Coming Home

Finished this painting last week. "Coming Home", 20"x 20", oil on canvas. There is a single car with it's headlights on coming up the road, about to cross the bridge. This title alludes to the many scenarios this painting could be. Dusk or dawn. Coming back from a long night at work. Heading home after a long day a work. Coming back from a night on the town. Coming home after a secret affair with someone else. Coming home from after being away at school. Coming back from vacation......the possibilities are endless. You can decide for yourself.

This will be part of my solo show at Arcadia gallery. Opens March 24th.

Dusk

I am beginning to figure out why I am painting what I am painting. I talk all the time about finding home.This longing where to live. I spent a great part of my childhood moving and traveling. I have seen this country backwards and forwards. Every mole hill and hamlet and every highway that leads from one place another, I have been to. As an adult I have moved and lived in numerous cities. However, I have been here in Orlando now, in the same house, for 9 years. The longest I have ever lived in one place. But I have spent alot of my time on the road looking at many, many cities and towns to move to. I have bothered countless real estate agents to show me houses. Many beautiful things. Every town my wife and I travel through we look at homes and imagine what our lives would be like living there. All of this has been the search for home. I just don't know where it is. I even have dreams where I am begging to go home, pleading with who is there to let me...........this painting, and many of the others, has to represent this search for home. I didn't really notice it at first, but now it seems so clear......... This house was right by where we stayed in NY state last summer. We drove by it every day and I just.....imagined.

Dusk
oil on canvas
21.5"x 25"

This piece will be part of my solo show at Arcadia next month.

The way home...

Here is a painting I finished a number of weeks ago that I finally was able to varnish. I didn't want to set up all the things I needed to in order to take a decent picture, so I took it at an angle on the easel in order to see it. Reflections with a dark painting are a pain. Anyway, its on wood and it's about 8"x 10". This painting is the neighborhood Rachel, my wife, grew up in. Because of her low vision, getting to and from places was and is difficult. During grade school she walked the same route home everyday to make it easier on herself. A number of times she walked home when it was nearly dark. Her night vision is especially bad. The view in the painting is of the last turn to her house. This streetlight helped to guide her way. When she got to it, she knew she was nearly home...........the painting is titled..."The way home".

Crossroads

Crossroads......13"x 15 1/2"...still have to repaint the sky. The lights in this image look really yellow/orange. Not nearly so in person.
So I wanted to paint the place where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar genius. I figured if this legend were really true, it would have to be a relatively benign place. It seems like it would be a simple place and not one of grandiosity. In the story, it was, indeed, near railroad tracks. In this painting we are Robert Johnson, on the railroad tracks of life..Ha!! We are coming to a crossing. We are given a choice. On the right, which is impossible to see here, is a children school crossing sign. This is meant to represent innocence. On the left is a business, which could be a bar, a juke joint, or whatever. It is occupied and open 24 hours, because the devil is always open for business. Life is about choices. Robert Johnson made his. What is mine? What is yours?

Lions in Winter

Finished a new piece...20"x 20" on canvas........It's the winter hideaway of the Cole Brothers Circus. Its fenced off from the road. I have been there a couple of times now in the evening. From the entrance a dirt path winds its way through the complex. Street lights illuminate the path at various points along with a number of trucks parked with circus signs on them. The view down this path is the one I have chosen to paint. Across the street is the old Deland train stop/gas station turned meth lab. Just 50 yards to the east, across the tracks, forming a perfect bizarre triangle, is a bar called the "In Between". In between what I don't know. I stood in the middle of the road the other night with the meth lab people watching me and, I swear to God, yelping like dogs to get my attention. I looked at all three places and wondered if I was at the nexus of some strange, twisted universe. What could these three places possibly have in common? I leaned toward the van and realized the only thing they had in common at that moment was me..............so I got the hell out of there.

Looking north across Pearly Lake towards Mt Monadnock

OK, this is easily the longest titled painting I have done.

4"x 4.5" oil on wood

I finished this a few weeks ago. It is for a couple from Williamstown, MA. They currently live here in Deland, Florida and own 7 of my paintings. Wait.....maybe it's eight. Damn, I should know. Anyway, this was commissioned as a Christmas gift to the mother of the husband. She had been in ill health and at the age of, I think, 93, time was a factor. I finished it just before Thanksgiving, but unfortunately, she passed away before the painting could be given to her. I would have hoped she would have liked it. I did not meet her, but from all that I have heard, she was a good woman who possessed many good qualities, besides raising a fine son. And she lived a very long time, which is the way it should be. Too often, the jerks of the world live forever and the good die young. But this time, humanity won.

This painting is of a lake in New Hampshire near Franklin Pierce University that looks towards Mt Monadnock. Jeff, the husband went to school there and I am sure it has a lot of good memories. If we are lucky enough to go to college, we are sometimes imbued with the belief that we can change the planet and move mountains once we are unleashed on the world.

I tried to do the best I could with this painting. I think it turned out pretty well. As an artist, I am lucky to live this life. It's the only one I will get. I made some small changes to Monadnock and it is now in clearer view and not obstructed by the trees. You know........maybe we can move mountains after all.

The Road

Ah, paintings at night. These are extremely difficult to do. Painting outside is a challenge. I live in Florida and the bugs are numerous and relentless. My single light I use to illuminate the easel also attracts every one of them. I use clove oil with my medium and that smell causes them to fly right into the painting and, of course, stick right to it. I spend a lot of time plucking them off. How fun. Plus, moving my eye from the highly lit board to the near darkness and back again to the board is very taxing on the eyes after about an hour. So I have to do a painting over many nights. However, photographing anything is nearly impossible. To get the light right is so hard given the extremes of light and really, you can't see much in a photo in the very dark areas. When I am standing there, I see the subtle differences. And any bright lights are totally washed out, so I have to take many, many pictures at just one location to get the information I need to make a painting.

This piece is 9"x 16" and its a perfect example of all of the above. Plus, when you are out there in the dark, people wonder what the hell you are doing. I am sure it looks suspicious with the white van, too. But people, I am hanging out a while because I am trying to get this whole painting thing right, not plan some elaborate heist or mugging.

The Night Watch

We spent most of the summer up north, trying to get out of the ridiculous Florida heat. We were in New York when they had just about the hottest stretch of weather ever.

Figures.

We spent 10 days in the Hudson River valley near New Paltz. We rented a garage apartment and I used my evenings looking for paintings. I like the idea of discovering things. I certainly have images or ideas I am looking for, but the world offers alot more than I can conjure up in my mind.

I didn't have any plan. I just drove around and hoped to come across something really cool at twilight or night. So much of that time is mysterious. Landscapes at this hour are like ghosts that are unseen during the day, only to come out and play to reveal themselves in a myriad of strange and unusual ways. Illumination of light can completely change the way a place looks and feels and quite frankly, so can darkness.

One evening, as night was approaching, I came across a river around Kingston that was near its final destination, the Hudson. This lone, illuminated boat was parked in the river like a sentinel. Its relationship to the house was a mystery. Could have been a party for all I know. Or something sinister. Who knows? With this painting, I want to leave the story open ended and unresolved. I will let the viewer decide its origin and intent.

This painting, more than all the others, represents my transition from pure landscape to one that includes a narrative. It has all the elements of my work and is a nod to the Hudson River artists. In this case, that is literal, given its location.

Its oil on wood.

8.5"x 11.5"

Sacred

Here is another piece I am working on for the show at Arcadia next year. It is 8.5"x 10.5" on wood. This is an actual place. It is the neighborhood my wife grew up in. On the left is her childhood home, still occupied by her father. On the right is the woman who has been his neighbor for 54 years. They both raised families and for more than 10 years, both have been widowed. One is Jewish and one is 7th Day Adventist. Both are incredibly good people who spend alot of time in service of others. To me, they represent a lot of what is good about this country and how well we can adapt and prosper and nourish friendship for, in this case, a very long time. They have differences and commonalities and can still see and understand the beauty and honor of their experience even as the arc of their lives reaches near its end. It is a precious thing to have such a great place to live your life. This is hallowed ground. It is sacred.

Dusk to Dawn

Next March I am having a solo show at Arcadia gallery in NY. Most of the paintings will be from dusk to dawn. I am very excited about it and have already finished some of the paintings for it. I will write more at a later time about the show and some of the ideas I have running through my head, but for now I just wanted to show a smaller painting that I am working on right now that will be included. There are still a few elements I want to add that will create a narrative, but one that is not necessarily obvious. Tentative title is Phenomena. It is 8"x 10.5". Oil on wood

New England

This is a small painting I just finished. Its really a commission for a couple in Nantucket that already have a painting. This one is 4"x 4.5". We spent most of the summer in New England and this piece comes from that trip. It's a small creek near the coast, north of Boston. We were just north of Rockport when I found this little place. It rained this day, but our weather for the next 7 days was perfect.

It's the end of the world as we know it..............

I am a little sad today.

R.E.M. decided to quit being a band.

I have been a huge fan for a long time. Obsessive really. I have listened to their music nearly everyday for years. My first album was Document and I listened to that until it would play no more. Then I got another one and the same thing happened. Simply put, their music made my life a little better. It is the soundtrack to the creation of my paintings. They are all around 50 and deserve to do whatever they want with the rest of their lives. I say good luck to them.

And thank you very much..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRFFNSgo_N8

I have spent most of my life traveling. I have been down just about every dirt road, country highway and interstate this land has to offer. America is just beautiful. So many times I have been driving at night with the windows down, on a two lane highway between two small towns, the cool air whipping through the car, and R.E.M. playing on the stereo. So many memories. It was just......right.......

and it will be again.......

Endless Sea of water paintings.......

Here is a new painting that may come available soon. Endless Sea. 5"x 9" Oil on wood.

The Unconquerable Sea

Well, here is another painting of the sea from Nantucket. 22"x 33". The ocean can be so many things, but one thing for sure it should be, is respected. It is an indomitable force that cannot be contained. The sea will do whatever it wants and we must abide by it's wishes. Woe unto the man who is arrogant and prideful who thinks this not. I have so many dreams in which I am standing on the edge of the sea and the waves crash at my feet, slowly getting higher and higher, until they overtake me. I am swept away by the sheer power and relentless surge of the water and I am terrified, yet equally calmed by and in awe of, it's beauty.

American Artist Article

This summer's American Artist Magazine has an article about me and my work. It focuses on my wave paintings. It is very well written by Courtney Jordan and many thanks to her for making me sound a lot smarter than I am. It is currently in all major bookstores and our coffee table.....

Niagara

Two years ago I did a painting of Niagara Falls. It was clearly inspired by Frederick Church's Niagara painting. We actually went to the Corcoran Museum in DC to see the painting on the way to Niagara Falls. I was shocked by the poor condition of the painting. It clearly had been punctured and repainted a few times. It's funny. I was so excited to finally see it in person. Maybe I had just expected to be blown away, but I really wasn't. I spent a lot of time looking and, this is hard to say, it seemed very ordinary. I think he is a great artist. I am not fit to clean his brushes, but this was a let down. It even had its own room. Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe I created something impossible in my mind. I don't know. I walked away a bit disappointed.

For my painting, I wanted to create a sense you were looking out over the falls like Church. When we were there the angles clearly weren't right for what I wanted, so I exaggerated the front part and lengthened it to give the viewer a little vertigo. This is based on about 7 in the morning. I was almost alone and the sun was peeking through the mist. It was quite beautiful. The light was dramatic and I tried to get as much information as I could. It was also quite damp with the mist rising up and out. Plus, if you have ever stood there close, the sound is thunderous. The painting is 20"x 44". It was about 8 weeks of work. I repainted the sky as well, trying to get the right color. I hope I did the place justice. Someday I will go back and do another piece. Maybe in winter. And very large. 50"x 75" or so. Now that would be dramatic.....

At the beginning.....

This is a little painting I did in 2005. It's 6"x 6". It was for a solo show I had at Tanner Hill gallery in Chattanooga. It was at the beginning of this phase of doing small work on smooth panels.

Seaside

New Painting.........This is a piece from our trip to Nantucket last fall. 8.5"x 10.5" The light and the surf were amazing. Many a piece will come from those few days there.

Southbound

5 1/8"x 7"..........All of a sudden, I am into trains. At least the tracks anyway. I have always loved the south. Its a place of dreams and of rich and diverse history. When I am here, I always feel like I am home. Was listening to the Allman Brothers while painting this. Seems appropriate. They were and are southern boys from Macon, Georgia. Duane has been gone a long time, but Greg Allman now lives in Savannah, one of my favorite places in the whole world. This one goes out to you my sweet, Georgia town.............."Oh, Lordy I'm southbound. I'm coming home to you"................................

Florida Contemporary

The third annual edition of the popular Naples Museum of Art Invitational exhibition opens today in Naples, FL. I was asked to include one of my paintings and Helene von Bueren was kind enough to let them use Santee, which was purchased through Arcadia in NY.

From realism to abstraction (and everything in between), Florida Contemporary 2011 will feature familiar photographers, painters, sculptors and graphic artists who have spent a lifetime at their craft together with an exciting array of new artists that visitors can “discover” for themselves. While not an all-inclusive record of current exhibiting Florida artists, this exhibition provides an intriguing impression of the innovative images, subject matter, techniques and mediums that exemplify the art being created in the state today. http://thephil.org/museum/museum_exhibitions/11-FloridaContemporary.html