Busy, Busy , Busy

11x14 oil/board




I'm back home from the Peoria show. I'm excited that a couple of paintings found new homes in the midwest. The show was great and the people wonderful!


I'm off to the Colt's Neck New jersey show this weekend. If anyone is in the neighborhood please stop by. I like meeting new people at the shows and it keeps the days interesting. I also will have 5 paintings on display at Gallery Blu in midtown Harrisburg. The opening is Friday evening 6pm-close. Unfortunately, I'll be in New Jersey but if anyone's in the area check out the show. I just saw the pieces and it will be a very good show. Gallery Blu 1633 N. 3rd st. Harrisburg, PA.


I've been insanely busy lately and painting time has been limited. I'm posting a piece I did last year in honor of the season. It's titled "corn harvest".

Paint Annapolis 2009

16"x20" oil/canvas
plein air

I'm back from the exciting Paint Annapolis 2009 compettition. No awards for me but thats alright.
I did this one during the Saturday morning quick draw competition. We had bright sun and I picked a less than usual subject for me.
Saturday night was the artists party and it was great to meet up with friends made last year and new ones made this year. Thanks Jane, you know how to entertain!

At 5:00pm I was honored to be one of 6 artists selected by Kenn Backhaus to do a round table type discussion aimed at educating collectors and the general public as to what plein air painting is all about....how our differing styles developed....the importance of the plein air movement to each of us.....etcc... I really enjoyed the evening and hearing the other 5 artists comments. They were... Lee Boynton, Abigail Mcbride, Stewart White, Lisa Egeli, and Mary Pritchard. Due to the timing of this event I didn't get an afternoon painting in, however, I'm very honored to have particpated in the group discussion and would do it again in a heartbeat!





20"x16" oil/canvas
plein air

I did this one Friday afternoon when the sun finally made an appearance. After I finished painting, a local fellow docked his sailboat . We talked a bit and he took me to a local Eastport pub for a beer. A nice way to cap off the evening and yet again meet interesting folks in an unfamiliar town.










20"x16" oil/canvas
plein air


This is from Friday morning. Still low cloud deck and gray day conditions. I felt good about the location and liked how the boats lead the eye to the Annapolis side of Spa creek.













16"x20" oil/canvas
plein air

I did this nocturne Thursday evening. I scraped down 2 paintings during the day. I was struggling with staying loose and just about everything else. So as night fell I headed back to Eastport. I completely let loose, mixing and applying paint like a madman. I use a little battery powered light that actually illuminates my palette more than my canvas. Basically you don't know what you have while you're painting. I just trusted my eye and mixing skills. I use cool colors for nightlight and warm colors for the darker areas. I realised the next day that parts of this are quite difficult to read, however I have not touched it since the session. I didn't want to kill the blurred, energetic night scene that I had witnessed.

Gallery walk river paintings

3 6x6" panels
plein air

I went back to the river today and did these. Paint Annapolis begins Thursday so I'm heading down tomorrow to check in and find some painting locations. I may or may not post during the competition, but will take the stuff along just in case.









3 6x6" panels

I no more than got home from the Bethany Beach show and found out I had one first place in the Art Association of Harrisburg members show for my painting of the Louvre. Yes, I was excited but I wasn't able to paint everything I wanted to for gallery walk. I attended the awards ceremony and decided to focus on the river for my painting. I taped up 3 little canvases and ended up scraping down 6 versions and ended up with these pieces.

4th and Boas #2

12"x24" oil/panel

I decided to do a second painting of this abandoned structure. I'm fascinated by the building and am trying to find the best way to convey it. I find it to be a haunting structure, so I've gone more with a colorist palette on this one to help convey emotion. I've darkened the value of the building mass and simply massed in 3 shapes then painted wet on wet within the masses. I stayed more loose with this one and tried to simplify all shapes.

I will do a 3rd version en plein air this Sunday. Combining what I've learned thus far, and a bit more research I look forward to seeing what the result will be. Normally I never paint the same thing more than once, but this thing has my interest.

morning light

11"x14" oil/board

plein air

After all these looks at buildings I had to post a landscape. I'm currently working on how to make the last post a more interesting piece. Just Blocking in major shapes... really playing with the light. I was most interested in the light and the eerieness of the structure.

4th and Boas

12"x24" oil/board


It's been awhile. 2 weeks ago hurricane Bill spared eastern long island so the Westhampton beach show was pretty good. Actually, it was brutally hot and the patrons commented that they just wanted to go home. But a couple of folks stuck it out. A week later tropical depression Danny? wasn't so kind. The cape cod show got hammered by rain. Saturday was cancelled and Sunday was greeted by a good 4 hours of heavy drizzle and rain. Needless to say not a whole lot happened.


I have this weekend off and am hosting artists Robert Barab and Peter Stolvoort. They are in the Long's Park show in Lancaster. I finally got in front of the easel today and did this piece. As of next weekend I am showing and competing every weekend through mid October. Next weekend I do the Bethany beach show Saturday and then come home and do Harrisburgs gallery walk on Sunday. We paint on the street as Gallery viewers walk from gallery to gallery and view plein air painters at work. I chose this subject because I plan on doing an arcitectural work Sunday. I did this one in studio and plan on trying it Sunday en plein air. I'm curious to see how the results differ. If anyone local wants to know the location it's on the corner of Boas and 4th st.'s.