The National Seashore on Cape Cod is an amazing place to visit. Nauset Light Beach is among my favorite stops when visiting the Cape. Lately, the beaches along the National Seashore have had an increase in seals swimming. This also increases the presence of sharks and this is evident in the flags visible in this painting.
The beaches in this area are beautiful and it is rare to see houses or commercial buildings anywhere nearby.
The Sound And Silence was inspired by a night on Deerfield Beach when several neighbors were sitting by a fire ring and enjoying the beautiful summer evening. I was taking a walk on the beach along Long Island Sound and was struck by the lighting and the mood of the evening. I had my daughter take several photos to work out the details of the painting. One of the people sitting by the fire was a well loved neighbor that would play drums on the beach at Labor Day parties. He passed away a few months after this night. This painting is a tribute to him and how he will be missed.
Veniero’s was among my favorite places that I frequented when I lived in the East Village of New York. My apartment was on East 12th Street when the neighborhood was less than desirable to live in (except by poor artists). Veniero’s is an Italian pastry shop a block or so away. The cannolis, lobster tails, and pastries are fabulous and my family visits every time we are in Manhattan. This painting brings to mind fond memories of the past
McSorley’s is one of the oldest pubs in the United States. The history is quite interesting and a place that everyone should go and visit. I would always bring friends that visited me over to the pub for two (they serve in pairs) McSorley’s light or dark. Among the group to the right of the door are my children, wife, and a family friend. This establishment is over 150 years old.
I grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Everyone's favorite pizza place was the Town Spa. Having moved to Connecticut I found no pizza restaurants with the same "bar room" style pizza. When I started teaching at Housatonic Community College everyone talked about Famous Pizza. It turned out to be very similar to the Town Spa, and I later found out that a friend and neighbor from Stoughton attended college at the University of Bridgeport and frequented the same restaurant. It became our home away from home.
The figure to the far right is a friend who is a professional musician. We would meet at Famous once a year after Cabaret Night, where we both performed on stage at the college. He carries two pies, one each for him and his wife.
This painting was inspired by a dinner with my wife while traveling in Paris. There was a fixed price restaurant near our lodging by Notre Dame Cathedral, and we decided to experiment with the cuisine in the tourist area. It was my first and last encounter with blood sausage. We found the food better when we could eat where locals enjoyed a meal.
This portrait was created as part of an exhibition at the Schelfhaudt Gallery entitled Selfie. It gave me the opportunity to create a self portrait using the mosaic pattern style I have been exploring. This is the first self portrait that I have painted in over thirty years. The last series of portraits was done in grad school back when I had a beard, and one of them is on the home page of this website.
I am not a portrait painter and rarely try to create a resemblance of a particular person. In this painting I tried to balance between creating a recognizable rendition of myself, and keeping within my normal painterly style, while adding the reoccurring mosaic-like patterns. In the end, I had fun making the painting and feel comfortable with the rough resemblance. And, I probably look a little younger.