The Piano Factory

I've been visiting the piano factory near my studio for several weeks now. There's something strangely poetic about these absurdly large instruments, all bundled and strapped and gathering dust. After doing some small charcoal drawings and a small color study, I decided it was time to get into the big sketches. This is a little over life sized (24x30in). Hopefully this piece will stand on it's own, but it's really about gathering info for the scale that I'll be working on in the MUCH larger piece. More to come soon!

On The Easel

New stuff and old stuff I've been meaning to finish.

Self Portrait: Getting started

It's been while since I've started a self portrait, but the timing feels right. I'm hoping to push the envelope in the new series I'm starting, so some serious introspection is due. A self portrait shouldn't be about projecting an ego to others, but about truly examining oneself and putting the result forward unfiltered. Working on linen, this was supposed to be the rough drawing for the painting to come but I got a little carried away. It's going to be tough to cover it up!

Sorolla at the Hispanic Society of America, NY

After two years abroad, the Sorolla paintings from the Hispanic society of america are back in their home in west Harlem. Although I'd only seen them once, they had a profound impact on me at the beginning of my painting career and I was excited to see if they held the same impact. I wasn't let down. Firstly, these paintings are massive, multi figure compositions. 12-15 feet tall, totaling 227 ft long! How one man did this, I have no idea, but it did take him 8 years. Secondly, they were done ON SITE in the various parts of Spain they depict.  Once you get over the sheer magnitude of this accomplishment and take a look up close, a whole other world awaits . So much color! So simply drawn! And the brushwork! The light and energy that radiates from these paintings is impossible to reproduce; like all great paintings, they must be seen in person to fully experience them. For those who can't though, here are some details to tide you over. 

Before lunch

Would like to work on this piece some more that I started at Robert Moses State Park last weekend, but I've got an appointment this afternoon. Plus, I'm starving! Done for today!

"Sunny's Flowers"

Finished it up in a few more hours today. As smoothly as it went, the flowers were a bit of a challenge to simplify. Also, look closely and you can see that they actually moved as I was painting them. One of the lilies even began to open!

Rainy Day Floral

After a few weeks of illustration and other work, I finally got back to painting today. As usual, once I took my brushes out, the sun quickly ducked behind some clouds and it began to rain. No worries though, this gave me a chance to try out my lamp at lighting some flowers I picked up in the city a couple of days ago. 5 hours went pretty smoothly, we'll see how it looks tomorrow!