Over the Holidays, we spent a few days at the Jersey Shore. I love going to the shore in the Winter – no one’s on the beach, it’s peaceful, and all the natural noises seem enhanced because they’re not drowned out by the sounds of people milling about. One rainy afternoon, we decided to drive down the coast and do some shopping in Avalon and Stone Harbor. As the afternoon wore on, it started to rain. Nothing else to do, so we decided to drive to Cape May to see the Christmas lights on the houses. Great idea. Right before it got dark, the sky was bathed in a beautiful indigo blue. Since the streets were wet, the lights created warm reflections off the sidewalks and streets. Got weird looks from a number of people (4 of which were my family) as I stood in the rain, in the middle of the street, snapping pictures. Got soaked, but it was worth it. I probably took 50 reference shots in all, a number of which will make great paintings. This is the second painting of the bunch – this pavilion is in the center of town, right off the main drag.
Got the inspiration for this painting on our family’s annual apple-picking trip. Saw this pile of pumpkins, and was struck by colors in the shadows. One of the farmers managing the stand gave me a weird look while I snapped the reference photo for this painting. Didn’t matter – was captivated by the composition and colors. Even though the pumpkins are white and orange, I used every color on my palette to create this work.
Love New York City. Was driving through Chinatown when I captured a few reference shots used to paint this picture. I’m usually attracted to light. In this case, what struck me was the shadow. Liked the cool, subtle detail on the neon signs and the grid-like angularity of the scene. Liked how the woman in the foreground hides the little girl from the bright sunlight. Particularly enjoyed painting the helix-like pattern of the fire escape shadows in the extreme background – must have had work on my mind, because it reminded me of a DNA strand. My wife told me this work was “different for me.” Once it was finished, placed it on our fireplace mantel next to “Eiffel Tower Carousel.” Told Stacey it wasn’t much different after all – can see a similar theme and composition (strong off center foreground figure facing the viewer; washed out background detail) in both pieces.
Got the inspiration for this painting on our family’s annual apple-picking trip. Saw this pile of pumpkins, and was struck by colors in the shadows. One of the farmers managing the stand gave me a weird look while I snapped the reference photo for this painting. Didn’t matter – was captivated by the composition and colors. Even though the pumpkins are white and orange, I used every color on my palette to create this work.
Friday Night at Alhambra is a painting created around the New Alhambra fight club in Philadelphia. After I completed this painting, asked legendary fight promoter, Russell Peltz, if he wanted to use the painting for an upcoming fight program cover. Russell wanted to use the painting, but on the night of the painting, he wasn’t the primary promoter, so his logo doesn’t appear on the signs above the ring. Asked me if “I could change the painting.” Didn’t want to, so I painted “patches” that could be used to digitally replace the signs in the original just for the fight program. Felt silly just painting the three signs, so I finished out the scene with the ring and the crowd.
Painted this from a reference photo taken along one of the main roads in Lancaster County. Passed an Amish buggy every few hundred yards. This painting is part of a series of Amish buggy scenes.
Love playing Hot Wheels with my son. Love painting them as well. This painting is a take off on “Jam” – an award-winning painting I completed in 2007. When painting Jam – was thinking about the way my son lines the cars up in neat rows – I liked the blocks of color. As I was working on Jam, the grid of cars reminded me of traffic jams (had a lot of time to think about traffic jams when I was commuting into Philadelphia). “Crash” is a natural extension of that same idea. Sometimes, my son just likes to dump the cars in a big pile. Was going for a more abstract composition, but couldn’t resist drawing the viewers eye to the monster truck. Hid a bunch of stuff, like names of my children and friends, in this painting. Also selected cars that had a bit of novelty to them. See if you can find the shark car, the WWII bomber car, or the gorilla car. And, over half the cars have flames on them – seemed appropriate given the painting is of a car crash.
Love vacationing in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. On the bay, there are a number of great seafood restaurants. Two of my favorites are Mike’s and Marie’s. Mike’s is a great hang out. We love to order big take-out pans of steamed clams in a butter/lemon/wine sauce. Or, we’ll bring some beers, order some broiled seafood, and hang out on their deck. Marie’s is much the same – love their fried scallops – best I’ve had anywhere – when we order a to-go bucket, it’s usually half gone by the time we get back to our place. My daughter and I took the reference photo for this painting from a side street pier across from the backs of the restaurants. Particularly like that we were able to capture the famous Sea Isle water tower (“Smile – You’re In Sea Isle City”) in the background.
Love playing Hot Wheels with my son. Love painting them as well. This painting is a take off on “Jam” – an award-winning painting I completed in 2007. When painting Jam – was thinking about the way my son lines the cars up in neat rows – I liked the blocks of color. As I was working on Jam, the grid of cars reminded me of traffic jams (had a lot of time to think about traffic jams when I was commuting into Philadelphia). “Crash” is a natural extension of that same idea. Sometimes, my son just likes to dump the cars in a big pile. Was going for a more abstract composition, but couldn’t resist drawing the viewers eye to the monster truck. Hid a bunch of stuff, like names of my children and friends, in this painting. Also selected cars that had a bit of novelty to them. See if you can find the shark car, the WWII bomber car, or the gorilla car. And, over half the cars have flames on them – seemed appropriate given the painting is of a car crash.
Love vacationing in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. On the bay, there are a number of great seafood restaurants. Two of my favorites are Mike’s and Marie’s. Mike’s is a great hang out. We love to order big take-out pans of steamed clams in a butter/lemon/wine sauce. Or, we’ll bring some beers, order some broiled seafood, and hang out on their deck. Marie’s is much the same – love their fried scallops – best I’ve had anywhere – when we order a to-go bucket, it’s usually half gone by the time we get back to our place. My daughter and I took the reference photo for this painting from a side street pier across from the backs of the restaurants. Particularly like that we were able to capture the famous Sea Isle water tower (“Smile – You’re In Sea Isle City”) in the background.
