“A Cottage By the Sea” by Jack Bredin. This is an Ocean Grove scene, and Jack continues his series of paintings of our town. Photo by Rob Bredin. July, 2017.
Jack Bredin continues his series of Ocean Grove scenes. His paintings of our town are famous, and lucky is the art lover who has one hanging in his home.
Editor’s note: You can feel the life of the seashore in this painting by Jack. The breezes are blowing the flag and the trees, and you can smell the ocean. The young couple are perhaps planning their evening. Maybe they will go to a dance. Do they still have dances? Well, let’s assume that they do, and he may approach others, but he wants to have the last dance with her; and then he’ll take her to Days for an ice cream soda.
And that’s where the cottage by the sea comes in, because he hopes to take her there, under the watchful eye of her parents, of course, and they’ll sit on the porch and maybe there will be some music in the air. Which brings us to our song below:
PATRICK RIGUELLE AND JOHN TERRA with a song made famous by the Drifters in 1960.
Major paint manufacturers offer color charts that are called “historic Victorian.” The HPC in Ocean Grove seems to pay heed mostly to the Benjamin Moore company. Choices from the historic charts of other companies might get rejected at the HPC. Perhaps you have wondered about the purple house as you enter the Grove. That was an approved color, but evidently the HPC later said that it was a mistake.
Those of you who have wrestled with color decisions for your OG home know that there are a wide array of choices, but perhaps you don’t know that the paint companies are always adding new colors.
A lot of the paint company decisions are based on archeological information. The chemical makeup of historic home colors used in the 19th century resulted in a limited choice, but now you can get many approved colors available in latex paints.
Some homeowners use 14 or more different colors. Of course that sort of paint job can be expensive.
Delicate painting of decorative trim requires a steady hand and a bucket loader. 113 Mt. Hermon Way. Blogfinger photo . Joan Corbo painter. Click to enlarge.
Some people think of the San Francisco “painted ladies” when they think of Victorian colors, but, as Ocean Grove designer J. Cortese has said, the “new look” are darker hues. And we have learned that the “painted ladies” pastels would not be approved in the Grove.
“This purple house (above) is at 33 Main Avenue. Some people love the colors while others hate them. We spoke to J. Cortese about this restoration project which he designed, color consulted and construction managed. J. uses historic colors, but he also enjoys the unexpected, changing over recently to darker “rich” colors in the Grove. He says that all his colors are approved and chosen from historic color charts. He thinks that darker colors are “more historic.”
Yellow seems to be more popular recently. Some of you are familial with the spectacular restoration at the Founders Park end of Seaview Avenue (26 Lake Avenue, a yellow Bersheeba Award winner). Link below:
And then there are colors which most people in town don’t like, but either they were done that way without permission, or the HPC made a mistake. Do you think that the Mary’s’ Place blue color (see below) ought to be considered historic? Is a blue roof historic? Does the HPC practice favoritism?
And do you recall the orange house on Mt. Hermon Way? That owner went ahead with it even though that orange is not historic. The owner argued that 19th century homeowners were allowed to pick any colors they wanted —–the palette was very limited;—-all the colors then were dreary. So the orange house owner said that our modern choices should also be whatever we want. And, she argued, that the orange house would make her happy, so how about the “pursuit of happiness” promised in our Declaration of Independence–definitely some colorful patriotic reasoning.
Happy Spring! It’s that time of year when I’m starting to see more of our feline friends hanging around outside and happy dogs walking with their people along the boardwalk. I thought I would send you my latest painting, Ocean Grove dog “Romeo”. Actually, I heard that Romeo has since moved to Asbury Park, however when I met him, he was an O.G. dog. I first saw him one day while I was walking past the Tumblety Gallery and saw his adorable face peeking out at me from inside.
He is a Brussels Griffon, one of my favorite dog breeds. I could not pass up the photo op even if it meant tempting a barking episode…which it did! Romeo’s owner, who was at the Gallery doing some renovation work, saw the commotion and asked if I would like to meet this funny fellow. You can imagine my joy when he opened the door and out came this happy, tail wagging little guy in a blue sweater. What a thrill!
Water color of Ocean Grove coffee shop on Main Avenue (destroyed in 2015 fire). From a series OG picture card scenes by Grover artist Sue Anderson Gioulis.
JULIE ANDREWS: From Camelot: Are we feeling lusty yet?
“Hello Paul…Back in November I was taking my daily walk for coffee when I spotted the purr-fect photo-op right outside of Blogfinger headquarters. There, perched atop your beautiful porch railing, was Jack the cat from Mt. Tabor Way. He made my job easy…more than willing to sit while I snapped several shots, trying to get the composition just right for my watercolor painting. This is a rare event, as you can imagine because the typical cat will not hold a pose if he does not want to. Perhaps Jack was waiting patiently for that next big OG news story to come in.”
Editor’s note: (Paul @Blogfinger) We are privileged at Blogfinger to be able to exhibit Marylou Shipman’s series of cat paintings. Aside from her great technical skill, Marylou has created a rogues gallery of actual cats who are also Grovers. She observes their personalities and captures their individualities.
As for Jack Sprat, “The Jack Sprat alluded to in this English poem is reputed to be King Charles I (1625-1649) and Henrietta Maria, his Queen (1609-1669).” (From the history book of nursery rhymes.)
Marylou’s cats remind me of the Broadway show “Cats” where each cast member is unique.
Here is the most famous song from the show Cats: “Memory” (not memories). This version is from the original Broadway cast album.
Jack Bredin is a well known artist who specializes in scenes of Ocean Grove. His work is on display at the Ocean Park Gallery on Cookman Avenue in Asbury park. Here is a link to another recent work of Jack’s from this past summer:
The SS Morro Castle was an ocean liner in the 1930’s. It ran back and forth between New York City and Havana. On September 8, 1934, during a return trip from Cuba with 571 passengers and crew on board, the ship caught fire about 8 miles off Long Beach Island. Very quickly it became enveloped by the flames. The crew was ill prepared for a shipboard fire, and many people jumped into the water. In the end, about 137 people died of drowning or fire. Some bodies floated ashore at Pt. Pleasant and Manasquan.
After the ship was empty, an attempt was made to tow it away, but it drifted loose and went aground near Convention Hall in Asbury Park. It stayed there for about 6 months where it was a tourist attraction. Then it was towed away and scrapped.
Jack Bredin’s folk-painting style is to add a bit of poetic license to his works, so the facts may not be exactly correct—thus the ship burning off Asbury Park.
Ocean Grove artist Jack Green IV painted his impression of the Carousel Building posted on Blogfinger in 2014. At the bottom of this article you will find a link about Jack’s painting. *
Blogfinger reporter Stephen Goldfinger wandered over to the recently renovated Carousel Building where he found skateboarders airborn as a new purpose has been found for that historic beaux arts building.
Stephen says, ” Last night (Saturday 11/12/16)) – kids skateboarding at the carousel – it has a big speaker system that was blasting rock music while they skated.”
The Carousel Building was built with the Casino in 1932, designed by Warren and Wetmore, the beaux art architects who also were responsible for Grand Central Station in NYC. The carousel, #87 built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company functioned for 50 years before being taken down.
We have been to farmers markets there in recent times, and some theatrical events have been presented as well. But the Asbury developers probably have some long-term plans for the building. Meanwhile, go and watch those daring young men on their flying machines.
BILL SCHUSTIK with a 19th century sad song for this occasion (we’ll skip the “blasting rock music”:)
*Here is a link to the article about Jack Green IV’s Carousel painting:
