Beard Park Fayetteville, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches

This painting was commissioned by a friend from college who grew up near this park. The sky in the reference photo I worked from was overexposed and pretty much blank, so I had to invent one. Originally I had a more moody, twilight feel in mind, but the painting took another direction to a more bright, daylight feel. The geese were added to add some interest to the sky.

Winter Evening, Lincklaen Street

I wanted to get the feel of a cold winter night, just after the sun goes down. The color of the sky isn't really realistic, but it better suit the mood I was after. Influenced by Maxfield Parrish twilight scenes.

The Outlet

The outlet of Cazenovia Lake. I had thought of painting this scene many times before, but I could nver really figure out a composition. Then one day I was walking by at a time of day that the light was just right and the cloud that you see in the painting was passing by in just the right spot. Luckily I had my camera with me and got a good reference photo. As always, I didn't follow the photo exactly and made subtle changes here and there, but this is my version of how the lake looked that day.

"The Rectory" 16 x 20", oil on board

This is the rectory of the Catholic church that is just down the street from me. I worked from a reference photo that I took on Christmas evening. Jupiter was along side of the full moon. There's a snow covered statue of the virgin Mary in the foreground.

"Early Spring" oil on board, 12 x 16"

Where the outlet of Cazenovia Lake joins Chittenango Creek. It depicts the time when the first hints of green start to appear in spring. One of my better paintings I think.

"The Pier" oil on board, 18 x 24"

The Pier at Cazenovia Lake. This one was a struggle to paint and seemed to take forever. I still wasn't sure about it when I had finished it, but it has since grown on me. It takes time to distance myself enough from a painting for me to look at it objectively. The ones I think are good at the time usually seem not quite so good after a few months, the opposite is usually true with the ones I'm not satisfied with.

"Sammy" oil on board 9 x 12"

My dog. Everyone mistakes him for a Basengi or a Corgi, but he is a Mountain  Feist, a type of squirrel hunting dog bred in the Appalachian  Mountains. This is another painting that I took time out just to do for myself.

"Feeding the Gulls", oil on board 11 x 14"

I saw these three boys feeding sea gulls while walking my dog in the park one day. I started the painting and then lost interest in it for some reason, maybe I thought it was a little too sentimental or something. It sat around for  months and then I pulled it out and started working on it again. I quite like it now.

"Kitchen Counter" oil on board, 9 x 12"

It occurred to me that I had hardly seen any contemporary still life paintings that showed things like microwave ovens and coffee makers. It seems a lot of  still life painters are still doing things like fruit and flowers and trying to make their paintings look like "old masters". But the masters were painting things of their time, so why shouldn't we paint the objects of our time?

Article from Life in the Finger Lakes magazine

www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com

Presbyterian Church, oil on board, 11 x 14"

The Presbyterian Church in Cazenovia, NY. I was more interested in the play of light on the church and the grass than in the building itself.

"Sullivan Street" Named Finalist in The Artist's Magazine's 30th Annual Art Competition

My painting "Sullivan Street" has been selected as a finalist in The Artist's Magazines 30th annual art competition in the landscape- interior category. My name will be among the finalists listed in the December 2013 issue.

"Carpenter's Pond" 11 x 14" oil on board

  Capenter's Pond, on the edge of the village of Cazenovia, NY, where I live.  

"Clothesline" acrylic on board 26x19"

This is a painting I did sometime in the late 1990s of the house I grew up in. My mother strung a clothesline between two apple trees, and must not have had a knife or scissors with her, so she just wrapped the extra line around the tree. There is an old scythe hanging on the adjoining shed and a wagon wheel leaning up against it. The thing on the left is a propane tank. people are always confused by the foreshortened branch on the far side of the tree, on which the second line is tied. In hindsight, I should have left it out. Sometimes reality doesn't translate well to a painting. This is also one of the very few pictures I have painted in acrylic, although I used it more like egg tempera,in order to simulate Andrew Wyeth's style.

Detail of "Jill", oil on board, 16x20"

"Jill" , oil on board, 16x20"

A portrait of my girlfriend Jill. Something I'd wanted to do for some time, but was busy doing things I could sell. I love painting people, but commission portraits are always a hassle. Even for non- commissioned stuff, it can be hard to get people to pose (even for a photograph), and hard to sell figurative work.

"5 Ledyard Ave" oil on board, 30x40"

This was a commissioned piece. Commissions are not always fun, but this was not the typical house portrait. This is a building I've been familiar with since childhood and I enjoyed painting it and the surrounding grounds.

"Sullivan Street" 16x20" oil on board

This is a couple of houses down from where I live. Nothing special about the house,  but I  wanted to paint that certain time of almost twilight. To me, the subject isn't as important as the mood.