Another Little Slice of New York Life...

Greetings fine art aficionados, it's been a long time coming, but here's a taste of one of my latest fruit stand series. This was inspired by my trip to Manhattan's Chinatown, where the fragrant smells and vibrant colors cried out to be captured on canvas. I also liked the patterns in the Chinese grill fence behind this unassuming, neon-orange clad, fruit-feeling fellow. Enjoy!
'Chinatown Bargain'........oil on panel........8x15inches


~EXTRAS~

My painting ‘Old Hospital Bunker’ recently received an ‘Award of Excellence’ at the OPA 17th National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils hosted by Dana Gallery in Missoula, MT.

East Coast Excursion and Show

'Letting Off Steam'.........oil on canvas panel..........12x16 inches (SOLD)

Greetings everyone. This past month I’ve been busily painting for my two-person show at the Greenwich Workshop Gallery in Connecticut (see show invite below). I will be exhibiting new works inspired by a recent trip to New York and Connecticut. Pictured above is one of the pieces which will be on display. Cindy Baron, a truly accomplished and talented painter, will be showing with me.
Preparing for this show was extremely intense due to the short preparation time provided. Those New Yorkers! Always rushing this way and that, short deadlines and GO! GO! GO! Thank God for coffee!!! On top of that, my preparation time was cut even shorter by the necessary week-long visit to Manhattan to acquire reference material. It was non-stop from the moment we landed at JFK to the time we returned to LAX. I like that, because when I re-turn to LAX , I re-LAX ;-) New York was very busy and fast paced is all I'm saying. We covered every inch of Manhattan, from Washington Heights where Ben and I were staying (yes, we went to the Cloisters) to walking along the Brooklyn Bridge and seeing the World Trade Center Memorial Site (extremely powerful and moving, everyone should go to pay their respects). Hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, went to Barney Greengrass Deli, visited Times Square three nights in a row, walked through Chelsea, Tribeca, China Town, Little Italy, SoHo, Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Village, Central Park and ventured off the island briefly to Queens for Russian-Jewish shish kebob.
Click here to view online exhibition. Enjoy!




~I n M e m o r i a m~

Cindy Fancher
1941-2008

This trip was bittersweet for me, however, as it brought home the recent untimely passing of a very near and dear friend.
Cynthia Fancher, my late ballet teacher, was a true New Yorker and will be greatly missed.
I am dedicating this show to her.

Workshop and Show....

Hello bloggaboos and dwellers of the nether regions of the Ethernet.
This summer, I will be teaching a 5 day plein air workshop scheduled for July 21st through July 25th. The workshop, coordinated by Michael Lewis of PAPW, will take place in scenic Grants, New Mexico. PAPW (an acronym for ‘Plein Air Painters of the West), consists of high quality painters who have each established themselves as top notch artists in their own right. To find out more about these groovy fellow painters, click here.

PS - If you're in that neck of the woods during the summer make sure you drop by!



** 2008 OIL PAINTERS OF AMERICA JURIED EXHIBITION **

I am very pleased to announce my painting ‘Old Hospital Bunker’ (see December 20th post to view painting) has been accepted into the Oil Painters of America (OPA) ‘17th National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils'.
The exhibition is scheduled to open May 02, 2008.


Signing off with a little still life.........

'Baileys and Tea Pot'.........oil on canvas panel..........11x14 inches
I painted this still life as a demo for my students in my Tuesday night painting class. Took me approximately two hours to complete (and yes, I did indulge in the Baileys afterward...yummmm ;-)

'Devil's Gate Dam' and Show

'Devil's Gate Dam'.......oil on canvas panel.......7x9 inches (SOLD)

Wow! Is it already February!?
Hello bloggers and draft dodgers! Lend me your ear for the new year! Hope everyone’s year is off to a rambunctious start! Started off the new year with an impromptu visit to Jumbo’s Clown Room and received a complementary birthday lap dance, much to the delight of the lascivious voyeurs who make up our Wednesday night painting workshops. Thanks for making me feel special guys ;-)
It's all just a blurred memory now except for the nasty head cold I caught and the harrowing 15 hour hang over I endured the day following my 40th birthday soiree. Sworn off drinking AGAIN! Hope to find the meaning of life by February 17th, 2008. No particular reason for that date, but it's important to have deadlines and stick to them.
Pictured above is a painting I did over the holidays at the Devil’s Gate Dam alongside my painting comrade Jose.




I'm extremely pleased to announce my painting 'Chapter Four' (pictured below) has been accepted into the ‘Salon International 2008’ juried exhibition. This juried exhibition is a project of the International Museum of Contemporary Masters and will be hosted by Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art in San Antonio, Texas. Exhibition opens in gallery and on web site on April 12th, 2008.


'Chapter Four'.......oil on panel........16x20 inches
The lovely young lady is Ben’s cousin, Nova. I attempted to capture her quiet intensity as well as the soft, glowing light that illuminated her as dusk was quickly approaching.

"Happy Holidaze!"

'Old Hospital Bunker'..........oil on canvas panel.........7x9 inches (SOLD)

Feeling festive and foolish, sipping spiked eggnog, I sit here ecstatically contemplating my blog....
Holidays are fast encroaching as the year is coming to a close. I'm
writing now from my brain which is sitting in a warm and cozy skull, safe from the rain and elements.

This painting was done on the grounds of the ‘Barlow Respiratory Hospital’ located in Elysian Park (just minutes from the Dodger Stadium), where lascivious and restless young men meet, greet and generally frolic amongst the brush and foliage. Oh, if leaves could talk! When I first arrived at this particular building/bunker I assumed it was abandoned due to the general disrepair. “Was it a ghost I see!?”.... thought I, as an old man in hospital scrubs strolled casually past, pulling an oxygen tank behind him. A quick toss of a rock told me no, he was flesh and blood just like me! When confronted by this angrily gibbering lunatic, my painting comrade Jose told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn't smoke a cigarette at a respiratory hospital, certainly not while pulling an oxygen tank! This quick guilt reversal seemed to do the trick, and we painted in an uninterrupted manner for the remainder of the very cold and brisk afternoon.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

'Oak Park, Illinois'......oil on canvas panel......4 3/4 x 5.5 inches (SOLD)

'Old Barn'.......oil on canvas panel........4 3/4 x 5.5 inches


Hello Bloggers and Blogging People, People of the Blogosphere, Blogizens of Blogilization. Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. Let me tell you of my adventures in the world beyond the internet which I know as Earth. Picture if you will a place with wide open spaces and fresh balmy air. We on Earth call this the outside ;-) It was whilst venturing “outside” that I executed several small paintings pictured above. These two I have selected for your perusal because they had both been submitted and accepted into the 2007 Greenwich Workshop Gallery’s Small Works Exhibition which took place this past weekend.


First, there is the painting “Oak Park, Illinois”. Because of the small sized canvas I was able to capture the fleeting afternoon light. Considering how cold it was, it was necessary to paint in an expedient manner. Next, I refer you to “The Old Barn”. This was painted in Ojai, located just an hour’s drive from Los Angeles. Ojai’s a sleepy little town founded by hippies during the sixties. It has an abundance of rustic, rural, recreational regions, regulated regularly by Reagan-era rebels. Ridiculous! I was fortunate to find a friendly fifty-something farmhand named Fred whose foresight and faith in feet and foreskins…....aah forget it. Excelsior!!! …..channeling Dr. Seuss…….

Artists To Watch.....

I am very delighted and excited to have been featured as one of the ‘Artists to Watch’ in Southwest Art magazine. The commentary is appearing in the November 2007 publication which is currently out on newsstands.
Below is the painting used as an insert for the article.



'Yellow Tow Truck'.......oil on canvas panel.......6x8 inches

Glassel Park’s San Fernando Blvd. is peppered with old wrecking yards and dilapidated service stations which provides ample painting fodder teeming with rich textures and colors. While cruising on the boulevard, scouting for an interesting scene with my painting buddy Erik Houg, I came across Tony’s Auto Wrecking garage. I found the warm colors of the structure against the clear blue sky appealing, although the funky little tow truck was the main attraction. Being extra cautious about the oncoming 18- wheelers and speed freaks, we quickly scurried across the street and set up on a tiny shaded curb with minimal protection from the streaming traffic.
Ahhh yes! Nothing like adrenaline, searing hot weather, car exhaust and occasional badgering from the local cart-pushing schizophrenic vagrant to stoke the fires of creativity while painting en plein air!