Marco Polo Again

Marco Polo Again

Oil on canvas, 6x18

The person who commissioned the original painting of Marco Polo loves it, according to the owner of the gallery. But I couldn't let Marco go! So here is another painting of him, and there's one of Bella to come - soon.

I've been painting around the canvases, as a way to exhibit them without necessarily framing them. Here's a view of the side of this one. I really like Marco's ear.

Spring in Benedict Park

Spring in Benedict Park

Oil on canvas, 6x18 on deep-sided canvas

Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me

if you are interested in buying this painting

Nancy Reed-Jones (click here to see her website) is an amazing painter, who I met through the Wallkill River School. She works in acrylics, and has the lightest, most delicate touch. Her landscapes glow with soft shadows, tender flowers, gentle hills and skies. For the longest time, I felt like a blundering gorilla when I saw her paintings and thought of my own.

Then she began to buy my work. She was one of my very first collectors, and has more of my paintings than anyone outside of my own family. She said to me one day that she loved my paintings because of the way they made her feel, and she has hung them in her studio where she can see them from her easel.

We had the chance to paint together this past weekend, and while I managed to get a shot of Nancy and the riverbank, I didn't get a picture of her finished painting. But I'll send her a note and see if I can get one.

I really admire Nancy's gentle and careful approach, and while we couldn't have styles that diverge any more than they do, we had a lovely time painting together.

Here is her painting:

Maryland Hill Farm

Maryland Hill Farm

Oil on canvas, 20x32, special online price $350

Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me

if you are interested in buying this painting

When we bought our house in Carroll County, Md., one of the innumerable papers we had to sign said that we understood that we were moving into a farming region, and that there would be farm smells, farm noises and farm equipment in the area. 

That was 13 or 14 years ago, and enough has changed here that I wonder if buyers still have to sign that document. 

The farms are not all gone, but roads that used to wind past farm after farm after farm now wind through a few farms and a bunch of developments. 

Certainly, people need places to live. But does everyone need a new house? Does everyone need to live outside of the city where they work? In Baltimore, I saw beautiful but abandoned buildings everywhere. With a little money and a fair amount of work (or the opposite) these buildings could be reclaimed. Whole neighborhoods could be reclaimed. And while this would be a form of gentrification, there are enough empty buildings there to mean that the renewal need not ride in on the shoulders of displacement. 

Here in the foothills of the Appalachians, here in these rolling hills, farmers still till the earth. But for how long? 

Harvest Home

Harvest Home

Oil on canvas, 8x24

sold

I taught a palette-knife painting class on Sunday at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery, N.Y. I was a little nervous about it, since I'd never taught one, but it was an absolute delight. 

It was a small class, and everyone had time and space to experiment with the knife, and I had time to make this painting. It's a scene I have painted before, in Harpswell, Maine, and is a scene I am likely to paint again. I love the wheatfield, the brillliant white house nestled in the trees, and the glimpse of lawn you can see right around the house. 

While I was at the school, I met one of the women who bought "Range Rovers," one of the very large cow paintings that sold during my March show there. She was just wonderful, and happy as could be with the painting, and told me the story of how the two big cow paintings sold. 

Gail, who bought "Range Rovers," works at the school on Sundays. From the desk where she sits, she could see the painting, and she really loved it. 

A couple from Manhattan came into the school one Sunday during the show, and Gail, bless her, gave them a tour of the show, which was work by Shawn Dell Joyce and myself. Gail told the woman that she was thinking of buying "Range Rovers." 

The woman, who has a second home in the area and is a big supporter of the school, turned to Gail and said, "If you buy that one, I'll buy the other one." 

And so the deal was struck! Then, just to make things happier for all concerned, the man who was with the woman bought one of my paintings, too. 

The Red Church

The Red Church

Oil on canvas, 16x20

In real life, the red building here is a small white church without a steeple. But the fabulous painter Gene Bove (check out his website) once said to me, "If you're going to have a building, it might as well be red." So, red it was.

Still, I'm not nuts about the painting. Maybe the building should be white (and I'd change the title). But more than that, I think there's too much too-thin green. So when I get back home, I'm going to go back into this painting, and see if I can make it more interesting.

Buddy

Buddy

Oil on canvas, 12x12, commission.

Today, I head out with the eventual goal of picking up my paintings from the show in Baltimore.

I was honored to be chosen for the show, but it is a long way to go just to add a line to my resume. I do think it was worth it, since I got good paintings from it, and had the chance to visit with my friend Ellen, but I am not sure I'd do it again.

Still, now I can say I got three pieces in a juried national show. So that's something!

Marco Polo

Marco Polo

Oil on canvas, 12x12. Commission

I knew better. Well, I should have known better.

I should have known better, but when we moved here, I got AT&T for phone, cell phone, TV and internet. All of it.

And AT&T, for all of its breaking up and diversifying, is still as abusive as ever. It is still a gigantic corporation that only cares about getting your money, and doesn't care at all about providing customer service, helping you with a problem, offering a solution.

It has taken a tremendous amount of work to get rid of AT&T - and believe me, AT&T knows just how much work it takes. I believe AT&T counts on that. It's taken days of research, days of visiting various other companies and signing up, days of waiting while these companies install their stuff, and now days of work to adjust this or that to make it work.

AT&T's products were pretty good, except for the increasingly slow internet, which led to the impasse that so infuriated me that I took all our business away from the monolith. Megalith. But I am willing to sacrifice a little bit of quality for a little bit of pleasant, humane treatment.

On another note - painting! How refreshing! - if you want a pet portrait done for Mother's Day, please contact me soon. Mother's Day is May 9!