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I'm always especially pleased when a child stops and really pays attention to my work at an art show or fair. I feel that they are responding in an innocent and unbiased way to something about the work that they like, so I've been delighted when my grandson has shown that interest in my paintings and art in general in the last few years. When I asked him what he'd like as a gift for his eleventh birthday, he looked through the paintings on this site and asked me if I could make him a print of the painting "Stone Bridge Across the Brook." Since I still had the painting in my possession, I decided that rather than a print, I'd send him the framed original. I got a wonderful call from him expressing his surprise and pleasure with his present. It feels terrific to be able to share something that I put a lot of love into with a grandchild.

I don't always have the chance to meet the buyers of one of my paintings. Even more rarely, do I get to see it in its new home. I was so pleased to have that happen with the recent sale of  the painting "Springtime, Hudson from Cold Spring." A lovely couple contacted me through this website and asked if they could visit and view the painting which they had seen on my home page. It turned out that they had seen other paintings at Bear Mountain Inn where I've been showing work with the Artists in the Parks group and that had led them to my website.

We met, they loved the painting and a couple of weeks later, picked it up to take it home.

The photo is of the painting mounted in its new location.  Even after years of painting and selling work, it always gives me a wonderful feeling to send off a piece to a home where it will be proudly displayed and enjoyed.

Because of my membership as an Artist in the Parks, a group affiliated with the Palisades Interstate Parks Conservancy, I've had the privilege of easy access to some of the roads and parks in this rather large expanse that is being preserved and maintained from development and is open to the public in many of its areas.

This painting, Bear Mountain from Trailside Museum, is one of the many paintings I've done from different areas of the parks. I feel as if I've barely begun to explore the many different locations, but I am especially attracted to those along the Hudson. At the rear of the Trailside Museum and Zoo that is part of Bear Mountain Park, there's a lovely little park that's right alongside the Bear Mountain Bridge and high above the Hudson. The view up and down the river is spectacular, I've painted both views but had not tried this one looking across to the east and slightly north. Now that I broke the ice with this closeup view of a piece of the bridge, I'll be game to try it again from other angles.

For the last 6 years or so, I've been exhibiting a number of paintings each year in a 3-day art show fund raiser put on by the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County. It's always held at the Burr Homestead, a spacious and beautiful old historic building in Fairfield, Ct. This year, I was particularly aware of each stage of the process for entering work. From the time I sent in my list of framed paintings and another of matted work, a team of dedicated Junior League women took over. They printed up my handwritten lists, created labels to attach to each piece, hung the show with hundreds of paintings, handled all sales, and had a system organized for the artists so they could help each one take unsold work down, check everything out and help with carry it to your car.

The effort that went into this very large show with 100 artists participating was enormous and impressive and handled almost or entirely by volunteers. I saw how the use of computers and attached printers, software design and accounting programs has increasingly fine-tuned the workings of the show and helped what could be utter chaos to instead be smoothly running.

The proceeds from sales at the show are divided between the artists and non-profit community groups who need financial support to keep running. It's a wonderful boon to each group.

I salute the women of the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County for their heroic efforts. Bravo for a job well done!

 The painting pictured here was one I painted in the studio as I have learned through my years of painting on location what subjects and times of day work for me to paint en plein air and which I'd rather tackle in the studio.

One Fall afternoon as the day was nearing its end, I headed over to the Hudson and this particular area in Sleepy Hollow. I had become familiar with it by chance months before when invited to visit a family who wanted to commission me to do a dog portrait. I was hoping to see something interesting because I've learned from my many plein air expeditions that the skies can be very beautiful as seen from anywhere along the East Bank of the Hudson near the end of the day. However, it's not always easy to find areas where there's a place to walk or see the scene without impediment. This was such a place. 

The combination of drinking in the scene, mentally noting the colors I'm seeing, and taking photos with a good digital camera helps me to capture an elusive time of day that doesn't give me time to paint it on location nor to do justice to the nuances I see in the clouds. For me, scenes like this need to be worked on over time in the studio, where I can paint in layers and wait for areas to dry in between sessions.

I've been painting many Hudson River scenes over the last few years and I often find myself having to decide whether to add boats or a barge or ship to complete the composition. It's sometimes a very clear choice--the scene needs a boat. Other times, it's a matter of adding that human element because the scene feels a little too static without it, or my eye keeps looking toward the open water and waiting for something to appear.

For this painting, "Motorboat Heading Toward Nyack", I hadn't included any foreground land and felt I wanted something active leading the eye to the far shore.

In each case, I look through a large selection of reference photos I've amassed while spending many hours along the River. The Hudson, being a major North/South artery, has quite a lot of traffic on it. Much of it in good weather is for pleasure, so I see all kinds of yachts, sight-seeing boats, sailboats, and kayaks and sometimes jet skies and windsurfers. But in addition, there are many large freighters and barges and tugboats in evidence.

It's a carefully thought out selection I make as to what to add and where to place it. I'll often make a little sketch to size and move it around over the painting to help me decide. Sometimes, after I've added an element, it doesn't feel right and I wipe it out. Sometimes, it feels like just the right touch. Several times before making my decision, I've asked my son and daughter what's their opinion and usually have one say add a boat and the other say don't. That leads me to think that it's often a totally arbitrary decision about whether it's needed or not to complete the scene.

Unexpected connections that result in happy endings have the quality of a fairy tale, and as a child I devoured fairy tales. This tale began with an email sent via my website last Fall asking me if, besides the Pamet Marsh painting I had on display, I had any paintings of Pamet Harbor on Cape Cod.

The woman writing to me explained that her daughter was getting married in August, 2011, and that the wedding would be taking place at a yacht club at Pamet Harbor. She said that she'd love to give her daughter a gift of a painting of that area to commemorate the wedding's location.

Well, it happened that not long before that, I had been looking through photos I'd taken during my last trip to the Cape and had come upon photos taken while painting at Pamet Harbor. I especially liked a few photos of a certain view and had started working on a painting. Other work had come along and I had set it aside unfinished.

I told the woman who had contacted me that if she would like to see that painting, I would work on it and finish it up and email her the image. I did so, she liked it and we discussed price. She said that she would discuss it with her husband and get back to me. As another couple of emails went back and forth, I thought I'd offer the option of paying for the painting in installments, since it wasn't needed until the summer.

Time went by and I didn't hear anything further. In that time, I took a look at another of the Pamet Harbor photos and decided I liked another longer view so much that I would go ahead and paint that view too.

When the painting was done, I sent out another email with the new image. This time, I got back a very positive response saying that she liked this one even better and wanted to purchase it and to work with an installment plan as I had suggested.

After receiving the last installment, I framed the painting and shipped it out in time for it to be given as a bridal shower gift in June.

Hear's the lovely response I got recently when I asked if it was all right to put it up on my website and to tell the story of how the painting and sale came about.

"She absolutely loved it and there were some tears. I wanted to do something different - something that was meaningful - that she would remember. I have to say the painting was a perfect gift. My daughter can't wait to get this back to California with her. Your work is amazing. Thanks again."

How wonderful that made me feel. There's nothing like a happy ending.

There's often an interesting story behind the creation of a commissioned painting and many more steps to its creation than one might imagine. This newly completed painting which is called the "Neuenboat II Near Croton" is no exception.

I was contacted through my website by a prospective client who had seen my 8"x10" painting "Hudson From Croton Landing" and wondered if I could put his boat into that scene. After a discussion, it was decided that I'd do a 12"x16" version of the scene which included the boat and would present it framed.

The first step in creating the painting would be to have  photos of the boat. After a discussion about my coming over to the marina where the boat was docked, it became very apparent that the marina wasn't the right location for photographing the boat moving in the water and away from shore and that there would be nowhere for me to have a clear view of the boat in action.

After further discussion, it was decided that the boat would be driven over to the area of the Hudson near Croton. I would be on shore and as the boat came into the scene, I would take a number of digital photos for reference.

In order to get the shots I needed, we communicated via cell phone, first to locate each other, and then, so I could take the boat from all angles.

Once accomplished, my client briefly docked his boat nearby so we could meet in person and surprised me with a large bouquet of flowers. It turns out that he's a florist. What a lovely touch!

Photos were sent by email until we found the best one to work with. Sizing of the boat within the painting was a challenge and took several tries, since I wanted it to have featured status but not be too big. As the painting neared its end, my client sent me a photo of two of his young children in their colorful life jackets and asked if they could be included on the deck. It was tricky because they would be mere specks of color at the small size needed to fit on the boat at the size it was painted. It turned out to be a wonderful added touch of life and color.

Once again, I had the pleasure of working with someone who appreciates what an artist does and makes the whole commission process worthwhile, challenging, and fun.

I love serendipitous occurences, especially ones that lead to unexpected results. Such was my chance encounter with a friendly couple, Kathy and Kurt, who appeared behind me as I was painting en plein air on a chilly January day last year at the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake in Nyack, NY.

Since I don't mind people talking to me as I'm painting on location, we talked for quite a while. It turned out that Kathy writes the WonderfulWonders blog and tells her readers about interesting places and events in the Hudson Valley. In this case, she and Kurt had come to see the Ice Festival events and to meet and photograph some of the artists who were painting on the property around the lake.

We exchanged cards and email information and they moved on. A few days later, I received a link to Kathy's blog and opened it to read the article about the Festival including a mention of having met me. I signed up for her blog and wrote to her telling her how nice her article was. With that, we started a correspondence via email every so often and kept up with each other's websites and blogs.

Along the way, Kathy asked me how I would feel about having her use a portion of one of my paintings as a masthead for her blog. She thought it would be a perfect look for a site about Hudson Valley happenings. I loved the idea. The painting above, Hudson River from Bear Mountain is the one she chose and with Kurt's help put up on her site. It went up this week with a beautiful write-up about me, which I greatly appreciate, and a link to my site.

Well, who would have known all of this would happen from going out to do a plein air painting and chatting with a couple of passersby. And this is still the beginning of a connection that continues to grow, and isn't that "wonderful."

Kathy's blog can be found at http://www.wonderfulwonders.net

This view of the Hudson River from Boscobel is so spectacular that I've painted it again and again. Each time I've been there, I've witnessed another time of day, weather condition, and change of colors in the landscape. Constitution Marsh in the foreground is so interesting and challenging to paint as, it too, changes every time I see it. In the case of the land masses, the additional changes are due to the tide on the Hudson that ebbs and flows and causes the land masses to alter in size and shape.

I'm always ready with my camera while I'm painting, especially in a location like this. In the course of a few hours, there's a flow of traffic on the water ranging from ships to motor and sailboats to barges with tugboats pushing them up and down river. There are also a couple of replicas of double and triple masted early sailboats that are used for educational tours.

On this particular day, the sky was very overcast causing the water to look light and grayish. Every so often, the currents or the wind would cause a pattern to emerge or an area to look clearer than the choppier water around it. In this painting, you can see the clear, still area in front of the land mass in the marsh with long reflections of the foliage being mirrored in the water.