Landscapes - Round One

Banfi Vineyards
18x24
Oil on Canvas
2007

-This was done loosely based on a view of the vineyards at Castello Banfi, outside Montalcino, Italy. I LOVED this place - ate the best meal I've ever eaten in my whole life, "tasted" a lot of wine (read as: got really drunk) and wandered the grounds of a Tuscan Castle that's been making wine in some form or another since Roman times. If you're ever considering a trip, I highly recommend just renting a car and driving through the region - you'll be tempted to throw the corporate life away.


The Boats
24x36
Oil on Canvas
2007
Swann Collection (Private)

-Cinque Terre, a region on the northwest coast of Italy, is such a vibrant place. There's no black, white, or gray there - everything has these bright, vivid colors. CT is made up of five tiny fishing villages, connected by a rickety old rail system and a beautiful hiking trail owned and maintained by Italy's National Parks. I was tempted to throw my shoes over the telephone wire and buy a boat and become a fisherman. I can still smell it every time I see this painting - when the fishermen came in around 4:30, the entire town of Vernazza would smell of freshly baked focaccia bread that was coming out of every baker's oven in town. I have a theory that if we pumped that smell through every city in the US, we'd see crime rates plummet. You really can't be angry when you're smelling fresh bread.

Tulips
20x24
Mixed Media & Acrylic on Canvas
2008
For Sale

-I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and started looking at Cezanne and Kadinsky - their work, plus a desire to get into acrylics and a big old case of Spring Fever equals semi-abstract and vivid flowers. I really enjoyed this one.



Levi
24x36
Oil on Canvas
2006
Collection of the Artist
-This was for sale for a long time, but the only piece with which I really ever had any attachment. It was done from a photo that was snapped of a guy I was dating at the time, and I intentionally left the face blank because it seemed to really fit the subject and composition. He had gone fishing with a friend and it's probably the most biographical thing I've ever seen of him - the cutoff army fatigues (they made it through 2 tours of duty, they're probably better worn in than any comfy jeans I've ever owned), the cowboy hat and especially the landscape...it kind of just screams of the area where I grew up. Still wrestling over whether to sell it - I've had a couple offers that ended up falling through, sometimes I think I'm not supposed to sell it, given the number of times a sale has been attempted.

Back Bay Windows
Oil on Canvas
2008
24x36
For Sale
-I lived off Commonwealth Avenue in Boston for a couple years. After living in Atlanta, where everything was so brand-new, it's a minor shock to walk down these streets with homes that look the same as when some of the Founding Fathers lived there. I found the architecture on Comm Ave (as Bostonians call it) to be so synonymous with the Brahmin that live there - old, stately, classically elegant, and you always kind of wonder what's in there. I struggled with the perspective on this for a long time before finally just deciding to go a little nuts with it. The colors may not show up well, but it's got a lot of expression in it and used some techniques that I was a little unsure of until I really got going.

Mykonos #2
Oil on Canvas
2007
24x36
Hubbard Collection (private)
-I went to Greece during the Olympics of 2004. If you've never seen Greece, I can not begin to explain how incredible it is. They hold onto their history, culture and identity like no other people, and have this innate "I don't care what's new, this has worked for thousands of years" ideology. The island of Mykonos, set right in the middle of the Greek Isles, is this beautiful little gem in the bluest water I've ever seen in my whole life. One of the greatest things about Mykonos is that there's these tiny churches all over the island - literally over 12,000 of them, there are more churches than residents. I loved painting the whites of it - mainly because I used relatively little actual white pigments - when the sun goes down, suddenly the buildings reflect all kinds of colors you never knew were there. I saved some of the mixed paint from this as long as I could - I fell in love with the pale yellow and the odd blue of the sky.