Deb Lichtenstein beside her “Jamestown Unframed” gallery at the North Road library. The display has about 25 oil paintings of local landscapes and seascapes, with a map to delineate where she painted each artwork. The gallery will remain on display through July. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN

A drive around Jamestown to experience all of its natural beauty, from the rocky cliffs of Beavertail to the swarming gardens at Godena Farm, seems like an attractive way to spend a few hours.

For people strapped for time, painter Deb Lichtenstein has streamlined that tour into a single stop.

The en-plein-air art from Lichtenstein, titled “Jamestown Unframed,” is on display at the North Road library through July 31. Sponsored by the Conanicut Island Art Association, about 25 paintings of local landscapes are hanging alongside a map of Jamestown to delineate where Lichtenstein painted each artwork.

“I’ve had this idea in mind for doing all Jamestown scenes,” she said. “I, along with anybody who lives in Jamestown, thinks it’s the most spectacular place.”

Unlike other galleries sponsored by the art association, Lichtenstein decided to display her paintings without their frames. She said this gives an idea of the “raw product” of painting outside on an easel.

“Some of my paintings might have a little sand on them, maybe a few bugs,” she said. “Nothing’s refined here. It’s just all the essence of being outside and trying to capture that.”

Lichtenstein, who has lived in Jamestown for 50 years, has been painting with oil for more than two decades after taking a class at the Newport Art Museum. When painting her landscapes, she typically works en plein air, which is French for “outside,” and likes to paint oils during the summer because they dry slower than other forms of paint.

“If things dry too quickly, you’re sort of at a dead end,” she said. “I like to do oils, especially for that, because they stay wet, so you can keep working it for a while.”

The landscapes and seascapes painted by Lichtenstein always are in oil, but she also works in acrylic when painting animals. While not featured in the library gallery, she revels in painting ducks, rabbits, cardinals and giraffes. While painting en plein air, she particularly enjoys painting marshes, like the Great Creek and other areas, where the water and land are both visible.

“I love the sea, the water and the land,” she said. “It varies, but a lot of times it’s more where I want to be standing for three hours. I like the play of light you get when you have water and sky, and working that light. That’s really what draws me in.”

Lichtenstein typically starts her paintings with a light wash composition, and begins from the horizon and works from there. She paints the darker colors first before adding the lighter paints and highlights. When out in the field, Lichtenstein chooses the angle and direction in which she will paint based on the light.

“If I go down to Beavertail, and the light looks perfect on one side rather than the other, I’ll definitely go for that,” she said. “The light and the shadows, that’s what draws me in.”

Overall it takes about three hours in the field for Lichtenstein to finish painting, and she might make a few touch-ups when she returns home if the paint is too wet for some finer details. For example, she had been painting out by the creek recently in the direction of the Pell Bridge, and she painted in the details of the span after returning to her studio.

Lichtenstein said one of her favorite aspects of painting outside is the people she encounters. When she was painting the rock arch at the Fort Getty beach, an image that appears in her show, she met a little girl who was interested in her work.

“She was fascinated and stood with me for an hour watching me do this, and put a few little touches on herself,” she said. “That’s the sort of thing that really draws me in.”

The library show consists entirely of Jamestown scenes Lichtenstein has painted in the last five years. Aside from the Great Creek, Beavertail and Fort Getty, scenes of Fort Wetherill, Fox Hill Farm, Windmist Farm, Godena Farm and The Dumplings are included in the show. While Lichtenstein has been part of the art association for several years, this is her first appearance in the regularly scheduled series at the library.

One of the paintings in the show, of the Dutch Island Light as viewed from Fort Getty, was so new it still was wet when it was hung up at the library. The painting was finished about a week before the show went up at the end of June.

As for what she expects from visitors who explore her gallery, Lichtenstein said she likes when people are able to recognize the scenes she’s painted.

“I hope they had a sense of ‘Oh, I know that place,’ that sort of feeling of striking home,” she said.

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