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