"the Atlantic Highlands from Sandy Hook" painting by dkeil

"the Atlantic Highlands from Sandy Hook" by dkeil 9.5x23 on canvas on board- plein air 2011

NJ actually has a lot of beautiful places.

You just can't necessarily enjoy them for long-
before someone tells you to keep moving, or calls the police on you.
To be a nature lover in NJ requires that you develop a degree of diplomatic skill so that you can politely explain to "so-and-so" why you are looking at the sunset "on their land," or admiring a flower "in front of their house," or cutting dried wildflowers and grasses "on a public highway...."  Here's the best situation one I've encountered so far: interrogated for listening to birds "while sitting in a tree" (and that was while I was on campus as an ecology student at a NJ university)

So be warned you NJ nature lovers, along with private land owners and deer ticks carrying Lyme Disease, your resolve will be tested!  Nevertheless, there are many natural places of wonder within the artificial borders known as New Jersey. The Pinelands of the southern regions remain my favorite, but I rarely visit them anymore. I used to live in Brookville for a while and enjoyed it immensely. Ah, to be barefoot in the cool moss of a cedar swamp searching for wildflowers in July...  Fresh blueberries in clusters with serenades by Pine Warblers and Towhees.... Yes there are many places of spectacular beauty that I've discovered in NJ. However, to refrain from diverging from topic too much, with this painting- I present the beauty of Sandy Hook Bay. I painted it in plein air, seated on a log in a sand bank near the entrance to Sandy Hook.

While I was growing up, my family had a vintage wooden powerboat, and in the summertime my father loved to pile us all in the station wagon, hitch up the boat, and drive us down to the Atlantic Highlands. There, we would launch and go out into the bay for an evening of fishing and waterskiing. Often, we would cross the bay and explore the bay beach of the barrier island known as Sandy Hook National Recreation Area. It was a polluted mess, with the detritus of New Jersey's suburbia washed ashore. It still is, really. I don't know if it's better or worse. Probably worse. I can't believe we used to actually eat the fish out of this bay- with all the industrial, agricultural, and municipal waste and runoff going directly into the body of water.

My father used to say "the solution to pollution is dilution;" and I agree; the ocean supplies an incredible amount of water by tides to dilute the chemicals of modern civilization. Still, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to conclude that the fish were probably a lot safer to eat before the chemical revolution. Practically the entire population flushes some sort of pharmaceutical down their toilets every time they use the restroom- and it's not like they filter that sort of stuff out at the treatment plant! It wouldn't be a problem if it was a few people, but the Navesink and Raritan Rivers collectively catch the effluence of an incredible amount of people. Then, add on top of that the heavy industry, urban development, and agricultural lands of the Raritan watershed.
Right.... Funkadelic was an awesome band in the seventies.... It's also the water here.

Still, Sandy Hook is a great place for photography. Since I work down in the Rumson area and along the beach with some regularity, it's so convenient to stop for a short hike after work. I haven't been there during the summer season, but in the off season, it's so quiet- and the admission is free!

The shell collecting is amazing in the spring time. After the winter storms churn up the sea, they leave the beaches covered with beautiful things to discover. The tidal pools are a lot of fun to explore too. This painting is of a tidal pool near the entrance to the park. Looking across the water where the Navesink River enters the bay, you can see the homes dotting the outcropping known as the Atlantic Highlands.

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