Category: Paintings, Recent

double self portrait, 2021

Inside a Dance was accepted for the Painting the Figure Now 2021 exhibition at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau, WI.

Diptych, 2 canvases, 20 x 40, 2019

Commission for Lithgow Library

This is a new painting commissioned by the Friends of Lithgow Library to commemorate the new library.

Stories from the Mezzanine
The Friends of Lithgow Library asked me to create a painting commemorating and celebrating the old and new Lithgow Library.  Since many of my public commissions, such as the murals Kennebec in the Capital Judicial Center and City of Ships in Bath, fold together time periods, this was right up my artistic alley.

Painting the beautiful architecture, stone, stained glass and lovely wood was a must.   This gave the lush stage set for the characters of Stories from the Mezzanine.

The founder of the library from the 1890’s, Llewellyn Lithgow was the first to come to life in the painting.  He was a contemporary of Henry Longfellow so I thought it might be interesting if they were having a chat.  The library’s current director Betsy Pohl, joined their conversation as the painting’s composition developed.  I like this joining of times, our current days with the library days of the 1890’s, bookends to the century and more between.

I see the painting as a tribute to Maine authors as well, so in addition to Longfellow, the poet Edna St Vincent Millay and novelist Stephen King both make appearances.

On the shelves of the library are housed wonderful stories, vibrant adventures and vast knowledge.  When we crack open a book the stories within and the characters living there become real around us.    These characters live in our minds and hearts and can be powerful influences on us in our daily lives.  The people in our favorite books may live with us for years, long after we have closed the pages of the stories they inhabit.  They have been dormant, quietly waiting for us to read again.  The painting tells this story.

So I opened several of my favorite books and let characters live amongst the ‘real’ people in the painting; Huck Finn created by Mark Twain, young Pip from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and, of course, Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

Two other people in the painting are library patrons, checking out books.  What is a library without people who want to read?

Finally, the shelves are filled with real books.  I included some of my favorites and others with covers I liked.  Ultimately, the books on the shelves were placed carefully to fill the painting’s compositional needs of color, value and pattern.

This painting is a celebration of written words and the beautiful historic building that keeps them safe for us.

Enjoy.

watercolor on paper, 23 x 22 inches, 2017

This was inspired by an old busker I saw in the subway in Boston.

This mural has many unusual characters from the world of the arts.  Artists often live lives a bit out of the box.  Some of the people here are archetypal, some drawn from people in my life, but with my crowd I tried to tell a story of life, joy, music, sadness and hope.   People who have had pain and difficulty at times can see beyond the day to day to things of deeper significance.

My fiddler looks directly at us challenging us to see more.  The woman with the cigar box guitar looks off into her own collection of thoughts.  The mime, a friend of old, has a half painted face, hiding part of his identity, as well as holds a full mask he has removed.  The man holding the woman supports her with the care he gives the bird as well.  The pregnant woman is bringing a life into the world, juggling the spheres of energy, keeping it all going.

There is caring here, and friendship and pain, but they are one troupe together.

a painting for an exhibit against human trafficking.