Empire State of Mind Across The Pond

A huge thank you to Pamela M. for these wonderful photos. After purchasing these Metro Card paintings, she had them professionally framed to give as gifts to a family member in the U.K.; I think they look beautiful!

Empire State Building No. 29
2.5" x 3" oil on Metro Card

Empire State Building No. 27
2.5" x 3" oil on Metro Card

More Metro Card paintings are available here.

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Empire State of Mind

Summer setting on NYC. 

Back to the hustle this week.

Empire State Building No. 20
 2.5" x 3" Oil on Metrocard

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Empire State of Mind Redux

I love painting this view - simple and iconic  - but experimenting with different color palettes. The same shape but different hues gives it a whole different mood and feeling. 

NYC Subway Card Empire State Building No. 14

2.5" x 3" oil on metro card

 Compare it to one I did a while ago, such a different result:

NYC Subway Card Empire State Building No. 11

2.5" x 3" oil on metro card

I think I'll do a series of these this weekend and see how many variations I can create. Committing to a series really frees you up to experiment - you've got the subject matter out of the way,  and also knowing that you're going to create as many variations as you like really takes the pressure off any single one painting. If it works, great! If it fails, put it aside and try something else.

Popped in a frame and it acquires a bit more grandeur, no?

NYC Subway Card Empire State Building No. 14
2.5" x 3" oil on metro card

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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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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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Meanwhile, back on another island

Empire State Building No. 2,

ink and watercolor on paper.

Purchase a print of this painting  here.

I made a handful of these small Empire State Building paintings as gifts last Christmas and gave them to friends who came to our home for a holiday party. Each one was different form the next, either in time of day, "looseness" of the drawing, or the angle of the building. I painted another for myself last night -- I can just about see this much of the building from my studio window.

In these, the original drawing was done with a bamboo pen, rather than the Rapidograph I've used on most of the other painting-a-day images. I have several of these pens, in a variety of sizes and I love using them, just dipping them directly in either concentrated or diluted ink.

You are almost guaranteed to loosen up when you use these. The pen only takes a small "charge" of ink, depending on the size of the carved nib, so you get some unexpected results as the ink gradually leaves the pen.
Here's a pic of what they look like --

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