Samuel Alvarez

Reading Under the Banyan Tree
Oil on Canvas 24x18'' (61x46cm)

This was painted for a plein air painting competition and I ended up coming in first place! The day was filled with hurdles but I managed to pull it all together.
For the full days events watch the previous post.

Thanks to for posing! 🙌🙏


*a tourist walking by asked me to title it 'Banyan Babe' , I didn't.

Boat Salvagers
Oil on Canvas

This painting was created as a gift for my father-in-law. He and my wife make an incredible boat-salvaging team, and I’ve seen plenty of footage of them working in truly brutal conditions. At first, I planned to paint a dramatic, storm-filled scene to reflect that intensity.

But the stories they speak about most fondly are the calm days, when the ocean is crystal clear and alive with wildlife. Those are the moments they remember as the most beautiful. So I shifted the painting in that direction.

I’ve always loved water that’s so clear it almost disappears, where objects seem to float in midair and only the faintest ripples reveal the surface. In this painting, I pushed that idea further, beyond the limits of reality, to capture the feeling of those moments rather than a literal depiction

Golden Hour
Oil on Canvas 15.5x23 inches

This piece will be on display tonight at the Studios of Key West for the “Zest for Life” winter exhibition. It will be showing alongside the works of many wonderful local artists from December 4–30. If you’re in town, please stop by!

The theme of the exhibition is:
“Zest is whatever enlivens the senses: a flash of light as the sun hits a palm tree; a crystalline moment captured in time; or an impromptu flourish as we try something new.”

Originally, I planned to paint the Key Lime tree we have in our garden, but after experimenting with a few studies, nothing sparked the excitement I was looking for. So at the last minute, I composed a scene featuring my wife’s Canna lilies glowing in the sun, and arranged a small gathering of chickens around them to add a playful narrative.

For me, the burst of colour from the backlit petals gives the vibrant, zesty energy the theme called for. It may not be as on-the-nose as painting a Key Lime Pie, but it carries its own kind of joyful flair.

Passing Shadow
Oil on Canvas 22x14.5" (56x37cm)

This is probably my favourite painting from the works I created following the Hudson River Fellowship. It recreates a scene I experienced deep in the forests of Connecticut. If you swipe all the way, you’ll see a video capturing the exact moment.

I was out painting that splintered tree when I heard the soft, heavy thumping of a large animal. As expected, it was a black bear, and it walked straight through my subject.

At that point, I had never seen a bear in the wild, and I was genuinely terrified. I wanted to quietly retreat, but I was afraid of startling it. In the end, I stayed completely still, pressed against a tree, and filmed it with my phone. It paid me no attention whatsoever, though I was no less frightened.

When creating this painting, I wanted to capture that exact moment, but I had very limited reference material. I didn’t have time to paint the bear as it passed, so building a believable reference took time. After researching bears, studying stacks of photos I had taken, and using my forest sketches, I combined everything into the finished work you see here.

This is one of my favourite paintings because of the story behind it. Along with my painting of the Great Falls, it carries a narrative. And for me, having done a lot of illustration work, that’s what I love most, the storytelling.

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Great Falls
Oil on Canvas 14.5x24" (37x61cm)

This painting is currently on view in the Hudson River Fellowship Exhibition, opening tonight from 6–9 PM at the Salmagundi Club, NYC. If you can make it, I’d love for you to stop by, the show is filled with incredible work by all the friends I made over the summer.

This piece depicts painting in front of the Great Falls, Connecticut. It’s an enlarged version of a sketch I made on a day I’ll never forget. I had never seen a waterfall of this scale before, and standing there, I felt completely overwhelmed by its power and presence.

Nathan, , and I excitedly waded across the river to reach the base of the falls. We painted there and swam out to the large overhanging rock shown in the painting. From there, we were able to crawl behind the waterfall, something I never thought would be possible. It was both terrifying and magical, watching the golden light filter through the cascading water. I could feel both the beauty of it and the immense, almost violent energy of the water.

While I was working on the original sketch, the water level began to rise. The flow slowly increased as we painted ,it was completely unexpected in what seemed like a calm, steady body of water. I started on a dry rock and ended up painting knee-deep in moving water.

That excitement turned to tension when we realized our route back had changed. What had been a narrow stretch of ankle-deep water was now a waist-deep, raging torrent. I was the last to cross and had my camera with me, so the stakes felt high. We couldn’t see the rocks beneath the surface, so we inched our way across, step by step, trying not to be swept away.

Crossing a gap of about 40 feet took 10–15 minutes, though it felt like much longer. Our ankles were shaking from the constant pressure of the current, but we all made it across safely. It was a very close call!

Wononskopomuc Lake
Oil on Canvas 22x34" (56x86cm)

This is one of the enlarged works I created as a result of the Hudson River Fellowship. This is a view looking over 'Wononskopomuc Lake' and originally I painted it on an overcast day in the evening. However in the end I wanted to go for a more dramatic scene, imagining the tips of the trees in early morning light.
The difficulty was I never once saw it in this way, in fact I don't even know if this happens, but after doing many colour studies from imagination I applied it to a larger drawing on canvas.
This was really fun to paint, but in the end I'm only half satisfied with it, I wanted to paint it again with a slightly modified colour harmony, but I just couldn't get it done in time.

A group of Florida Landscape Paintings

Images 1. House in the Trees 14x20" (36x51cm)

Images 2-3. Angela At

Images 4-5. Florida Clouds 20x24" (51x61cm)

Images 6. House in the Jungle 24x18" (61x46)

Image 7. Love Lane 16x13" (41x33cm)

Image 8. Snatchers Beach 12x16" (30x41cm)

*All works, Oil on Canvas

A Key West Family
Oil on Wood 16x48'' (41x122cm)

Excited to share that this painting and a whole collection of my work is showing at The Studios of Key West, now through September 20th! I’ll be working from the space too, so if you’re nearby, come by and say hi!

*The Studios are open to the public Wednesday through Saturday, so feel free to drop in during those days.