Bob Ellis of Ocean Grove has become a celebrity because of his work befriending strangers and inviting them to dinner. His story is being told at the forthcoming Garden State Film Festival in a movie called “Here’s the Story: I Talk to Strangers.” It will be shown on March 29 at the Paramount Theater in A. Park.
DJANGO REINHARDT with music from the movie “The Aviator.”
They were painting outdoors on a gorgeous Jersey Shore day, right on Ocean Pathway by Rev. Stokes statue. Stokes probably would have liked this painting class in the Ocean Grove of 1870. After all, the camp meeting idea included a variety of leisure activities. In fact, Troy Messenger’s fascinating book is called “Holy Leisure: Recreation and Religion in God’s Square Mile.”
Norma Tolliver, of the Main Avenue Galleria, was conducting the class in the spirit of the French who invented “en plain air” painting—which means painting outdoors.
Janet, Bev and Diane were having a happy time being creative with their canvasses. They could kibbitz with me while making their masterpieces. It actually looked like fun.
BF article Main Ave. Galleria 2012 Click here to see a nice photo of Norma Tolliver, owner and artist-in-chief at the Main Avenue Galleria School of Art (732 988 1002) where you can take lessons, paint outdoors and even have wine and cheese during a painting event, in the spirit of Picasso who liked to drink when he met his artist friends, perhaps explaining his two headed, one eyed women subjects. (You must see Midnight in Paris by Woody–you will meet Salvatore Dali and Hemingway in a left bank bar—not exactly en plain air; more like en stale air.)