Mar 3, 2023 | News & Events
I’m pleased to announce I will be joining the Curatorial Committee for the Gallery at Spencertown Academy Arts Center n Spencertown, New York.
The Gallery hosts several exhibitions annually, from botanical shows (in coordination with their Garden Tours) to Invitational Shows of selected artists, Member Shows, and Juried Fine Art shows.
This year I will be working on the Regional Juried Fine Arts Show, to take place in September-October 2023. We will also begin work shortly on planning for the 2024 Gallery season. The Regional show will be open to artists in and surrounding Columbia County, New York (show theme to be announced).
The committee is chaired by Norma Cohen. Other new committee members this year I am excited to be working with are: Christian Dewailly, painter David Lesako, and designer/metalsmith Munya Avigail Upin
I look forward to forging new paths in the months ahead with the committee and other members of the staff and board at Spencertown Academy.
Nov 2, 2022 | Art Resources & Techniques, Sketchbook
Recently I took a class with Bernard Dellario at the Winslow Art Center to explore the use of gouache as a field study medium.
While gouache is less frequently used than either sketching tools or transparent watercolors, it has the advantages of being opaque. This helps the artist in the field by allowing you to paint color-over color, regardless of value.
Dellario’s methodology includes two approaches: limited palette “wet gouache” method, where a few primary colors are mixed on a disposable palette, and a “dry” method, where a larger palette of dried “cakes” of color prepared ahead of time by the artist allow you to paint in a somewhat thinner manner.
I like both methods, and experimented with them recently. Here is an example of a pondside painting I did, first in gouache, then translating into oil in the studio:
Gouache plein air study of pondside rocks (6 x 8″)
Pondside Rocks (oil, 9 x 12″)
Jul 10, 2022 | Beach and Tropical
One thing that has always struck me is the way colors change and imbue a landscape with mood. In different time zones, this can be intensified and is one of the great pleasures of travel (whether you’re an artist or not). The scene above is the
On a recent trip to Hawaii, a “Kona Low” tropical storm hit just as we were landing. This is a once or twice-a-year event, and was not what my party of four was expecting. But it made for some good photos (to become paintings).
I captured the wet, windy trip to the hotel in a moving car (see above). The thing that struck me as a landscape artist was the deep maroon in the earth.
Later in the trip, the wind was still in evidence but the sun had come out and brought out the colors normally associated with the tropics -deep aquatic blues and bright contrasts of tan and apricot-colored buildings. This is the way most people think of Hawaii (and the tropics) but the stormy scenes brought out different colors – and opportunities to paint.
“Hotel Shadows” – Oil on canvas (9 x 12″)
Mar 8, 2022 | News & Events, Winter Scenes
Last month, the Art Students League of New York began presenting an “eSalon” featuring work from the students in its various “e-telier” classes (virtual classes). The show runs through June 2022.
I am pleased to have my painting “Last Light” (2021, oil on paper) be part of the Chris Gallego March eSalon (detail shown here). The painting is a winter scene of a local farm, seen at end-of-day. I enjoy these evocative moments when the light changes rapidly and the scene is all about mood.
This was a painting done a part of Chris Gallego’s League ongoing monthly class: “Advanced Drawing, Painting & Composition,” which has created a wonderful community of artists. I especially admire Chris Gallego‘s contemporary approach to representational painting and his thoughtful insights on the painting process.
The eSalon is running through May, 2022.
See the League’s entire 2022 E-telier Student Salon
Jul 9, 2021 | News & Events
I am participating in the group Member Show at the Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, NY.
Closed for 2020 because of the Pandemic, the Academy is once again hanging art on its Gallery walls, a cause for celebration.
My watercolor “Early Morning Cornfields” will be on display, along with many other works by Academy members in a wide variety of media (paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture) weekends only from 1 – 5 pm.
The show opened Saturday, July 10th and runs through Sunday, August 8th.
Visitors are required to wear masks.
“Early Morning Cornfields” – Watercolor (7 x10.5″)
