December 2022

M A D O N N A 

Oil on Panel 15" x 30" 

I set out to paint a portrait of my twelve year old granddaughter but ended with more. Somewhere between the glitter and the gaze, iconic Madonna and Child images came to mind.

Interestingly, when I showed my nearly completed panel to a close friend and accomplished journalist, his first comment was, "Ah, Madonna!"

November 2022

W A L K I N G    M A N 

Oil on Panel, 30" x 48" 

Based on a Bruno Catalano sculpture I saw on the streets of Paris in late 2019

"The trace of a journey at once mobile and motionless. For the Traveler is not only the person who has left everything behind for a dream and an elsewhere. It is the one who, fully attired, suitcase in hand, with a straight and dignified posture, represents each and every one of us. It is with this idea that Bruno Catalano created "Pierre David Triptyque" a plastic metaphor, limpid and just, of our human condition, circumventing the taboo of senility and death. Whatever our itinerary, vagabond or more sedentary, here is what will remain of us, ephemeral travelers on the Earth: a few traces of worn, derisive matter. A pair of shoes, a suitcase, metaphors for the legacy of every human being after his or her passage. In the maturity of his work, the artist increasingly shows the passage of time; with his Triptych, he proposes a crude and eloquent emblem of our mortality, of our being mere travelers of life."  

         –Ravagnan Gallery, Venezia, VE, Italy

August 2021

T H E    M I S C H I E F

Oil on Canvas,  16" x 21.5"

Norwich, England

Late afternoon light and shadow blanketed the Norwich cityscape as I watched two passersby turn and enter this endearing old pub. Legend is, Norwich has 365 pubs, one for each day of the year, along with 52 churches. Conveniently, one can repent over-indulgence in a different church every Sunday.

My unrepentant Mischief moment contained a Hopper-like bard of solitude. Three years later, following my last visit to Norwich, I tried capturing it on canvas.   

March 2020

T H E    D A N C E    B E Y O N D

Oil on Panel,  13.5" x 15"

In Loving Memory

As morning light touched our grandchildren’s tricycle, I imagined my late wife, Debbie, in child-like happiness.  Free now from illness and shadow of times past. 

Inspiration for my painting's title came from the final verse of a  poem she wrote early on during her 30-year struggle with lupus: “Please  dance  beyond  and  be  free.”

April 2019

M A N  N E E D S  A R T  N E E D S  M A N ™

Oil on Canvas / Adobe Illustrator

Giclee on paper,  20" x 20"

When great ideas and great images merge, they're stamped with honest imprints of their authors. They take-on worthwhile parts of human itinerary and synergies form.

Symbioses form too. The  familiar becomes wonderful, the wonderful familiar and art becomes essential. Man needs art. Art needs man.

My favorite artist/painter, Wayne Thiebaud, put it this way, "Paintings," he said, "are inert, still, quiet; but painters found a way to bring it [them] to life. A new visual species is another kind of world..." 

I cannot say it better than that.

August 2018

D E B B I E 

Oil on canvas, 16.5" x 18.5"

In mid 2018, Debbie and I attended what must have been our fourth or fifth Sargent exhibition. Included, among other period painters, was renowned Swedish artist,  Anders Zorn. 

I left the exhibit inspired to paint a portrait with a Zorn-style limited pallet (consisting of only titanium white, ivory black, cadmium red light and yellow ochre).  I took to the palette and was pleasantly surprised  by its range of hues. In all my years of painting, I'd never owned a tube of black.  

This is my second portrait of Debbie. I painted the first in 1969, our senior year in high school.  Seems like yesterday now.

March 2021

H O P S C O T C H   

Oil on Canvas,  11" x 14"

Depicted  here  is  my sister leaning into her and her granddaughter's next leap during a game of hopscotch. This was my first painting following a month-long, on-line oil painting class taught by one of my favorite figurative painters, Marjorie Hicks.

From her home studio, Marjorie taught her method of spontaneously and expressively portraying the human figure. Attendees were scattered halfway around the world, from Hawaii to Paris, with Marjorie in Nashville, TN, me in Alexandria, VA.

December 2021

S  I  R    W  I  N  S  T  O  N  

Oil on Unprimed Panel,  17" x 17"

When I snapped reference photos of Winston, the six month old Lab puppy weighed 50-pounds. A few months later, by the time I finished this painting, he weighed over 70, headed for an adult weight of 100+.

What a handsome, energetic and muscular creature!

July 2018

W I N G S   O F   F R E E D O M

Oil on Canvas, 16.5" x 18.5"

Wings of Freedom, my first retirement painting, is based on a photo I shot at Chicago’s Palwaukee Airport. 

The small but well attended airshow featured several WWII bombers. My favorite was this battle-scarred, but still airworthy,  B-25 J. The plane's moniker, Tondelayo, was inspired by Hedy Lamarr's leading role in the classic 1942 movie, White Cargo.

This painting's title, its strength, brightness, upbeat hues and optimism reflect my disposition as I embrace the milestone of retirement.