I am excited to announce my exhibition “Moments”, in the Washington DC area in July of 2022! I spent most of my adult life in Washington DC., spending these years in professional life as an architect, participating in the design and implementation of buildings and masterplans throughout the city and beyond. In my personal life, building friendships to last a lifetime. It was during this time that I started painting. I look forward to connecting with those mentors, colleagues and friends and sharing my work!

Our lives are often connected, like dots, by the “moments” that inspire us from one place in time to the next.  I have travelled across the country for the last several years and for me, these moments of inspiration are often found in the people I meet and the places I see along this path.  Rather than instantaneously capturing these moments on my smart phone, I have made a commitment to tell the story of this journey in the genre of plein air painting.  Akin to a singer songwriter with a quick melody of their experiences, it has been my ambition to capture insight and experiences through a visual medium.  These “moments” are but one perspective, or my point of view.  I hope they will continue to inspire an audience and perhaps take on an evolving story of their own, in the eye of the beholder.  Thank you for sharing in on this journey.

There will be an opening reception in the gallery space at Artist & Makers on Saturday July 9th from 11am to 3pm. I hope to see you there, or that you can make it to the exhibition over the duration of the month!

Over 50 Artists from around the state of Ohio and beyond participated in a plein-air painting competition.  This year the competition returned to the locale of Franklin County, which includes Columbus, OH. This year was the second straight year for the event to be held here.

We were to pick one painting we completed over the three days and submit for judging / awards as selected by renowned contemporary artist Patrick Lee. I am honored to have received 2nd Place for my painting “Sunshine on a Cloudy Day”, 12x9, gouache.

Over 40 Artists from around the state of Ohio and beyond participated in a plein-air painting competition.  We could paint anywhere in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, OH. This year was the first year for the event to be held here, and the competition will return to Columbus, in 2021.

We were to pick one of how many ever paintings we completed over the three days and submit one painting for judging / awards as selected by the owners of three local galleries. I am honored to have received and Award of Excellence, sponsored by Blick Art Materials, for my painting “Edge Conditions” 20x10, oil. This was the first plein air event that I worked entirely with oil paints.

Its exciting to explore a new city in the way of plein air painting. I chose to spend the couple days i was there, entirely in German Village. This historic neighborhood lies just south of the downtown area of Columbus, and is the home of residential scale parks, historic residential scaled structure and streets, and a walkable place including neighborhood restaurants and boutique retail.

I am honored that my painting “4:59” has been juried into the American Impressionists 2020 online exhibition. This paining will be included, along with the juried work of 289 other artists, selected out of 2,172 entries. The show will be have a live component on Wednesday, September 9th with an awards show for paintings selected by Ned Mueller, AISM (master).

The jury process of submitted works were reviewed b a panel of nationally recognized master and / or signature level artists, using a “blind jury”. Thank you to the jurors, the AIS and congratulations to the other entrants!

My painting “4:59” was painted in the middle of March, 2020, early during our nation’s quarantine period. While the daylight is still disappearing fast at this time of year, i was drawn to the combination of the warm light over the stove, the cool winter day-lighting beyond, and the reflections in the tea kettle. When I looked at the digital clock on the stove, as i started to paint, it was 4:59pm. It struck me, and stayed with me. Capturing this moment in time. There is a very small and subtle refection of the skin tones in my face in the tea kettle, from while I sat in my kitchen and did this painting.

About the Awards Juror, Ned Mueller:

"Ned is a very accomplished and highly respected artist, having been drawing and painting for over 70 years. He has been designated as a “Master Artist” with both the Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society.  He is a graduate of the prestigious Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles where as still a student he also taught drawing classes. He has participated in many of the major invitational shows in the country, including the "Artist's of America Show", The American Impressionist Society's Annual Exhibition, “National Academy of Western Art", "Oil Painters of America", "Laguna Plein Air Show", "Pastel Society of America", "The Autry Western Masters Show",  "The Northwest Rendezvous Show" and the annual "Plein Air Painters of America Exhibition.

He has shown in some of the Finest Galleries in the country, has won numerous awards and is included in many private fine art collections. He is a Signature member of the  Plein Air Painters of America. California Art Club, Northwest Pastel Society, Puget Sound Group of Northwest Artists, Northwest Rendezvous Group, and the Laguna Plein Air Painters. He continues to challenge himself to grow as an Artist and is asked to jury Regional and National Art Shows. Ned loves to teach and share his many years of knowledge and experience by teaching classes and workshops, regionally, nationally and internationally.” 

This juried event will celebrates the plein air tradition by exhibiting, promoting, and selling an exclusive group of works painted outdoors in the true spirit of plein air painting. I am honored, juror Lawrence Churski, selected my three submitted paintings to represent the “finest plein air works from members of the Ohio Plein Air Society”. We will celebrate at an opening on Sunday, June 28, 3:00 – 5:00 PM. Awards at 4:00 pm. I hope to see you there!

This announcement has been subject to the quarantine in efforts to stay safe at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gallery installation did not take place, but in the mean time you can see many of my painted street scenes in the YouTube video (see Virtual Gallery event above). I look forward to yet present this work in the gallery in the coming months, when it is safe for us to have a reception!

I am excited to announce a solo show of my work this April and May at the Malvina J. Freedson Gallery at Winton Place / Pier W in Lakewood, Ohio! I will be showing paintings of STREET scenes of both local places and those encountered in my travels.

It is indeed an interesting, epic time in all of our lives. At a time when it is recommended we keep “social distance” within our community I hope, as a visual artist, that this exhibition will allow us to remember the meaningful metaphor of the street as the communal place where we meet our neighbors and strangers alike.

As an architect, I have spent considerable time in professional practice working on projects small and large that have at least a small component of urban design, and sometimes even a large component. In fact, after 9/11 even, i spent time doing urban design analysis of the World Trade Center site, as part of a role our firm (based in the East Village in NYC) had in both planning and evaluation efforts of the design for the future rebuilding of this iconic location. All of these experiences have given me a focus in architecture that is often less on the object of a building and more on the space between buildings, or streets.

I think I have done 100+ paintings / studies of street scenes in the last 5+ years. Not all of them have people in them but they represent human elements, scale, and my personal point of view. There is a story in each moment, many including other people, even that I have met along the way.

I hope you / we will be able to visit the gallery in person in time, but for now I hope you will enjoy the video!

#STREETS4people

New exhibition dates and an event for and Opening Reception - details to follow.

I am honored that my painting “The Road Home” has been juried, by Adam Davies, into an online exhibition curated by the Maryland Federation of Art. The entries in- clude photography, fiber arts, collage, mixed media, & various painting mediums. In my Masters of Architecture degree program, and in professional practice, I have long had an interest in the spaces between buildings as much as any particular building in and of itself. This theme has increasingly inspired my work as an artist. I am particularly interested in the street, in both rural and urban settings, as a stage set for the narrative of place. The place in our communities where people come together.

Statement from Juror, Adam Davies:

It was an honour and a pleasure to jury Street Scenes and to work with the Maryland Federation of Art. When I think of the topic “street scenes”, my thoughts immediately go to images that surprise or reveal unexpected juxtapositions. Fundamentally, the street is a shared public space that encourages interaction and exploration. While it has structure, it is a place that cannot be controlled. From urban to rural imagery, I looked for submissions that made me curious and encouraged me to look deeper and more closely. I was drawn to works that had a strong sense of colour and design as well as to works that seemed to create a narrative. It was important that they had an inner cohesion, that all elements in the image or object made sense or supported the story. The selected works provide a diversity of imagery and points of view. They include images of streets that range from the chaotic to the deeply structured, from intimate, private stories to the massive and overwhelming spaces of the “bright lights” and the “big city”!