Dear Friends and Family, While spending more time in France this summer than ever before, yet wanting to travel light when we finally did depart for the US, I decided to explore other painting media. The sketch above is a watercolor of a café in our neighborhood in the 9th arrondissement… A sketch in acrylic paint of rue Bruyeres. I can actually see this street when I lean out of my apartment window. … Read more
Last year, on college tour with my family to California, we came upon Cora’s Coffee Shoppe. Sometimes when you’re on vacation (or on college tour) it’s nice to step out of your motel early in the morning before all the other tourists are up. Grab a coffee and walk on the beach, or down the Main Street. Or in this case Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Cora’s is located on 1802 Ocean Avenue. What … Read more
Our Painting Safari began in France this year because we will not arrive in the US until almost August. But Plein Air painting has begun, with this painting done at Île de Puteaux, west of Paris, where Sam and I play tennis every Sunday morning. Île de Puteaux is an island in the Seine where houseboats are moored, as they are all along the Seine both within and outside the city limits of … Read more
This painting and two others, Perkins Rubber Stamps and White Tire Bicycle, will be on exhibit, with many other paintings from alumni of the New York Academy of Art. This is the third annual all alumni exhibition, held at Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery and The Bernardsville Library, in Bernardsville, New Jersey. Opening Reception: Friday, May 1, 6:00pm-9:00pm Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery 5 Morristown Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924 studio7artgallery.com – a n d … Read more
This painting was accepted into the contest and exposition “On the Rooftops” in the Salon Aguado, at the Mairie of the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The exposition and contest is in support of Paris’s bid for its rooftops to be included as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. It is organized by the Mayor of the 9th arrondissement, Delphine Bürkli. You are cordially invited to attend the vernissage on Tuesday the 31st March … Read more
“It’s better to have loved and lost than to have to do forty pounds of laundry a week.” – Laurence J. Peter When I first read this quote I didn’t know who Laurence J. Peter was, so I looked him up. He is a Canadian educator, author and Hierarchiologist, who, with Raymond Hull, wrote the book The Peter Principle: Why Things Alway Go Wrong. The Peter Principle humorously states that in … Read more
“Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand.” – Euripides Unknown to me before I found this quote was that Euripides trained as a painter in addition to being a playwright. Each January, we focus on New Year’s Resolutions, new beginnings and new projects. But then what happens? I myself have been guilty of starting projects and paintings, then leaving them unfinished. I think there are about seven unfinished paintings in my … Read more
The Christmas Truces where unofficial cease-fires during the early years of World War I. Between Christmas of 1914 and to a lesser extent 1915, British and German soldiers in the trenches of the Western Front were known to cease hostilities, then cross over into “no-man’s land” to talk with the enemy, exchange food, sing carols and play football. Two weekends ago I had the honor of participating in an Eagle Scout project with … Read more
Dear Friends and Family, When I was a kid, I went fishing almost every afternoon after school with my uncle Bill. Before he’d get home from work I’d walk down the street to Dee’s Bait & Tackle to buy a can of worms. Uncle Bill arrived home and we’d go fishing. Last March I claimed that Painting was like Cooking, but painting (at least plein air painting) is also a lot like fishing. Why? Here … Read more
I found these bicycles just around the corner from where I live, near rue des Martyrs. This part of the ninth arrondissement has now become quite “bobo” – borgeois-bohemian. We have hipsters, high priced specialty food stores and an emerging clothing brand called “Pigalle”. Even the New York Times has done a number of stories on our neighborhood. And if the New York Times says something is cool, you know it must be … Read more