"Party Crasher"

10 x 10"

oil on panel
sold

The span of days you didn't hear from me recently was largely due to my working on this new painting.  It tires me to drag out a piece for days - I suffer from a short span of attention, paint for a few hours and seek out other things to do around the house.  I truly love starting a painting in the morning and finishing in the evening.  

But Renoir's masterpiece Luncheon of the Boating Party is complex - you have a landscape, still life and fifteen figures and a dog all in one.  Sixteen figures including the my viewer.  

The famed painting is in the Phillips Collection, one of the off-the-mall museums in Washington DC - and a must-go-to place.  Especially to soak in Renoir's painting.

The Boating Party is a very interesting anatomy of Renoir's friends -

- the woman on the bottom left, holding a dog, is Aline, who married Renoir and together they had three sons.

- the man on the bottom left wearing the boater's hat is Gustave Caillebotte, an accomplished artist who painted Paris Street, Rainy Day - a crowd favorite which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.  Gustave was also an avid boatman.

- in the threesome in the upper right corner is the actress Jeanne Samary with two of Renoir's closest friends flirting with her.

- the man with the boating hat in the upper left and the woman in the boating hat leaning on the rail are brother and sister and children of the proprietor of the restaurant Maison Fournaise, where the scene takes place.

- the remainder are poets and critics and a wealthy art historian, collector and editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

Clearly the in-crowd.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Sidewalk Glances"

12 x 12"
sold

Front and center, on the third floor of the Art Institute, hangs Gustave Caillebotte's enormous painting 'Paris Street, Rainy Day' - certainly the biggest crowd-pleaser in the museum. There's plenty of room to not only get up close, but to back up a good 30 - 40 feet and take it all in. When I was a teenager, I would sit on the floor in front of this masterpiece and draw dozens of versions of parts of this urban scene - not knowing I'd paint it dozens of times thirty years later.

My favorite feature of this new piece is the man on the far right, on his way out. I have wanted to add more movement in figures - a slight blur or even a ghost of a shape - just knowing when it's right is the tough part.



And knowing how to get the idea across, without looking like my hand smudged the paint unintentionally is even harder. It's something I'm working on more and more, mostly behind the scenes.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Walk Through"

12 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

I went away. Just for a couple of days, unplanned, but needed. I reached a point of (slight) burn out. My Jack has had good days and awful days and I felt overwhelmed, as we do when we take care of ailing loved ones. I needed a break - yet I anguished over leaving even just for an afternoon. But it gets to the point where you can't function and I don't have time for that.

So..... I took a nice, easy roadtrip to the South Carolina coast, enough time to visit the gallery I've got new paintings in, meet the nice people who take care of my work. I got a little time in on the beach, of course taking pictures of tons of people - then watched a nearly-full moon rise over the ocean. Pure bliss. Unplanned and just what I needed.

If you're saying to yourself another painting of Paris Street, Rainy Day, just know - I cannot get enough of this masterpiece. The couple up front, seemingly walking right through the frame onto the floor of the museum - it is the biggest draw in the Art Institute - capturing people's awe all day long.

Please click here for a larger view.

"We Still Have Paris"

12 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

Several months ago, I accepted an invitation to be a part of a Summer Collection Show, created by the Morris & Whiteside Galleries, located in Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was an offer I couldn't refuse - their gallery reps some of my favorite painters - Steven Scott Young, Michelle Torez, Kim English, Dan McCaw, Milt Kobayashi, Joseph Lorusso, Ken Auster to name a few. I cannot express how proud I am to be hung on the same wall with those artists whom I've admired for so long.

This painting was featured in their beautiful catalog - and I'm proud to say it sold shortly after the catalog landed in the mailboxes of the gallery's collectors. Done from a recent trip to Chicago, it portrays a young couple in front of Caillebotte's enormous and famous painting 'Rainy Day, Paris Street'.

For a larger view, please click here.

"A Room With a View"

12 x 12"

oil on masonite

sold

As you can see, I decided to carry on and finish this piece as I initially planned - and I'll tell you why. You know I was about halfway done and was tempted to try something different and essentially subtract the surroundings from the figures. Convinced that that idea is interesting - and that it has such great potential - I decided to save it for another painting.

The comments I continue to get in both emails and blog posts are really helpful - in that I realize what I didn't want was for the figures to appear as cutouts. I also realized that if I planned that from the beginning I would have changed some things about the composition. In other words, it takes a lot more thought and planning from the get-go when the strength of the painting relies solely on the placement of the figures.

I also think I'm partial to the scene finished, in this case, because I can remember that room so well - how spacious it is, how the marbled floor reflects the people, how light comes from all different sources and mostly how that painting "Paris Street, Rainy Day" is the major spectacle of the room.

I also intended for this painting to be in an upcoming exhibition in May - but I've changed my mind. For that, I still want to do something unexpected of me - and perhaps take on the aforementioned challenge.

This painting will be slated for my upcoming July show at 16 Patton Gallery, in Asheville, North Carolina.

Click here for a larger view.