Oil Painting Project-Ed Gurskis

This year for my personal art project I have decided to honor some very special people that give so much in our community. There are hundreds of charities both big and small in our communities looking for help in several categories, monetary donations, gift donations for the gala, marketing help, etc. Over the years we have noticed some familiar names in several charities throughout our communities. So as my personal art project this year we thought we would recognize these folks with an “environmental” oil painting. An environmental oil painting is an interpretive painting that helps tell something about the subject. The goal when viewing the portrait is to learn something about the subject, usually a favorite hobby/passion of theirs. With the help of the Monmouth Ocean Development Council, The Jersey Shore Chamber of Commerce and the Brick Chamber we were able to connect with several of these community leaders. After sitting down with them and getting to know them we were able to create these interpretive oil paintings. We plan on unveiling these art pieces with everyone honored along with their friends and families. No one will see the finalized paintings till the night of the event (I love surprises)

We will be highlighting everyone so you get to know each person along with some sneak peeks of their paintings as they come to fruition.

Edward Gurskis is today s highlight.   Mr. Gurskis has made a career in the banking industry,  He is also a proud Army veteran along with being active in several community organizations.  Mr. Gurskis retired as a senior vice president of Valley National Bank and was also the past president of the Ocean County Bankers Association.  He is also a past president of the Monmouth Ocean Development Center and has also sat on several boards from Middlesex County college to being on the board of governors for Jersey Shore Medical Center.  During his very active career in the military he served two tours, one in Vietnam and the second during Desert Storm.

We spent the afternoon at the Joint Base Rod & Gun located at range 14 Fort Dix.  Theresa was on the rifle team in high school, apparently she was the best shooter in her group and still has the targets with the bulls eyes to prove it.    We spent the hour creating amazing images of Mr. Gurskis in action firing his rifle and several handguns on the range.  The rifle was a marlin 30-30 and the handguns were a Baretta M9 and a Sig Sauer P320.  Every once in a while we would take a break and take a turn on the range with target practice with them all.  It was a lot of fun and a very noisy afternoon.  This is a lot different than our normal beach portraits. Definitely the most unique portrait session we ever had.  Enjoy the out takes from the session below, I look forwarded to creating his painting for him it's always an honor working with a Veteran.