Mural Up!

 

Elkins Park Train Station Renovation Project, Mural Panels

Panels completed in the station "studio"  ready for installation

I've been working on this vividly colored mural, designed to raise curiosity and awareness about the plan to preserve the historic Elkins Park Train Station, and turn it into a community center. I painted plywood panels on a loooooong easel set up inside the station itself.

Last Saturday a group of volunteers helped install the panels on the outbound shelter structure, where it can be seen from the commuter parking lot and the business district around Creekside Co-op.

For more information visit renovation project website at:

www.elkinscentral.com

New Paintings

"Distant Campfire" 12 x 12, Casein on muslin covered panel. Weathered chestnut frame, overall size 21 x 21

This new work is on display at the Frame House gallery, 7900 High School Road in Elkins Park PA. I was really pleased with how the moody scene became more interesting with the integration of the painting into the frame, the blue tones enriched by an intense periwinkle floater and the beauty of the heavy weathered chestnut outer rail. I built this frame from wood I found in a salvage yard, and was told by the owner that it was originally the back rail of a church pew. It works beautifully for its new purpose! 

"Market East" 28 x 21, Casein on muslin covered panel

Septa riders may recognize the multi-colored, angled strokes in the right section of this painting as an interpretation of the glazed tile wall of the Market East station platform area. Light pours in from the glass shaftway above, reflecting and refracting from the glossy wall surface onto the platform and patrons. Yet the underground darkness of the tunnels still pervades the space. My palette became more high-contrast and intense than usual to capture this atmosphere. I was also interested in capturing the feeling of people interacting in this public space--or rather not interacting, with many characters' attention focused downwards to their hand-held devices. The scene made me think of an earlier impressionistic painting, also of people taking public transportation, "Boston Common at Twilight" by Childe Hassan. (shown below)  A very different mood of a different time, but somehow connected.