still Life with Carved Horse Head

"Antique Horse Head Objet d'Art" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, $450)

Another small item from my grandmother's house in Rockport. This was a tabletop object and didn't have a flat side or a pair, so it wasn't half of a set of bookends. It's pretty old, and I'm pretty sure it was just for sitting around. I was always intrigued by it (it was part of a horse collection that my grandmother kept in the den), with it's startled or determined look, and it's close-cropped mane. It must have been modeled on a military or police horse. I also always wondered if the rest of the horse was rearing up and kicking his front legs. Why else would his ears be turned backwards and his chin tucked in like this? I know there's no reins or anything in the sculpture, but I figured the artist left them out as distracting from the horse.

With the stone base, this hardwood-carved object is quite heavy, which adds a little to its air of 'importance'. I like the coloring of the wood and the overall smoothness of the old carving, as well as the purple-grayness of the stone base. Just the shape of this carving of the noble beast's head gives me an understanding of why so many people so passionately love their horses.

Still Life with Dying Lion

"To the Loyalty and Bravery of the Swiss - 1792" (12"X16", Oil on Canvas, $450)

This small carved-wood object is something that always hung in my grandmother's bedroom. She got it on a trip to Switzerland when she was a teenage girl. It's a tiny version of a very large sculpture in Lucerne, which is carved into the granite wall above a large pool of water.

The original is quite old and goes back to the French Revolution. It's a tribute to the Swiss Guard who were sent to France when the Revolution was brewing. Their duty was to protect Marie Antoinette. They fought bravely and loyally when the peasants finally got through to the queen, but in the end they were all killed and Marie Antoinette went to the gilloutine. (If you google the Latin phrase which makes the title of this piece, you can see the actual sculpture.)

I was always fascinated by this little carving and was happy to get it when my grandmother passed. I was also glad to have met two Swiss women who came to my display at an arts show in Boston last year. They recognized the sculpture in the painting and were interested to ask what I knew about it. I told them the history and was surprised to find out that they didn't know the Swiss lion's history! Apparently these carvings were quite popular in my grandmother's time - every house in Switzerland had one on the wall - but I guess the later generations lost track of the significance. I can't say that I know all of American History, either.

Still Lifes with Hammer and Tongs

Ice Hammer and Ice Tongs Under the Sink #1 (11"X14", Oil on Canvas, $325)

Ice Hammer and Ice Tongs by the Sink #2 (14"X11", Oil on Canvas, $325)

"Rusty Hand Hammer by the Sink" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, $450)

"Ice Hammer and Ice Tongs by the Sink" (16"X12", Oil on Canvas, $400)

This is a suite of paintings much like the four pepper paintings in the earlier post. I like doing series of paintings, since they allow me to take an idea further than I otherwise might. By playing with different compositions I'm able to bring different elements out of the subject matter.

I came across these tools in the back of a building that was being re-habbed in the North End. They were to be thrown out with the rest of the junk, or taken by the scrap-metal man. I knew that I had to have them the moment I saw them. I could feel the history pouring off them.

These tools were used by the ice men that served the North End from the 1800's through the end of World War II. Big horse-drawn wagons would stop at each house and the ice man would hop out, carrying a hand hammer and a pair of ice tongs - this hand hammer and these very ice tongs. After using the hammer with its chisel-like claw to knock, and then rough out a big cube of ice from the slab in back, he would grab it with the tongs, sling it over his shoulder and haul it into the apartments of his customers and load it into their ice-boxes. What stories these tools could tell of life in the North End!

I truly enjoyed capturing the curves and weight of these now-rusty iron implements. I'll use them again in a painting some day, with a strong male figure and a horse, to recall the days of the ice wagon and the hard-working ice man.

Still Lifes with Peppers

"Four Sides of a Yellow Pepper" (18"X14", Oil on Canvas, $400)

"Four Sides of an Orange Pepper" (18"X14", Oil on Canvas, $400)

"Four Sides of a Red Pepper" (18"X14", Oil on Canvas, $400)

"Four Sides of a Green Pepper" (18"X14", Oil on Canvas, $400)

These four paintings can be seen as a suite of pictures that would fill a wall in a line, or two- over-two. I painted them to give people choices about what they liked in the food-painting realm of my work. The red pepper one is actually a re-paint, since some nice lady liked that color the most and only wanted that one.

I really had fun doing these paintings. Applying the principles of wet background, lost edges and complimentary colors to create the shadows on the surface of each pepper led to lots of good passages all throughout the four paintings. My mother likes the painting of the green one best. Which one do you like the best?

After doing the paintings, all these peppers found themselves in various salads. I must say that I find orange and yellow peppers to be the sweetest, red peppers to be the richest and green peppers to have the most classic "pepper" taste. Can you smell the roasted peppers and onions yet? Tina (my fiancee) used to cook them up when she lived alone, just to get that smell in the house. Now I cook them up all the time, just to get that taste in our dinner.

Still Life with Bananas and Limes

"Bananas and Limes" (11"X14", Oil on Canvas, $325)

Here's the other painting I mentioned in the last post. It works well with the other one and has the same dimensions to make them fairly look like bookends. All the same ideas are here: the floating objects, the massed shadows and the plain, warm background. Also food.

The small size of these paintings makes them easy to fit with a group of other still lifes and easy to display when I do shows.

I like the curvy shapes of bananas and the variety of poses they can be put in. They always look casual and the yellow color always looks friendly.

Still Life with Bananas, Apples and Limes

"Bananas, Apples and Limes" (11"X14", Oil on Canvas, $325)

I wanted to put a few elements into this composition, so as to be able to put some things in front of other things. I kept the objects 'floating in space', but massed the shadows and gave them some direction so they wouldn't seem rootless.

This painting and another small one flank the small gas fireplace that Tina and I have in our living room. I like them both, but I'd also like to try these subjects again. I like the subject matter and I like the colors. I also like the shadow shapes and how they lose a bit of sharpness as they get further from the objects. This one would be particularly nice in an entry way or a kitchen. I think that in the breakfast nook or on the patio would also be ideal. For now I have to keep it flanking the fireplace since our apartment is full of stuff and we don't have any of those other spaces.

Still Life with Sunflowers

"Four Sunflowers in a Clear Vase (the 4 Stages)" (20"X16", Oil on Canvas, $500)

I did this painting a few years ago and I think it still holds up. I used the thin wet background mentioned in the previous post and laid thicker paint on top to make the subject matter stand out and have some dimensional presence. Lots of people seem to like this one and I plan to include it in a still life show this summer at Boston City Hall.

The stems seem to break as they go into the water and the colors of the unpainted surrounding objects refract through the vase.

'The Four Stages' of the title refers to the principle in Ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement) where flowers are trimmed and positioned to tell a story. In this case, it's the four stages of life: youth, maturity, old age and death. I try to put small elements of the things I've picked up over the years into my paintings. The big Ikebana book that a friend's mother used to keep on her coffee table and the time I spent leafing through it is one of them. I think the intentionality of the arrangement is calming and contemplative.