square hojo's

Here's the painting in the 'Famous for 12 Inches' show at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery (98 Orchard St) now through Aug 22. You're supposed to visit the show in person, then vote (for me!) by sending an email to info@castlefitzjohns.com and putting my name as the subject line. The artist w/the most votes gets a year's representation by the gallery. My friends and I decided that the results could be a bit skewed- popularity vs quality- but it draws attention to a nice gallery and it got me down to the lower East Side to talk to a few people, after fueling up with a pineapple margarita down the block.
There was a large variety of media applied to all those 12"x12" surfaces. Mine is factory-made high-pigment acrylic paint on canvas. Pthalo turquoise, cadmium orange, mars black and palest blue.

famous for 12 inches

I'm in this big group show opening tonight, Aug 8, at Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, 98 Orchard St on the Lower East Side in NYC. Canvases are all 12"x12". I don't have a good photo of mine yet, but it is a variation on my Howard Johnson's painting, and I think it's pretty sharp. But is it sharp enough to win? People can vote on their favorite work, by coming tonight, 7-10 pm, or stopping by any day through Aug 22.

the 2-minute apple

Go here on YouTube to see a time-lapse video of me painting an apple. My 13-year-old nephew Theo made it. I touched up the painting (12"x12") a few days later, since I used oil and there's only so much I could do at once before I had to stop and let it dry. Still, the painting process went pretty fast for me (if a bit longer than 2 minutes). The video compresses 28 min of shooting. I could knock out a bushel in a day!

framework

Five small works of mine that someone had collected over the past few years- she asked if Jon could make a frame for them as a group- I think it looks quite nice, sets the little pieces apart from everything else where they might get lost, and I like how they look in relation to each other.

And these below don't have anything to do with the frame, just some favorites from a classic car show I attended recently in Geneva, NY with my family.
I've somewhat neglected my blog this July- but another month is only minutes away, so I'm sure I'll catch up before the wood-stackings start to fill up my time once more. I've been painting, and will be relieved to share- especially a large-ish (24"x48") oil landscape that occupied my energies for several weeks as I puzzled it out.

the booth is out there

This booth was in Garrison, and was likely the site of late-night cab calls, as it was (is? I haven't been back in a while, but I believe it remains) situated by the train station and a long-shuttered bar. Faded green and phoneless. Here it somehow became a sort of ghostly faded skeletal relic in a gray landscape. Oil on wood, 10"x14".

chalk to the nearest exit, or, the c train

For the 2014 Perry Chalk Art Festival, our 5'x10' chalky interpretation of the theme 'Transformations'. (Click here to see the one I did in 2012)

Jon and I, grubby and relieved at the end of 4-5 absorbed hours chalking in the sun

The MTA's Artificial Reef Project, begun in 2001, involved taking decommissioned New York City subway cars and deploying them to the ocean floor to create new habitats for marine life. These included the old 'Redbirds', which rode the rails from 1964-2003. The cars were stripped of doors & windows and any materials that might leach into the water. Within 3-5 years- usually sooner- the structures were covered with coral and algae, transforming into strange & beautiful places of refuge for fish and providing a feeding ground, increasing catches for fishermen, and enhancing the topography of the otherwise barren floor of the Mid-Atlantic.
(from my accompanying statement taped to the concrete.)

People feared this scheme was a thinly-veiled attempt to turn the ocean floor into a junkyard, but it seems that the cars, chosen for their durability, weight & roominess, show little to no damage or disintegration of materials. You never know the whole story of course, but it appeared to be a successful project, and the scuba diver's photos I'd found online are eerie and magical. A challenge to replicate in chalk, especially as I hadn't done it in two years and Jon never had, so we just dug into it. Somehow we snagged second place. By morning, just as when I chalked 2 years ago, the rain had all but washed it away, rendering the underwater portion even more realistic.

(painting) table-to-farm

More of the signs I've been painting for Fishkill Farms. See strawberries, a sweet memory now- but fortunately the farm produces an abundance of fruit throughout the summer, and I believe the idea is that the signs, once installed, will help guide wandering u-pickers to the correct fields. It's a lovely place to wander.
I have yet to find a perfectly clear exterior polyurethane varnish; it always yellows, and I wonder if it's inevitable. In this case at least, the antiqued look is okay. I do like using the oil-based One-Shot, it creates an easy precision with the lettering, while practically dictating my brushstrokes with its shiny, tacky stickiness when I paint the fruit.