Chuck at Le Petite Cafe NYC - 10"x26"

This is another NYC experience piece. We found Le Petite Cafe (and it's literally petite) near the corner of West Broadway and Spring St. in Soho. In this painting you are only missing about 4 ft of the front window to the right, so you can see this is a very small cafe.

Dillon and I had stumbled upon it Thursday morning when looking for a place to eat breakfast near the Agora Gallery's Soho location. They serve the greatest coffee and the most awesome omelets.

This was Friday, the beginning of the exciting day that we walked from Soho to Times Square and we wanted a harty breakfast to begin our exploration of the city. Also, Chuck had not been able to get into NYC for my opening so he wanted to also start the day off by seeing my pieces at the Agora Gallery. Dillon and I had raved about it so much Chuck wanted to experience it too.

We truly enjoyed ourselves this particular morning and I remember telling both Chuck and Dillon "Life couldn't get much better than this."

Dillon in NYC subway - 10" x 26"

I bought some new canvases in November which are 10" x 26" thinking they would make perfect landscapes for the wide open spaces of our local Flint Hills area.

Then, this last Wednesday I was poking around and reviewing the photos from our NYC trip. I found a photo of my son in the subway. It was the typical horizontal format and included the subway train arriving to the station. Also, you could see a bit of the platform across the way. I was thinking that the picture was great and it crossed my mind to paint the piece in full. Then somewhere in the back of my mind the previously ignored and waiting for a great plein air day, long and skinny canvases came to mind.

A little cropping and excitement mounted as inspiration hit. The tall canvases worked perfectly for the skyscraping urbanscape of the NYC experience.

This piece is a little different from the other figurative pieces that I have done as I have reached further toward realism. I had no intention of bringing complete realism to the piece but I wanted to identify where the subject was without recreating the photo. I also wanted to create the mood of the moment captured.

The day we took this photo we had traveled by foot in an indirect path from Soho to Times Square. By midnight, we found ourselves exhausted, drenched by a rain storm and determined to find our way back to our hotel in Soho through the subway system.

It was an awesome journey for our first NYC trip as a family and it is important to me to relive this through my work.

I have plans for a few more memorable moments to document and I hope that you will enjoy them.

New Paintings for 2007

Coneflower 1 & 2 - 12"x12"

Inspired by the new year and fond memories of the past year. I finally found the time from the hustle and bustle of the Holidays to sit down, relax and paint.

I browsed my pictures set aside for just this kind of quiet time and discovered I had some interesting photos taken during the Symphony in the Flint Hills at the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve this last summer. I found that these two flowers not only reminded me of wonderful event they also juxapposed each other so nicely, expressing the harried feeling the season can bring and the promise of a new beginning in the the coming year.

Let me know what you think.

I hope that 2007 brings you all joy and victory over troubles.