public pool

11"x14" oil on canvas. $350 USD

Another image based on a reference photo from my weekend in Rehoboth, DE. It's minutes after the sun started to rise out of the misty horizon. An orangy pink light baths the beach and all its feathered custodians.

Italian Harbor commission

Just finished this very large (4' x 6') oil painting for a client. It is a photo-realistic copy of a photo they took while on vacation in Italy. It took me over a month to complete! I'm glad it's done and can't wait to see it hanging in their dining room. This was definitely one of the more challenging commissions I've ever taken on. It taught me a lot about water refections, as well as the virtue of having patience!

Italian Harbor

14"x20", oil on board

This is a small version of a very large commission piece I'm working on. The final version will be 4' tall and 6' wide! It is being created for a formal dining room and is based on a photo that my client took while on vacation in Italy. For more information on commissions please feel free to contact me via email (or check out my website: www.AMuralForAllSeasons.com )

Early Bird

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. $125 USD

I love the colors in the light reflecting off the water at the first light of the morning...lots of yellows and purples.

Breakfast on the Beach

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. $125 USD

Morning Rhythm

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. $125 USD

This is part of a series I'm doing based on photos I took while on vacation at the Delaware shore in September. I've always found the ocean to be a spiritual place and it seems to have a calming effect on me even while I'm painting it!

Delaware Daybreak

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. $95 USD.

Painted from a photo of the first sunrise I've seen in many years! Makes me wish I lived at the beach so I can make it a ritual ;)

Chianti Road

24"x48", oil on canvas, Private Collection (NFS)

This fantasy view of a vineyard-filled valley is a combination of Italy and California. I just finished, after almost a week of working on it for a few hours each day. It's gonna be a surprise gift for my parents...shhhhh. They remodeled their kitchen with a Tuscan feel. My father loves wine and always wanted to travel to Italy. I've never been to Italy but I've been to Napa Valley in California, so I created this view from my experience, plus a little imagination. If you enlarge this image you can see little houses on the distant hillsides. Those houses, as well as the estate house, are all Italian style houses with terra-cota roofs.

"You Talkin' To Me?"

6"x8"; oil on canvas panel; $125 USD

This is the first of a new series I'm starting based on photos I took from a recent weekend at the Delaware shore. There were so many different types and sizes of seagulls and they were so used to people you could practically walk right up to them and they would just pose for you! So I ended up with a lot of seagull photos...hence the new series ;)

Lotus

11" x 14" oil on canvas. $295 USD

Cathedral Rock

16"x20" oil on canvas; $650 USD

Hopping from rock to rock I made my way out to the center of the creek to capture this scene with my camera while on vacation last year in Sedona, AZ. This is Cathedral Rock...supposedly one of several "vortex" areas around Sedona. I have to admit the atmosphere is so peaceful here, although I didn't personally feel any tingling type of energy which many people claim to experience around this site. What a perfect place to hike and commune with nature!

July + August . . .

Wow, it's been two months since my last post! In that time my whole kitchen was torn out and remodeled. It's fantastic to have all new everything...it's like living in a new house. I'm just finishing up painting the entire downstairs (~ 800 sq ft) plus the ceiling.

Besides that I've been the featured artist for the month of August at a local framing gallery (see photos below)...

I also was working on restoring an old chair for a "CHAIR-ity" auction coming up in October...

Not Yet

16"x20", oil on canvas; $595 USD

I live in an area of increasing suburban sprawl, 20 miles outside of Philadelphia. The county I live in is about half developed and half open space, but it feels like the open space is losing the battle faster and faster each year. I was taking a drive one day on a country road in an under-developed area not too far from my house when I spotted this scene. I pulled over and snapped a quick reference photo that inspired this painting. I call this "Not Yet" because it has not yet been developed, but this is an example of a typical rural landscape in my area that seemingly overnight becomes transformed into a development of townhouses, retirement facilities or "McMansions". I'm actually grateful for this housing bubble burst because it has slowed the sprawl to a large degreee, at least for the time being. I just hope builders will use this oppotrunity to rethink the impact they have on the environment and realize that there is only a finite amount of stress that it can handle...impact on animals, ecosystems, water usage, cars on roads not built to handle the volume of drivers they now experience, air and noise pollution, and the impact on schools and teachers having to teach ever larger classrooms. I don't have the answer to suburban sprawl but I think we all need to slow down and talk about what we can all do to address it, now before it gets any further out of control.

Cathedral Rock - study

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. Study for larger version. $85 USD

This is a small study that I painted in preperation of a larger work. I used a refeence photo that i took last September while on vacation in Sedona, AZ. The peak in the background is called Cathedral Rock and is a quite magical place...in fact many consider this to be a "vortex energy" location. While I didn't exactly feel tangible energy i did feel a sense of peace and connection to the Earth which in itself is magical. I highly recommend a visit.

Arboretum

12"x16", oil on canvasboard. SOLD.
This painting is inspired by a photo I took at a local arboretum (Jenkin's Arboretum in Devon, PA) last summer. This was a little challenging because there is so much green I had to try to make subtle differences in temperature and value to add some variety to it.

Backlit

6"x8", oil on canvas panel. $125 USD

A Watchful Eye

24" x 30", oil on canvas. $1,150 USD.

After a snow storm, I took a drive to Valley Forge National Park (near my house) and saw these deer. They are so used to people that they let you get pretty close...though the doe was keeping a watchful eye while her fawn was eating.

Zen Garden

6" x 8", oil on canvas panel. $125 USD.

Oak Creek Afternoon

8"x10", oil on canvas board. $200 USD

This is from a photo I took in Oak Creek Canyon, AZ (near Sedona) while on vacation last Fall. I was attracted to the way the trees were backlit against the cool shaded canyon wall in the background.

San Francisco Peaks, AZ

30"x40", oil on canvas. $1,900 USD.

This painting was produced in a few days primiarily using a palette knife. It is based on photos I took while traveling through Arizona on vacation last year. This mountain range lies near Flagstaff, AZ and the view is from the highway traveling north from Sedona to the Grand Canyon. What a beautiful ride! Below are details of the painting so you can better see the knife technique...

Say Goodbye To Winter

6"x8", oil on canvasboard.

SOLD

Winter at Valley Forge

11"x14", oil on canvas. $350 USD

New Show in Bryn Mawr

I'm currently showing over 30 paintings in Bryn Mawr, PA. They are hung in a great space in a kitchen store/showroom/cooking school called Viking Culinary Arts (Ste 100, One Town Place).
Show will remain on display/sale for the entire month of April. Check it out!

Jail Break

11"x14", oil on canvas. SOLD.

two paintings on wood cross-cuts

10" x 14", acrylic on cut wood. $85 USD

8"x12", acrylic on cut wood. $85 USD

Park Angel

24" x 24", acrylic on board, Framed. $275 USD.

My wife and I spent a weekend in NYC a couple of years ago and I snapped a photo of the famous angel fountain in Central Park (I'm sure there is a better name for it but I don't know what it is). It sits at the bottom of a grand stone staircase that leads to a pond. It is a great meeting place and is filled with humanity and quite a few ducks. I've been to a lot of large cities in both Europe and this country and seen a lot of city parks but I will always hold a special place in my heart for Central Park...it is by far the most amazing public space that this country has to offer. It is truely a jewel.

Family Portrait

6"x8", oil on canvasboard.SOLD

Duck Pond

8"x10", oil on canvasboard. $125 USD

This is a pond near my house that is always filled with ducks and geese. I painted this using a combination of brush and palette knife in a thick style.

Fresh Snow on the Battlefield

6"x8", oil on canvasboard. $125 USD

This is based on a photo I took last week when we got about 8 inches of snow. It was taken at Valley Forge National Historic Park, which is not far from my house. I plan on doing a few more paintings of this snowfall in Valley Forge as part of a series I'm working on for an upcoming show in August...I'm hoping snow will sell in the summer :)

new pet portraits...

These were all done for the same client (as a Valentine's gift). They are all done in acrylic on 10" square canvases.

Prairie Dog

6" x 8", oil on canvasboard. $125 USD
Say it with me now....."awwwww"

Wild Island Cat

8" x 10", oil on canvasboard. $180 USD. Detail below:

I took a photo of this little guy in Nassau, Bahamas. There seemed to be a lot of wild cats on the island and this kitten was very vocal...not sure if he was guarding his territory or if he was just trying to get some food. I like the way he was somewhat camoflaged by all the palm shadows.

Single Mother / Two Kids

I just finished this today. I've only been able to work on it in bits and peices since Christmas due to the holiday runaround and the commissions I needed to finish for clients. I'm so glad it's done! It's inspired by a reference photo I took a couple of years ago at a petting zoo. It's the first of a series of animal paintings I'm working on for a solo show in June to be held at a local pet boutique..."Wag Your Tail", West Chester, PA.

16" x 20", oil on canvas, $750 USD

XMAS vacation...pt3

Here are two more pet portraits:

"Ty", acrylic on canvasboard, 8"x10"

"Jake", acrylic on canvas, 11"x14"