Phil Sandusky: Jacksonville through a painter’s eye

Phil Sandusky (b. 1957), a Jacksonville native and artist now living and working in New Orleans, established his artistic reputation by painting scenes of his adopted city, before and after Hurricane Katrina. His working method is to set up his easel in a particular spot, in the open air (“en-plein-air”), rendering with his brush an immediate and glowing impression of the scene in front of his eyes. An exhibition of highly characteristic and colorful pictures of Jacksonville follows on the heels of his New Orleans’ paintings. His painterly observations are recognizable and compelling, whether he sets up his easel in Jacksonville’s downtown area or in traditional neighborhoods and forgotten cul-de-sacs. The bridges over the St. Johns River, the shrimp boats at Mayport and the Northeast Florida beaches and marshes have found a 21st century Impressionist interpreter. Phil Sandusky serves as an instructor of landscape and life painting at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts.