Over the years, I have found the three flower motif to be a great starting point for a new composition. In this piece I wanted the flowers to be surrounded by flowing lines that could evoke nature’s energy. This piece like “Family Tree” is carved from one block of basswood lumber. I create the design in a progression of drawings on vellum and then transfer that drawing to the block; making any adjustments to the design if the wood I am carving “calls” for it.

For the next step, I use a series of traditional carving tools to bring the piece to life by cutting and sculpting the design. Next, I roll ink onto the block and transfer that design on to paper by passing the whole assembly through my press. I have done this process countless times, but about 10 years ago, I had a realization. My gentle epiphany was that often the block has such a beautiful and worn patina of its own, after multiple printings, that it stands on its own as an art piece, separate of the prints. In fact, I have produced whole pieces of furniture and wall hangings upon this premise.

So after producing a run of prints from these carvings, I “retire” them and prepare them for their next creative chapter.  That includes further sanding  and carving and then culminates  with the application of new ink and paint to bring them to their second life as their own distinct piece of art. These pieces age beautifully, and I love the multiple lives they have through the creative process.

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"Black Fish Creek,
August 2021"

This past summer Lavinia and I made our second visit to Blackfish Creek in Wellfleet, MA.  I find it to be so inspiring. It just encourages an artistic response; a painted response for certain. This painting began within a day of arriving at Blackfish Creek and I love that it helps me to hold on to the feeling of that place and I love that I can share that feeling with the viewer.  The rustic cabin we stay in there has housed other oil painters through the years-definitely a special spot.

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"Cherry Blossom"

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I am drawn to Japanese art and its traditions surrounding craft.  This piece pays homage to Japanese design, as seen by placing the cherry blossom branch in the foreground of the landscape. A theme I return too often. I employ the printmaking techniques I used in the painting, “Magic” here as well.  One of my favorite features of this piece is the Tiffany-like blue that makes up the sky.  This too was created with multiple layers of paint, but in this case, the blues needed to be more opaque than the foreground colors, for example.

"East Hampton - Anticipation of the Surf"

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"Family Tree"

This piece gets its title for the obvious tree reference.  Additionally, upon finishing the initial carving of this block, both my children spent a day in the shop with me, and we produced woodcut prints from it.  A true family affair in the way of creating; the best kind of day as far as their father is concerned. 

For this exhibition I have created several pieces that feature trees.  The shift of mediums to carving from painting for this tree shows some of my intent from a different angle. The successive rows of grooved cuts I make in the block for the piece’s foreground and sky bring the motion and energy for this design.  I do this with my paints in many of the works in this exhibition, but it is always meaningful for me to express similar ideas in multiple mediums. 

The fact that I can display a piece like this alongside my paintings in one exhibition means a lot to me in discoursing with my audience.

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"Flower Shop in Brussels"

This painting is an overt homage to the design periods of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts.  The whiplash curves of the flower stems are a key element from the Nouveau period.  I am using that shape here to create movement.  The background colors are many layers giving the richness of texture I wanted to frame each of the brighter flowers.  My intent here is for the background, coupled with the tight curves of the stems and the bright and deep colors of the flowers, to get unified in to one harmonious composition.

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"From Montauk
to Montclair"

I began this painting while spending a few days out in East Hampton, Long Island, earlier this year. I was responding to the various terrain I saw out there.  The area is beautiful and filled with vineyards, farms, etc. I continued to work on the piece when I returned home.  I found another key influence to guide the work when Lavinia and I made a trip to the Clark Museum in the Berkshires. While there, we saw multiple works by the 19th century painter, George Inness.  As I explore and learn more about Inness’s work and process I feel a kinship to him and his overall approach. He lived in Montclair, NJ for the last 9 years of his life and the Montclair Art Museum has many of his works as well. His ideas about landscape painting and the place of the spiritual in such works really resonates with me.               

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"Gratitude"

Oil Paint on Multimedia Board; Case is Bookbinding Board Hand Wrapped with Book Cloth and Copper Leaf

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I have always been fascinated by the art of bookbinding.  I suppose it's the marriage between the art of writing and the art of presentation/casework for that writing that so resonates with me.  It’s a little akin to the art of building musical instruments and the art of creating music.  So when I had the inspiration to marry my paintings with a book bound case I was off and running.  After quite a bit of prototype work, I am thrilled to present five hand bound triptychs for “Everyone is Magic.”

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The paintings grow organically out of the naturalistic themes of flowers, trees and landscapes.  Obviously, a subject close to my heart; but, I love how the three panel effect takes the composition to a new place.  In fact, I am currently beginning two large commissions that involve original compositions spread out over multiple panels. 

"I Arrived Today"

This piece contains so many of the ambitions I establish as I begin any of my works.  Combining the human figure with painted and textured background has intrigued me for years.  I realize such traditions go back to the work of Gustav Klimt: seems obvious now, but I only realized this of late. 

The cutting of the cabinet into the surface of the painting certainly has roots in my furniture making background but the key motivating factor is having the ability to go inside the painting, literally and figuratively.  This piece resonates with me to the point of inspiring me to write a poem to accompany it; appropriately enough it resides in the piece’s own cabinet. 

I also include a small landscape painting in that cabinet; another juxtaposition of themes, although visual and not poetic in this case. The multidimensional aspect of this piece is territory I am looking forward to exploring further.

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"Late Morning at the Beach"

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I had a chance to spend some time at a very southern point of the Jersey Shore last summer.  I think this painting the feeling of that part of the shore, as well as the time of day.  It inspired and pushed my palette in subtle ways. I had to work to not "tinker" too much with the painting upon returning home.  Now, I am grateful that I did leave the colors and composition as it was when I originally painted it while gazing out at the beach.  I think its vitality comes from that very direct take on the scene.

"Organic Geometry II"

We all have those periods, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, when we have thoughts bouncing around our heads and hearts but cannot fully articulate them.  If we’re fortunate, eventually those ideas do crystallize into something cohesive and understandable.  This painting is the physical manifestation of one of those periods for me.

The mixing of the geometric and the organic are a constant source of inspiration for me.  It is the way so much of the world presents to us. With this piece I was able to succinctly express those ideas in the painting’s layout and the use of color.  The fact that the piece is on linen adds further to the texture I was after.  I relish this piece because I could express what I had been trying to for a while and once “said” I really liked the result.

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"Study in Red"

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"Sunrise Over
Eider Lane"

Eider Lane is up in Eastham, Cape Cod.  Our whole family has been  spending a week there for the past three summers.  From the home’s backyard is a great view of the Cape Cod marshes.  And just around the corner from the house is the Cape Cod Bay.  I set up my easel upon arriving and paint for the whole trip. 

The sunrises experienced from the second floor of the house are particularly dramatic, and it is from that vantage point that this piece was generated. The painting then evolved throughout the trip.  To me it feels like a classic impressionist painting.

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"Thank Goodness
for a Window"

I am doing a lot of work these days with compositions that stretch over multiple “canvases.”  For example, triptychs or pairs. For this piece I resurrected two painting panels  that were part of a previous painting.  I sanded them, but left remnants of the original works so that they might bleed through, further creating the windowed effect. 

I also employed the rectangular lines to further define and highlight some under layers.  The original paintings’ colors and line action were indispensable to creating the windowed effect I was after.  This work is an overt reminder to myself just how long it takes, and sometime how many attempts it can take, before I arrive at work I feel is complete and impactful.

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"Warner's Garden"

Warner in this case is a reference to an extremely fine house painter who I worked with back in the 90’s.  He took house painting to an artistic height that I had never witnessed before. He applied so many coats of paint to an ordinary wall with such care and craft that the wall radiated with a spectrum of color. This painting exemplifies that for me. The flowers are inspired by our family walks in the Spring. Somehow, amid the pandemic, the flowers and plants were more radiant than ever.

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"Waterfall, Iceland"

I had not painted a waterfall scene until this piece. I  loved building a composition around the waterfall and this one was inspired by three different waterfalls I researched while working on a group of paintings about Iceland.  This painting and its companion piece, which became the commissioned work, allowed me to push the expressiveness of the paint. 

I very deliberately built layers as I usually do, but also created thick brush strokes by which the paint was laid on the board; using the underlying layer to further animate the next layer of paint.  This process yielded the vitality I was shooting for.

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