dunes in Ocean City, New Jersey painting this and remembering the storm of 1962 (described to me by my parents) and considered that the dunes are all that protects the houses from the next big hurricane. I deliberately painted the ocean and houses facing each other, in equal proportions with the peak of the dunes as a kind of fulcrum. Sadly, ultimately the ocean will prevail.
I stood on the dunes in Ocean City, New Jersey painting this and remembering the storm of 1962 (described to me by my parents) and considered that the dunes are all that protects the houses from the next big hurricane. I deliberately painted the ocean and houses facing each other, in equal proportions with the peak of the dunes as a kind of fulcrum. Sadly, ultimately the ocean will prevail.
The Sunday after I painted this scene, the New York Times magazine ran an article entitled "The Long Slow Drowning of the New Jersey Shore." You can find it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/magazine/new-jersey-shore.html?referringSource=articleShare