Powell Street, San Francisco

Powell Stree, San Francisco
24x30
Mixed Media

Powell Street, San Francisco

Early on in 2009, I had an opportunity to travel to San Francisco for a few days. I took the train downtown and walked around for the afternoon. I came upon Powell St. and loved all the hustle and bustle going on. It was a great location to sketch with the trademark hill, cable cars, and people all over. I took some photos and did some sketching of the area and came up with this mixed media painting. I layered my canvas in newspaper applied with clear gesso. I then used vine charcoal and graphite to sketch into the canvas. I used lots of transparent layers of acrylic to get the desired effect. You can still see in some small areas some exposed newspaper which adds to the foggy look of the afternoon.

Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge
5x5
watercolor on paper

Chain Bridge

This little watercolor was a gift to my brother and sister in law for Christmas. She is from Budapest orginally. She explained that the Chain Bridge was the very first bridge built over the Danube River. I chose it to paint because of the intricate details and the sweeping supports.

Christmas Present for my Niece

24x30
watercolor

Syndey Land - Watercolor on Cold Pressed Paper

This painting has been in progress for about 6 months. I have been wanting to do something for my amazing 3 year old niece, Sydney, for quite some time. I started out with the landscape, and slowly layered in some of her favorite characters. Right now, Mickey is the favorite which I think is great because he was mine at her age as well. I plan on giving this to her for Christmas this week. I am off for the next few weeks, and will plan on posting quite a bit more in the days to come.

Starstruck Hometown

"Starstruck Hometown"
acrylic on canvas 18x24

"Starstruck Hometown"
Now that I am pregnant, my drs have instructed me that I can't use any solvants. So, I have moved out all of my oil paints and brought in my acrylics, water colors, pencils and mediums. I spent the day on Saturday priming and taking inventory of all of my past paintings and now have a great stock of blank canvasses that are calling my name. It's been awhile since I have done a hometown series painting and had a really fun time over the weekend working on Starstruck Hometown. Upcoming works include a streetscape of San Fran. I am looking forward to posting it later this week.

What I've been up to

So, you're probably wondering where I've been for the past three months - I know, I know, I haven't done a good job updating my blog. The reason is because I have been working on all sorts of new pieces for two classes that I've been taking - and I've had next to no time to do anything but work at my day job, go to class and finish up the pieces for a final crit which happened on Tue. of this week. So, here are three of the drawings that were done in the past three months with a short blurb on the background of each. I'll post more later this week. enjoy

[Above] Interior - "Taking a Seat"
18x24 - Black and White Conte on Neutral Charcoal Paper
Still life set up in class studio.

[Above] Figure - "3 Poses for 3 Moments"
18x24 - Black and White Conte on Blue Charcoal Paper
Nude Model in Studio

[Above] Self Portrait - "In My Studio"
18x24 - Black, Terra Cotta and White Conte on Grey Charcoal Paper
Completed in Home Studio

The Classic Diner

12x12 oil on masonite

The Classic Diner - click here to view eBay auction
There is a great diner not too far from where I live outside of Philly called the Classic Diner. It has an absolutely amazing breakfast prefaced by an even better cup of coffee. This painting was inspired by a morning there while waiting for an acquaintance to join me.

2008 Christmas Card Painting

Each Christmas time, for the past three years, an Architect firm in Richmond, VA commissions me to create a painting to be used as their Christmas card. Here is the final painting for this year's card. The house is based on a blue print of a house that the firm designed.