Part of my “Tastes Of Home” series. Good’s chips were a staple in my childhood home. I especially like their BBQ chips. I think their packaging is very cool – hasn’t changed over time. Love the imperfect shape of the bag – gives this a bit of personality – feels like the bag is posing. Also, love working on paintings where the color one sees isn’t the color used – the body bag is interpret as white, but I used cool colors like lavenders, pinks, and blues in the shadowy areas and yellow in the highlights. Love that play of warms and cools. My “Tastes of Home” series celebrates food brands native to Berks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and greater Philadelphia – the area where I live.

This is part of my “Tastes Of Home” series. Chow-Chow is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch (Americanization of “Deutsch” or German) food. It’s a combination of corn, carrots, green beans, onions, peppers, beans – basically any combination of vegetables you can find – pickled in a sweet and sour brine. Assuming it was a practical way of preserving the Summer harvest. Have to admit, I’m not a big fan. But nothing is as Dutchy as chow-chow. The Wos-Wit brand really plays up the Dutchiness, using traditional PA Dutch imagery, like the distlefink bird and hearts, on their packaging. Wos-Wit means “what do you want” in PA Dutch. My “Tastes of Home” series celebrates food brands native to Berks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch country, and greater Philadelphia – the area where I live. In this area, there’s a large settlement of German immigrants who created their own subculture. “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much.”

This is part of my “Tastes Of Home” series. Fastnachts are a German fried doughnut usually made from potato flour and served on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent starts. Usually served plain, coated with powdered sugar, or sliced open and served with syrup and/or butter (I like both). The brand of syrup that’s a must is Turkey syrup. It’s the best. No, there are no turkeys used to make the syrup – not sure where it got it’s name. Anyone who has had this syrup knows it’s near impossible to pour from the jar and not get a sticky streak of syrup running down the side of the jar. Turkey syrup is also a must when making PA Dutch shoo-fly pie (wet bottom, of course). My “Tastes of Home” series celebrates food brands native to Berks County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch country, and greater Philadelphia – the area where I live.

Painted this one off of a reference photo taken during the same night as one taken to create “Cadillac Diner.” Taken in Wildwood, NJ. Love how Wildwood embraces the retro 1950’s neon light-look outside their restaurants and hotels. Love the contrast of the cool blues at dusk and the heat of the neon light. Fun to paint.

Painted this from a series of reference photos taken at a farm in my wife’s family. Combined a few different images and used some imagination to create this scene.

A simple, fun composition of Philadelphia-themed Funko Pop sports figures. Painting is a sister to the painting “Justice League” created a few years ago. Had the opportunity to adjust the reference photo on Procreate. Enhanced colors and contrast. Blurred out the background. Have gotten comments – “why that guy?” I wanted to represent as much of the Philly sport scene as possible. And, I’m limited by Funko Pop availability – some of my favorites don’t exist as a Pop. Would love to have added Dr J. and Mike Schmidt. Would have also liked to include the Philadelphia Union soccer team. But, love that a Reggie White Pop was released just as I started preparing this composition.

Started this painting with idea of doing a still life of artist figurines – finger puppets and Funko Pops. Then, thought about adding some images of artists. Morphed into using self portraits. Loved adding artists like Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo, ones that I idolized in my youth (and still do), to classic artists like da Vinci and mixing them in with modern artists like Matthew Barney – loved bringing all of those who’ve inspired me together – would love to be a fly on the wall at that “party.” Took liberties with the portraits – exaggerated color saturation and value contrast and changed elements of the portraits to serve the broader needs of the painting. When researching portraits, as I looked at Warhol images, was struck again (as I have been in the past) of his repeating grids – a few of his self portraits repeat the same image with varying colors in a grid. Struck me – in our current COVID-restricted environment, I’ve participated in a number of Zoom/Google meetings during the day. Staring at Brady Bunch Opening-like grids of people all day long, and saw the commonality with the Warhol paintings – his portraits seemed prophetic. Inspired by that for this painting. Also liked inserting figurines on top of a “flat” surface and creating a stark contrast – was a fun challenge getting the figurines to read as if they’re popping off the background. With this painting, I’m pushing the boundaries of what’s considered a “still life”, celebrating artists that I’ve been inspired by, and celebrating our current situation/virtual meeting culture.

Going back to my roots with this one – neon sign, nighttime reflective paintings. Have always loved the contrast of warm lights against cool backgrounds. This painting is of a diner in Wildwood, New Jersey. Love the retro 50’s-style vibe of the signage in this shore town.

Created this oil painting at the request of my son, Cole. “Dad, you should do a soccer painting.” I told him, “one condition – we do this together.” That’s why there’s a portrait of him by my signature. And, Cole named the painting. Painting includes all of Cole’s favorite players. And, the players had to have the right, most-representative jerseys on. Once the painting was finished, we had a number of giclees made – gave the prints to Cole’s best friends as high school graduation gifts. Names of his Blue Devil teammates and coaches are in the painting. I have loved watching Cole’s love of the game develop. And, I’ve become a fan as well. The game has been a wonderful gift that has helped me get closer to my son – enjoyed commemorating that experience in this painting.

Had fun painting the reflections from the Christmas lights on this one. This painting is all about light and texture. Composition is very complex. There’s lots of fur, clear glass, and reflective surfaces. And, the lights create all kinds of reflections. So, “white” hair in the painting was painted using yellow, red, purple, and a host of other colors. The complexity of this one made it fun to create.