New Stuff April 24

Welcome to my Studio!

This blog is designed to share my paintings with interested followers, friends, and family. Just starting up, my main goal is to post some pictures of my work and get feedback. Please comment and join my friends list!

June is coming fast, so I am working hard to complete a good selection of paintings for the Arts in the Park festival June 5th.  Hope to see you in High School Park. (see "Juried Show" link in the menu bar).

More Recent Work:

 (click pic to enlarge)

Fountain of My Youth

9" x 12" Casein paint on muslin over plywood

I am really pleased with this painting of an old water fountain at the edge of a grove of trees in Grant Park, my old neighborhood in Atlanta. Love that heavy duty foot pedal; you can practically feel the torque, hear the creak of gears and gurgle of water. Rusty and grungy as it is, I still want to take a long drink. 

Watch for more fountains. I will be creating a series of fountain paintings over the next few months.

Winter Hill Marina Under the Mystic Power Plant, Dusk

24" x 16" Casein Paint on muslin over plywood

Boston embraces the Charles River for recreational amenities, sailing, tourism, and scenic skyline views.  Just around the elbow of Charlestown, the Mystic River also flows into Boston Bay, a bluer collar counterpart to the Charles, despite its more romantic name. A bit upriver, looking from route 28, the massive Mystic Power Plant dominates the skyline, sprawling above a lonely little boat dock with the chilly name of Winter Hill Marina. It’s a visually arresting scene when the last horizontal rays of sun catch the plant in the evening as the sky deepens into night.  Nature creating portentous beauty out of a utilitarian setting is a contrast I find fascinating. 

Summer Evening, Schuykill Canal Path at Green Lane

16” x 16” Casein on muslin over plywood

The tall bridge in the background was a rail line crossing the Schuykill (pronounced Skoo-kill) River, that connected the manufacturing district of Manayunk to Central Philadelphia. I believe it dates from very early in the 20th century, one of several similar spans across the broad river valleys in Philadelphia, engineering marvels of their day. The strength and grace of the masonry arches references Roman aqueducts, and gives this scene a rather Italian feeling, further enhanced by the tall pine and other lush trees. But the whole setting is also firmly grounded in the grit of American industry, with the old canal, auto and rail bridges, and my favorite, the power line towers. 

6A, Ptown

24” x 12” casein paint on starched muslin covered plywood

This was one of my first paintings on muslin. When painting a large theatrical backdrop as a scenic artist, we stapled the muslin to the floor, then sprayed it down with hot laundry starch to stretch and stiffen it. I used that technique here, but subsequently found it unnecessary for working in this scale, with muslin stretched on plywood. It results in portions of the muslin having slightly veined quality, almost like leather, not unpleasant, but different from subsequent pieces. 

As for the scene itself, there is something about the simplicity of the structure here that really appeals to me. If you’ve vacationed in Provincetown you may recognize the spot, where Bradford street ends at Highway 6A, looking towards the dunes, the bay just beyond and the breakwater to the left. In bright morning light, the contrast of the rigid vertical signposts and the fluid horizontal sweep of sand and sky attracted me, with blue-lavender shadows across the bleached pavement. 

Deep Forest Trail, Twisted Tree

24” x 18” casein paint on muslin over plywood

I’m not so interested in painting dramatic scenery as in finding drama, nuance, and form in everyday scenes. Here I wanted to create a painting where the only structural elements were trees on a densely forested path. The main focus is on the unusually twisted tree to the right, which I got a little obsessed with. The forest canopy is and interesting skein of branches, leaves and filtered light in pale greens and soft yellows. The forest floor and trail are very soft tones of taupe and faded terra-cotta. This painting is probably most like a theatrical backdrop than any other I’ve done.