Single Fare Opening

The Single Fare 3 exhibit opened at RH Gallery in Tribeca last night -- it was jam packed with artists, collectors and art lovers. I grabbed this photo from the Single Fare 3 FB page:

People were spilling out onto the street in the cool drizzle of the evening.

There were over 2500 works submitted  - here are a few of my favorites - the roiling seascapes by Annie Wildey:

Found my own set of paintings on the western wall -- not so happy to see they posted my Empire State Building on its side. WTF? Same with the coffee cup. For god's sake............

Many artists submitted a unified series -- like these nude figures by Ingrid Cappozolli Flynn: 

Or this series of portions of a face -- just beautiful, by Alyssa Monks:

And these were really lovely, by Elizabeth Glaessner  -- they look like watercolors but I don't know how she prepped to cards to receive watercolor -- hmm, maybe gouache...........

The entire collection can also be seen online - and available for purchase -here.

Update: Two of my paintings were included in the slideshow accompanying this article,  on Transportation Nation.org..

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Pitch By My Doorstep

Yes, three little birds..........

These little creatures are among the ten paintings I've submitted to the upcoming art exhibit, Single Fare 3 at the RH Gallery, 137 Duane Street in Manhattan. All works are painted upon, or created with, NYC Metro Cards -- yeah, right up my alley.

The exhibit opens on Wednesday, February 13, 6pm-9pm and runs through February 22, 2013.

Come on down!

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This:

Stolen from "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon.

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Liar, liar, pants on fire

So I had an unexpected day off last week and forced myself to get up early anyway - sieze the day and all that.  After a couple cups of coffee, while watching  Season 3 premiere of Downton Abbey on the dvr and simultaneously gridding up some subway snapshots for painting -- I headed uptown.

Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, to be precise. There is all sorts of scaffolding around the fountain/plaza area, which is being renovated, but have no fear because: 

Yay, the Met is open! Except of course, when it is not.

Crap.

I was looking forward to the Matisse show, the George Bellows exhibit, the appropriation of African Art by the NY Avant-Garde and an overall unfettered wander about the place. 

I was not alone - people kept climbing up those steps, only to be met with disappointment and a suggestion on the sign to visit the AMNH (no thanks, I want paintings, not stuffed buffalo), the Guggenheim (sigh, ok, perhaps) or The Jewish Musuem (hmm, haven't been there before). 

And then I remembered another favorite spot just a few blocks away. AFter all this is :

Yes, a wealth of options along Fifth Avenue - so I headed north to the exquisite

Neue Galerie. At the very least, I could take in some Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. 

I was happy to see instead a special exhibit of the work of Ferdinand Hodler, a contemporary of Klimt and Schiele.  Beautiful work.......

Next time, Met, next time.......

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We Three Kings

Painting the same thing again and again but never the same painting. 

Yeah.

 Subway Card Chrysler Building No. 12
2" x 3.25" oil on metro card

Subway Card Chrysler Building No. 13

2" x 3.25" oil on metro card

Subway Card Chrysler Building No. 14

2" x 3.25" oil on metro card

Triple play............

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Hiding in Plain Sight

 A bulky hoodie is a must for traveling incognito. Or just keeping warm......

 NYC Subway No. 10
4" x 4" x 1.5" oil on cedar wood block

Ready to hang:

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My Way

 A new take on the Empire State Building -- I did it my way:

Subway Card Empire State Building No. 11
2" x 3.25" oil on Metro card

Framed and ready to hang -- 

Any special requests for your favorite NYC icon? Email me!

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Off Duty ?

Need a lift?

Rolling out several new taxi paintings --

Subway Card Taxi No. 13

2" x 3.25" oil on Metro Card

Subway Card Taxi No. 14
2" x 3.25" oil on Metro Card

Subway Card Taxi No. 15

2" x 3.25" oil on Metro Card

Subway Card Taxi No. 16
2" x 3.25" oil on Metro Card

All sold framed, ready to hang:

Subway Card Taxi No. 13

Subway Card Taxi No. 14

Subway Card Taxi No. 15

Subway Card Taxi No. 16

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Bird Flew - Part One

 John Chewitt in progress

 One might think, with all of my New York City-centric subject matter of late, that my bird paintings have flown the coop. In a sense they did - at least temporarily.  Since returning from Jamaica this summer, I invested much of my time coming up with new Metro Card paintings  and also beginning a new series of paintings of subway riders on wood blocks.

Now that I've made great progress in both of those series, and with sketches and plans in place for more, I've turned back to the tropical aviary and my bird project commission.

Next up -- John Chewitt. Yes, that's a bird. Something that took me a long time to figure out.

I'm afraid the John Chewitt, also know as the black-whiskered vireo, is not a particularly flamboyant bird. No flashy splashes of color like the Parrot, no sinewy silhouette like the Doctor Bird. Not particularly inspiring to a painter.

I don't want to offend any birders out there so I won't go so far as to say the John Chewitt is a boring-looking bird but, well, it will be a challenge. So let's get started:

charcoal sketch on canvas -- 24" x 36"

I think I made this sketch before I left for Jamaica or may have made it while on the rock. I just can't recall. Either way, the canvas had been removed from the stretcher in order to transport it to and from Jamaica so I had to re-attach it to begin painting. It was a bit buckled here and there, not fitting exactly as it had originally done. It appeared to have have shrunk slightly, particularly on the vertical and I just couldn't get it to smoothly stretch across the frame. So,  after I staple-gunned it to the stretcher, I used a spray bottle to mist water across the back of the canvas -- this would help it shrink up tightly again to the frame.


Ok, first steps -- the usual hot mess stage:

Ugh. That's always the stage that gets me slightly concerned that I'll never turn this mix up of pigment into anything resembling a bird. 

But I soldiered on.

Ok, so far so good. Things are starting to take shape.

But the neck is looking a little lumpy/jowly  to me:

So I worked on the head and neck a little more as well as spending more time with the foliage in the background. The intense blues along the bird's belly and branch don't appear quite so saturated as they do in this photo, but I guess I'd better tone them down a bit:

Which brings us back to the first image in this post:

Sweet bird, eh?

Ok, going to let this dry for a while, and then I'll return to it. Still have a long way to go.............

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Deep Thought or Deep Sleep?

 NYC Subway No. 8
4" x 4" x 1.5" oil on cedar wood block  

And hang it up ---

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