In the winter of 1984, New Jersey artist Keith R. Jones received the Public Arts Inclusion award to create his painting Sunset Over Wading River. The artwork was installed in the conference room in Chestnut Hall, one of Glassboro State College’s new dormitories. The painting was moved to the Campbell Library in the mid-1990s.

The jury asked him to capture the beauty of a South Jersey landscape. College officials felt a rural landscape or scene depicting the southern part of the state would literally be closer to home in the hearts of those who would view the painting.

Jones chose a view from the Batsto Village and the marshes near the Wading River, a tributary of the Mullica River, as the ideal spot to represent southern New Jersey.

For ten months, the 78in. X 150in. Belgian linen canvas occupied his apartment and gradually took form. Working in oils, he created a two-dimensional illusion that he calls “Sunset Over Wading River.”

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