Fall Preview

Well, suffice it to say that end of my summer zipped past in a whirlwind of travels and I can't believe that it's been so long since I last posted here. I promise to do better during these upcoming months because I'm back in the groove of working both in my studio and in the field now.

August kicked off with a wonderful trip to New York City where I not only collected some fantastic source material for new cityscapes, but I also got my fix of Indian cuisine and fun museum outings. I finally got to the Museum of Arts and Design up near Columbus Circle, where my favorite exhibition was the glass work by Klaus Moje. I always appreciate artwork where creativity and craftsmanship are equal partners.

After the trip to New York, I ventured off to the midwest. Unfortunately, the weather and several commitments to visit old friends didn't really facilitate a lot of plein air painting. I had hoped to post some works here as a log of my travels, but man, oh man, did it ever rain during that trip. Nothing quite like the darkness of night during the middle of the day to signal a heavy rain. For that matter, it rained a fair bit when I was in New York, too. Seems to be the way the summer was. Anyways, the trip to Wisconsin was restorative for my soul even if I didn't get as much artwork completed as I would have liked. Sometimes even artists need a vacation (!).

Since returning to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, I've visited several new state parks in a quest for the perfect vista for a client who's commissioned me for a large landscape. I've decided that one item on my "bucket list" (things to do before I kick the proverbial bucket) is to visit all of Pennsylvania's state parks. I have a long ways to go toward that goal since there are over 100 state parks here. Only about 90 more to go...

But I've made a good dent in that goal over the past few weeks, with trips to Sinnemahoning, Blue Knob, RB Winter, Leonard Harrison, and Colton Point state parks. Every single one was beautiful. And as an added bonus, the weather was generally fabulous for each outing.

To conclude this long overdue post, I'm offering a preview below of some of the new works I've completed over recent weeks. I'm scheduled for two shows over the next month, the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show in Philadelphia and the Armonk Outdoor Art Show in Armonk, New York, so I've been working on several new cityscapes. My final show this year is tentatively scheduled for mid-October in New York City, but I'm a bit uncommitted because I just don't know if I'll have enough artwork to get me through my schedule. I can't offer a good excuse for this shortfall, other than to say that I needed some downtime this past month. And artwork doesn't magically arise out of downtime (!). But I think you'll see that the previews offered here hint at some exciting things to come. I'll post complete images of these new artworks on this web site next Monday. Stay tuned.

Detail, Crimson Rush 8 x 16 original pastel.

Detail, Long, Cool Reflections 16 x 32 original pastel.

Detail, Ah, Summer 6 x 12 original plein air pastel.

Detail, Midnight Dash 16 x 32 original pastel.