This one took a long time to complete. Hope I never have to paint a piece of popcorn again. This painting features a bunch of food places that I love from the Jersey Shore. For me, and other folks living around the Philly area, going “down the shore” means going to the beaches south of Atlantic City. Ocean City, Stone Harbor, Avelon, Wildwood, Cape May – my in-laws have a place in Sea Isle City – in the heart of them all. Salt water taffy and fudge are a given – my favorite is from the Fudge Kitchen in Ocean City. Manco and Manco’s pizza is a must – love that they put the sauce on top of the cheese. Michael’s Seafood, Marie’s Seafood, The Lobster House in Cape May – all are great. The best cheesesteak place anywhere, including Philly, is in Atlantic City at a place called The White House. Their Italian hoagies are great as well. They actually rip out the center of their roll to make way for more meat. I’m gaining weight just thinking about my next visit to the Shore.

Had a detailed empty gold frame. Painted this specifically for the frame. Going a bit “old school” here – revisiting the Eiffel Tower and Carousel imagery that frequented my earlier paintings. Took a trip to Europe with the family in 2014 – went to some of the same sites that Stacey and I visited in ’02. Fun to revisit old subject matter from a different perspective. I don’t know the little girl on the Carousel. But, loved her look. Was also fun trying to get the tower to recede into the background even though it was lit with hot orange light. The key was mixing a bit of orange into the background color – allowed the tower to sit back and not dominate. I also enjoyed playing with the cropping of this painting. I like showing only a bit of the tower.

This was a quickie. Got some great tomatoes when my son and I made our annual trek to a local Amish farm to pick up a box of jalapeño peppers – we pickle dozens of jars of peppers every year. Liked the color and variety of the tomatoes. Also like how the colors reflect and bounce off of the other tomatoes. Hard to mess up simple round shapes. Decided to crank this one out quickly and without fuss – did in between heavier, more detailed paintings.

Drew this picture of my daughter, Sarah, using a reference photo taken for her Senior Prom in high school. Yeah, she’s beautiful.

Enjoyed putting this painting together. Features all kinds of items from my home area of Reading/Berks County. Foods like scrapple, dippy eggs, Wixon’s Shoefly Pie, mushrooms, Victor Emmanuel’s pizza, pretzels (Splitz are my favorite), ring bologna, Goode’s potato chips, Godiva chocolate, Tastykakes, 5th Avenue candy bars, and Reading Beer. Key local figures like Betsy King, Lenny Moore, Keith Haring, Rocky Colavito, Rocky Santilli, John Updike, Taylor Swift, and many more. Just a little taste of and in honor of my home town. Giclee is half the size of the original painting – original painting 36″ X 72″

Enjoyed putting this painting together. Features all kinds of items from my home area of Reading/Berks County. Foods like scrapple, dippy eggs, Wixon’s Shoefly Pie, mushrooms, Victor Emmanuel’s pizza, pretzels (Splitz are my favorite), ring bologna, Goode’s potato chips, Godiva chocolate, Tastykakes, 5th Avenue candy bars, and Reading Beer. Key local figures like Betsy King, Lenny Moore, Keith Haring, Rocky Colavito, Rocky Santilli, John Updike, Taylor Swift, and many more. Just a little taste of and in honor of my home town.

My daughter Sarah asked me to draw this picture of her college friend, Lea, her birthday.

Was inspired to paint this after a trip to Philadelphia art museums. Went to the Barnes on a tour – was interested to find out that Barnes’ collection was initially rejected by the Philly Art Museum establishment because Barnes wasn’t part of the “in crowd” – new money. Yet, his collection is the biggest and best Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic collection outside of Paris. Then, went to the Philly Museum – found it odd that the Rocky sculpture is off museum property hidden in a corner at the bottom of the steps – guess it’s too “commercial” to be on museum property. Then, went into one of the Philly Museum shops to find them selling finger puppets of famous artists. Seems hypocritical to spurn the Rocky sculpture, then sell artist finger puppets. I’m all for the “commercialism” of fine art. Just find the seemingly-inconsistent standards comical. Tried to capture those feelings on canvas – all the objects are some commercialized form of famous artwork and artists.

Was inspired to paint this after a trip to Philadelphia art museums. Went to the Barnes on a tour – was interested to find out that Barnes’ collection was initially rejected by the Philly Art Museum establishment because Barnes wasn’t part of the “in crowd” – new money. Yet, his collection is the biggest and best Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic collection outside of Paris. Then, went to the Philly Museum – found it odd that the Rocky sculpture is off museum property hidden in a corner at the bottom of the steps – guess it’s too “commercial” to be on museum property. Then, went into one of the Philly Museum shops to find them selling finger puppets of famous artists. Seems hypocritical to spurn the Rocky sculpture, then sell artist finger puppets. I’m all for the “commercialism” of fine art. Just find the seemingly-inconsistent standards comical. Tried to capture those feelings on canvas – all the objects are some commercialized form of famous artwork and artists.

Created this colored-pencil drawing from a reference photo taken at The Tower of London – one of the guards standing at the entrance to one of the halls. Was in London on a family vacation the Summer of 2014. Yes, the guard was a pretty good model because he didn’t move.