This is - I believe - is my final posting about Winter Park Paint Out in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. All last week I was visiting, painting the “jungle-esque” beauty of parks and gardens and cypress groves and lily pad ponds of this city within a park...that I longed for the expanse, vistas and viewscapes of Florida’s beautiful panoramas. Oh for the open air…the range… So - I took a drive from Orlando up I-4. An exit or two up, I saw this wide open field of trees and grass and flora. I pulled over right off the exit ramp in Eatonville, Florida…set up my easel, supplies and started to pai ..read more

I’ve been driving by this farm on the highway all my life and have always wondered what was back there…down that lane, off the highway. (I’m from here). So, I turned down the lane, knocked on the door…asked permission to wander the farm with my easel and supply knapsack. Permission granted. There were aged chicken coops, weirdly shaped barns, tool sheds, old covered car ports, grain silos, housing units, free range chickens, lambs and goats, feral cats, friendly barnyard dogs. Inside these sheds, barns and ports were antique cars, trucks, tractors, old tillers, Sowers and feed wagons - all ru ..read more

This Week I’m taking part in the Floyd Virginia Biennial Plein Air Festival. Floyd is nestled in the Blue Ridge mountain range of south western Virginia right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway is America’s longest linear Park – the highway is the park, and the park is the highway! This park presents beautiful vistas where you can see for miles - or you can just look into the forest. You can watch the haze and mist burn off in the valleys as the sun rises. My host this week has a guest cabin in the mountains, in the woods.  My lodgings and studio this past week was that cabi ..read more

Lonely Road Home …reflections on memories – and painting When I was a young boy, I rode my bike everywhere. I do not believe there were any restrictions way back when. I rode my bike to school, to the neighborhood pool, to little league practice, to my friend’s house. I rode my bike anywhere ... and everywhere. Good times. My biggest concerns as a youngster were whether I would make starting shortstop on the ball team-or-hoping my bike would not get a flat. I know that I am fortunate and blessed to have such memories with such warm and fuzzy nostalgia and sentiment. Now, over the many decades ..read more

t Plein Air Easton Competition and Arts Festival, we were allowed to turn in two paintings for competition. All other paintings are in the “headquarters” - the Armory on Harrison Street in Easton. (There are some real American Masterpieces in that show from some real rock stars of the Plein air tradition…not a second-string show at all). I wanted to do something a little different this year -this is the Olympics of Plein Air, after all. I added some new colors to my palette, and I approached the painting with a tad softer touch. The morning heat here on the shore makes for a diffused light…a ..read more

In physics, the "observer effect" is the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation...Physicists have found that even passive observation of quantum phenomena can actually change the measured result. In other words, just by looking at "something", that "something" has changed. On an “Indian Summer” morning several weeks ago, I went back to one of my favorite corners on the planet...to look, to meditate, to capture, to chill...and of course to paint “en plein air”. The temperature was in the 60’s, the lighting of the scene was somewhat diffused from the morning mist being burn ..read more

April, 2023 This week has been the start of the Plein air painting “season” for me. I was invited to Plein Air South as a faculty member for the week - About 10 artists from around the country joined forces to teach, mentor and paint…using oils, pastels and watercolors. Many, many “fledgling” artists from the Gulf states, Georgia, Carolinas traveled to stay and learn from us - and, us from them. This took place on Florida’s “forgotten coast”… in and around Appalachicola, St. George Island and Eastpoint - on the Gulf of Mexico and Appalachicola Bay. There is this family on the island here that ..read more

In the Summer of 2023, I participated in the 2023 Mountain Maryland Plein Air Competition & Exhibition - a painting extravaganza in the mountains of Western Maryland - centered around Cumberland. One morning I am just cruising around looking for scenes and viewscapes to paint…miles away from headquarters. I check my GPS to make sure that I am still in Maryland - that I haven’t veered into West Virginia…or even Pennsylvania. (Rules, Y’know). I spot a McDonalds. Civilization. I mean – if you ever see a McDs…well, you just can not be lost….right?  I pulled into the drive thru - order an ..read more

Life of a Plein Air painter… so- I participated in the Chincoteague, Virginia Plein Air festival. Chincoteague Island Virginia is a barrier island off the coast of Virginia’s Eastern Shore - part of the geographic “spit” known as the “Delmarva” Peninsula. It is also nestled in with Assateague Island - where the cute little ponies roam freely among the dunes, marshes and forested areas. It is about an hour from my home. I woke up early one morning to travel to the island … to look for the morning muse…and paint a morning scene of the island. So - I’m driving up and down roads, side streets - w ..read more

The Hudson Valley Written  10/13/21 I am humble and honored to be invited to participate in the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival this fall. Autumn colors are blooming. This vision is what I believe is meant by “America the beautiful” ! The Hudson River in New York was America’s arterial super highway at our first founding and into the 19th century. Commerce and culture for our fledgling nation emminated from this region. The Erie Canal which opened up transportation for our westward expansion was dug out from the Hudson. Our first military academy - West Point - was established here. The ..read more