North End, Boston - Prado Fountain

"Visitors to the Prado Fountain - North End" (14"X18", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)

This painting was another of my very first ones. The photo of it isn't very good, as it was taken with my old camera, but I like it anyway. It actually went to an auction to raise money for the care and maintenance of the Rose Kennedy rose garden in Christopher Columbus Park. I think it made about $350 for the cause.

I like all the figures in the painting and how they surround the fountain (which is way out of scale in this early work - It's actually much bigger) creating a foreground and middle ground of interest for the viewer. The ivy-capped brick wall is visible in the background, with a few of its bronze memorial plaques. The small triangular plantings are also visible on the left and right. I realized that the placement of the fountain on the canvas was a little odd (along with the off-kilter scale) after I had finished the painting, but I guess that's part of the learning curve. At least someone else liked it enough to bid on it at the auction.

I love the Prado and have made other paintings of the fountain which always get a great response at every show I do. The historic aspect of the surroundings (the iconic Paul Revere statue at the front of the park and the Old North Church at the back) make it a real destination for tourists. The dappled sunlight and the bright fountain. along with the many stone benches to relax on make it a calming destination for anyone.

North End, Boston - Snow Hill

"Walking Back Home to 53 Snow Hill - North End" (24"X20", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)

This was a commission that I was asked to paint after the new resident of this address had seen my work at a show I did in the North End. She was still in the process of renovating the interior when I painted from the Copps Hill Cemetery across the street. The old wrought-iron fence around the burial ground is visible in the foreground, which was a request of the buyer. A very good call on her part, I might add, since I love such details and it allowed for the interesting perspective on the property that is seen here. It's actually a time-honored device to put something subtle in the foreground that the viewer has to visually 'climb over' to get at the actual subject of the painting. Vermeer and the other Dutch Masters used this device - a lot.

Another request she made was to put in her two daughters, even they're only 6 months old and 2 years old, respectively. She figured (and rightly) that putting them in looking older will extend the 'life' of the painting, as far as it seeming contemporary as the family ages.

She also asked for the Zakim bridge to be included, which worked out fine, since it really is visible from this perspective, and to have the time of year be early Autumn (as seen in the tree at the far middle right), since that's when they first saw the property and fell in love with it.

I enjoyed doing the painting, with all its dappled shadows on the adjacent buildings and the sidewalk, which throws the wooden structure (no vinyl siding) into sharp relief, making it the clear focus of the work. I believe it's one of the oldest (and only) wooden structures in the whole North End.

North End, Boston - North Square in Winter

"Five North Square in Winter - North End" (20"X16", Oil Painting, SOLD)

This painting is a sale I made on Christmas Eve, 2009. I sold it to the new owners of the restaurant in the background, now Gennaro's Five North Square, named after their son. I still have to make some changes to the painting, namely to put in the new paint job on the lower part of the bay window columns and the new brown awnings that match the re-finished exterior woodwork. I look forward to making the changes, since the place looks better now and I like the idea of customizing works of art to suit the buyer.

My friend Sandro, who lives at 1 North Square (a sliver of which is visible on the right) is seen looking up at the restaurant. I always want to add people to my 'architectural paintings' since they add scale and humanity to an otherwise potentially static work. He actually just happened to walk out of his place when I was there, about to shoot. He saw me, looked up to his right to see what I was framing up and I took the photo that became this painting. "That looks like a good shot" was his remark, not knowing that he was in it.

I made Christmas cards from this image and they were very popular this year. I'll re-shoot the painting after I make the changes, including the Christmas wreaths and lights all over the ground level. I feel another Christmas card coming for next year!

There's another image of this restaurant in a horizontal format that I painted in Autumn. It appears in an earlier post on this blog.

North End, Boston - Pizzeria Regina

"Walking by Regina's Pizza in the Early Morning - North End" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)

This small-ish painting shows another one of the North End's Italian food icons known throughout the country. The young woman in the shaded foreground is a real estate agent talking on the phone while walking across Thacher Street to her first appointment. The young man in the sunlit background is walking into the distance and drawing our eye further into the depth of the painting. He's headed for Thacher Court and Sal's Lunch, which is the subject of another painting I've done and is also on this blog. This effort works pretty well for me and is a refinement of the very first painting I did when I decided to pursue art for a living. It looks a lot better, believe me. It was painted on site and then finished in my studio/back room.

This painting is also where I first got a taste for rendering the beautiful patina'ed copper sheathing that graces so many of the tenements throughout the North End. I truly hope that as time passes these unique turn-of-the-century architectural elements aren't torn away to make space for the faceless modern constructions that pass for "Luxury Condos". The thing that gives me hope is the rehab recently done on the Segel Building at 18 Cooper St, a building that I painted and have showing in a previous entry on this blog. The job that the developer did is virtually invisible from the outside, and he opted not to re-paint the outside of the copper bay window column (which has been done in some older rehabs, notably across the square from Pizzeria Regina). He told me he initially wanted to paint it to "unify and modernize" the mottled look of the copper. Big thanks to him for ultimately deciding otherwise.

Lots of people really like the pizza from this place, and for good reason, I think. I've only had a few of their pies, but I've truly enjoyed each one. Additionally, I've smelled the pizzas bought by others as they eat them in their cars, unable to even wait until they get home with them. The smell alone is enough to make my stomach twitch for a dose of Regina's Sicilian-style Pizza.

North End, Boston - Mike's Pastry

"Going for some Pastry at Mike's #2 - North End" (20"X16", Oil on Canvas, $650)

Here's another version of the painting in my previous post: "Going for some Pastry at Mike's #1". It shows the same scene, but cropped and much closer. This time, the wooden doors with their oval windows and brass details open wide to admit the pastry seeker from the bright and reflected light into the cool interior. A father is seen sitting and talking at a table through the tall window on the left. He's holding his baby on his lap and lightly resting his chin on top of the baby's head. The square lights in the ceiling compete with the reflected street lamp and passing traffic for our attention.

The raking angle of the sun is what makes this painting interesting for me, along with expressing the cool reflected light as it makes it's way across the pink marble and stucco facade of the building. I also like the sharp opposing diagonal of the partially sunlit window above the sign, and the touch of tenement brick-and-fire escape that it includes.

This is truly a North End scene that most people can identify with, even those who only come into 'The Neighborhood' occasionally to pick up some pastry at Mike's.

North End, Boston - Mike's Pastry

"Going for some Pastry at Mike's #1 - North End" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, SOLD)

This painting was done for a friend in 2008, but remained unsold until summer 2009. I still make matted prints and note cards from this image and they sell very well, as might be expected, considering the far-flung fame of Mike's Pastry.

Lots of people express disbelief that only one person is walking in and that there's no line at all. Most people go to Mike's in the evening or on the weekend, when there's always a huge crowd of people waiting to get in for cannolis or black-and-white cookies. Of course, I live very close to Mike's and can go anytime to get a shot for a painting (this was taken from the middle of Hanover St) and wait for the composition that I want. This guy had just stepped out of his Mustang 5.0 which he parked right in front (another point of disbelief) and I snapped the photo as he stepped into the gloom for his Italian pastry fix.

I like the play of the sun over the sign and on the sidewalk, creating the feeling of afternoon summer light which reflects into the shadows. The tenement fire escapes in the background give the hint of the setting being in a turn-of-the-century neighborhood, which the North End truly is. The square lights in the ceiling and the price board at the back of the room give a sense of the interior space through the windows which also reflect the street scene outside.

North End, Boston - Old North Church

"Walking up Salem Near Charter - North End" (24"X18", Oil on Canvas, $750)

This painting is a similar view to a previous post: "Salem Street Summer Evening", but with a much wider field of focus. This shows what's actually on the shaded street below. The parked cars competing for space with the single lane of traffic on the narrow street reflect the cramped sunlit buildings above in their hoods and roofs. The solitary Italian(?) lady coming towards the viewer while the young hipster recedes into the distance, leading the viewer deeper into the painting. Dominating the scene (as usual) is the steeple of the ONC with it's blown-out details on the lit side and its purple/blue shadows on the other.

Doing paintings like this are a real joy, with their stark contrast of light and shadow. I've always liked it when paintings have distinct lit elements emerging from indistinct, massed shadows. I've gotten many comments from people expressing the same thing about this painting, but searching for the right words, which I find really gratifying. The fact that it makes first-time viewers respond that way means to me that I've succeeded with this one.