Pop in, why don't you?

 I'll be exhibiting portraits and studies along with 8 other artists 

at the Mills Pond House Winners Showcase

The Mills Pond House is one of the great old houses of Long Island. An a mazing space for artists to exhibit in.


The Mills Pond House Gallery Exhibit
January 18- February 20, 2014

Opening reception
Saturday, January 18
2-4 pm

Exhibition: Art of the Figure

I enjoyed working on this painting--enormously. Kept colors super limited using water miscibles and worked thin layer upon thin layer to attempt to capture some luminosity.

Gallery North

Molly Rose

Photographing this one has taken longer than the actual painting. The canvas is grainy and wants to take center stage.

Morning miniatures

When you're almost certain that your day isn't going to go along swimmingly one the best things is to do what you do very early in the morning--

Below is Rebecca one of the fabulous musicians who play in the nearly-annual Artsac concerts. This year they were especially brilliant.

45min

When life drawing sessions aren't happening when you need them, there's always Posespace.com. Both of the following sketches came from one their models.

Irina I - 30min

Irina 2 - 1hr

Propel

The original painting I'd done of this character for Propel, my thesis work, wasn't as grounded as I liked. I reworked it keeping in mind that it might be used a cover image and not just the first page in the book. This meant it needed to be simple and clear.

After I finished it up last night, I couldn't bring myself to scoop up excess paint and make a happy gray out of it, so my morning miniature happened quickly late evening.

Monique and the Cell--10min

Morning miniature - 20min

I eye-balled this one for about half the time I gave myself to complete it. I tried summing up the darks as much as possible before putting brush to canvas--the rest follows. These are great if you're not concerned about finessing a completed image. Once they're on canvas, and the beeper beeps, I stop. There are 2million spots I want to return to, but that defeats the purpose.

Our Smithtown Arts Council has been working non-stop--we've been very lucky to have one great exhibit after another. The gallery is brimming with fine art and friendliness.

Annie One Afternoon will be exhibited in the juried exhibit titled Reflections from

March 23-April 26, 2013

Mills Pond House Gallery

Opening Reception

Saturday, march 23

2-4 pm

I'd completed--ahem--this painting a while ago, but fiddling with it since has been has been a great joy.

I'd taken a bad photo of this one but liked the dark blurriness of it all and adjusted accordingly. I was nearly able to complete it wet on wet, something I'm enjoying a lot, but this is a water miscible oil and wants to dry faster then traditional oil paint. One trick is to cover w/plastic wrap (and keep painting far from portable heaters).

I feel the need to render more flesh on the models, trying to allow brush strokes to retain life. The temperature changes of this pose were enjoyable to work--even though I opted to reverse them.

I enjoy getting some drama out of lighting that isn't always optimal. In this figure painting I stuck with a limited palette of titanium white, ivory black, terra rosa and yellow ochre.