Art Exhibit Season

My oil painting Still Life with Skull was awarded “Best Painting” in the 2025 juried exhibit of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. The festival takes place every summer in the town that surrounds the campus of our Commonwealth’s university, casually known as Penn State. Just to have a painting chosen for this exhibit was nice. There were 346 submissions from artists across the state and only 47 pieces were chosen to be in the show. I will attempt to jury into this exhibit again in 2026 and defend my title!

Aside from the usual (and gratuitous) picture of myself with my work after the reception, my wife and I had a great time in the following days walking around State College and the beautiful Penn State campus taking pictures and enjoying the vibe of a university town, which was tangible even between semesters.

We also made sure to visit the fine drinking establishments situated just off campus, of which there are many.

At each stop we made sure to sample the beverages— purely for research purposes. The crowds were minimal so chopping it up with the bartenders was a big part of the fun.

More Exhibits:

Big Thanks to the thousands of, ... (OK five) people who visited my recent solo exhibit at the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space in Monroeville, PA.

Good thing I hauled enough pieces to hang there— the space was bigger than I expected. This overlapped with the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts juried exhibit, so I did something I don’t usually do, which is get a print on canvas made of my State College submission to include in my solo showing. Below is another cheesy gratuitous picture of myself and a couple installation views.

A few days ago I submitted 3 paintings to be shown in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 30th annual exhibition. Hopefully they’re accepted. That takes place in the Galleries of The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley, which is about an hour and a half away from my home studio. The opening reception is November 15th.

Holbein Biography Book:

The book I am currently enjoying is the biography of Hans Holbein which came out a couple years ago called The King’s Painter by Franny Moyle.

Outside of The Ambassadors and his portrait drawings, I didn’t fully consider and appreciate Holbein’s art until recent years. Aside from learning about Holbein’s process and techniques, the book does the one supremely important thing a biography needs to do when looking at a life and art from so long ago, and that thing is putting the subject and his work into the context of the their own time.

Mrs. Moyle’s book also discusses visual clues in Holbein’s paintings that otherwise go unappreciated. Similar to Holbein’s life, his art had to mean different things and give different messages to different people in order to keep everyone happy. In those whacked out days of Luther’s reformation and Henry VIII’s megalomania if you couldn’t walk a fine line it could literally cost you your head. Holbein was able to flatter his sitters, yet give some of them the stick on the sly at the same time, if you know what I mean. Here’s your face. Take that you rotten so-and-so!

Lastly I have to take my hat off and hand it to authors like Mrs. Moyle who write books like this. When I stop and think about the amount of time, effort, and expense it must take to research so much of the obscure correspondence, documents, and images, that informs the writing— let alone weave an enjoyable narrative of a life from so long ago, where the known facts are thin to begin with— is quite an accomplishment. So big props to Franny!

Spring & Things

Fine Art:

The next solo exhibit opportunity I have is quickly approaching! My artwork will be up for the entire month of July in the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space at the public library of Monroeville, PA, which is an East Hills suburb of Pittsburgh. July was not my choice, and is probably one of the worst months to have a solo exhibit at a library, of all places. But sometimes the best results come from unexpected circumstances. If it’s anything like the solo exhibits I’ve had at local libraries during better times of the year, I’ll be happy— a few sales and plenty of great feedback. Here is a view of my recent solo exhibit at a nice library in Mt. Lebanon, PA, along with a new oil painting from that exhibit that was quickly purchased by a collector who once lived in London.

I am delayed in my preparation for this latest solo exhibit however because I am waiting to hear if pieces I submitted to regional exhibits were accepted. Those exhibits take place in July as well. This happens every winter and spring— multiple exhibit opportunities on overlapping dates that force me to decide which originals to put into which exhibits.

History:

My thousands of...(okay, four) readers of this blog may know that I’m an Anglophile. Earlier in spring I bought and binged the first season of “Wolf Hall” (2015), in preparation for the second season, which is called “The Mirror and the Light”. It began airing in early April here in the U.S. After the first episode, I found a great U.K. website called “Den of Geek” which had clever and very engaging reviews of every episode. I enjoyed reading them each morning after the weekly episode. Afterward, I’d re-watch it on PBS.org.

Unfortunately, probably because of time constraints, I think we, here in the States, get slightly edited versions of shows like this. The U.K. website reviews mentioned some of the great lines Mark Rylance’s Cromwell had, but they weren’t in the U.S. versions of the episodes I watched. Believe me, I double and triple checked. Maybe it’s all the more reason to get the DVDs. Anyway, as of this writing, I am going through a bit of Wolf Hall withdrawal because season two (and the series) are now over, and it was fantastic.

I loved the feel of the dark, candlelit scenes against the old stone interiors with carved wooden furniture, and rich textures. And the costumes were amazing too. And or course the exterior of the tower played a big supporting role in some scenes. Hard to realize how ominous that structure was in those days when we see it dwarfed by all the modern buildings of today. Below are some of my shots of the final London residence of Cromwell, Thomas More, Anne Boleyn and so many others.

I didn’t read the historical fiction books Wolf Hall was based on, but the way Cromwell was portrayed and the endearing performance of Mark Rylance in the series almost made me forget what a rotten scoundrel Cromwell was, and how much I dislike him. It was also interesting to see what parts of the series were true to history. Historian Lucy Worsley mentioned on a PBS podcast during the series’ run that she didn’t understand why people ask her if films like Wolf Hall are historically accurate. She said we watch films like this for a good story and good performances, not historical facts. If you want to know what really happened, then watch a documentary or read a history book.

Speaking of docs and books, the end of Catholic England is a subject I find sad and fascinating at the same time. If you do too, I recommend you read the book “A Little History of the English Country Church” by Roy Strong. It tells the sad story of how the rural people (which was much of the population at the time) were affected by what Henry and Cromwell started. And they were just the start. What followed after H finally croaked was much much worse.

For a fine art perspective on the Tudor period watch Waldemar Januszczak’s film “Holbein: Eye of the Tudors”. Why are we so interested in Tudor England? Because of Holbein! His detailed portraits of all those people brings that period to life for us.

Below are two books I have of Holbein’s art. The reproductions in the one on the right are much better quality because the book is a catalogue to an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and the images were shot from the original drawings in the Royal Collection.

When you really look at Holbein’s drawings and paintings, you realize that his drawings give a deeper and perhaps more true look into what his subjects were really like. The drawings are a teeny tiny bit looser than the final finished oil paintings, so more of the sitters personality seems to come through.

Spring Exhibit Award

My latest pastel painting, "Eleanor of Aquitaine", won an honorable mention award in the most recent juried group exhibit I submitted it to.

The "honorable" and "mentioned" piece is 9x7 inches.

Postcards from Britain - National Gallery Part 2

I took loads of photos inside the National Gallery, London - All without flash of course and only where allowed.

There is something thrilling about being surrounded by original masterpieces some of which I have been studying in books for years. Yes you can see some of this stuff on the web, but that experience only goes so far.

Below are a few of my shots from inside the National Gallery.

The Toilet of Venus by Diego Velazquez

The Immaculate Conception by Diego Velazquez

A wall of Velazquez paintings

Detail of Philip IV hunting Wild Boar by Diego Velazquez

I rather like Diego Velazquez!

A wall of Rembrandt paintings

The National Gallery is open late on Friday nights, but gets too crowded and a bit too dark to see properly in places.

The National Gallery London on a Friday evening.

Of course you cannot go to the National Gallery London without marveling at (for the better part of an hour) some of the quintessentially British paintings in the collection:

The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner

Detail of The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner

Dido building Carthage by JMW Turner

The Hay Wain by John Constable

I have been to my share of art museums both large and small. Of what I consider to be the "big three" that I have visited, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and the National Gallery in London, the National Gallery London is my favorite.

Whenever I am in one of these places I always fantasize about living in there for a week straight. I would have all the basic necessities of life - superior fine art, food, clothing, shelter and wash rooms. What could be better?

Postcards from Britain - National Gallery Part 1

On a recent, first time holiday to Britain I went to the National Gallery London. Twice. For multiple hours. And it was not long enough!

As you could see we had fantastic weather, which surprised me no end. The National Gallery sprawls across one end of Trafalgar Square. In fact the main collection is housed on one floor, so it kind of has to sprawl I suppose. Sure makes it easy to get around without climbing stairs.

You may want (or need) to go down stairs in the main part of the building for lunch and the water closets. On your way down, do not miss the great view of Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background seen out the front window.

Photography tip - When shooting through glass, put your lens right up against the window pane and cup your hand around the lens if need be, to cut way down on unwanted reflections.

By the way, look closely at the base of Nelson’s column highlighted below. Those relief sculptures at the base were created using melted down French cannon balls. The British love to celebrate their historic victories over the French - a theme I will illustrate in future posts.

Lastly for now, here is a sculpture out in front of the National Gallery that was unveiled earlier the same day I shot this image. It is a representation of thumb I suppose. But it reminds some people of something else apparently. Cannot imagine what…

Visiting the Met - Docent Tours

I was looking forward to going on a docent guided tour while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City recently. The one I decided to go with was called "Old Master Paintings". It was as interesting and as entertaining as I expected it to be!

While waiting for the group to gather I enjoyed talking with both the docent (a woman of about 60), and another art-lover who said he got interested in art after seeing the film "National Gallery". I said "Oh my wife & I saw that on the big screen. That was great." Our docent mentioned that the Met took an idea from that film recently during the Sargent exhibition as they started doing entire talks in front of one painting.

Our Old Master tour included stops at about six paintings ranging from the 13th to the 16th centuries and included paintings by Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer. Early during the second stop our docent asked the group if anyone was a painter, and I was the only one to raise my hand. "What do you use she asked?" "Oil paint" I said.

After a most enjoyable sixty-plus minute tour, the group dispersed and she came over to me and asked "So did I do O.K.?" I said "Yeah, you did fine." Then, sounding almost apologetic she said, "I wish I could talk about these works on a more technical level." I answered by saying that her job is probably to just simply put these works in their proper context historically and stylistically. Then I had to say, "I would have loved to asked you a bunch of questions about technique and process, but everyone else would have probably been bored."

Then she said something I found pretty gratifying, "Last summer I took oil painting classes and of course was lousy at it, but when you try to do it, then see what these artist were able to do - it’s just amazing! Most of the other docents have never painted and cannot speak about it on that level.”

As with pretty much any endeavor in life, whether it is in the arts or anything else, you cannot fully appreciate something unless you have tried it yourself.

So that is my little manifesto to the Met and all major museums - If possible, try to use docents who have attempted to paint, sculpt, or do whatever they are speaking about. It makes for a much more enjoyable tour.

More Velazquez

Keeping with the topic of the painting technique of Spanish master, Diego Velazquez, I wanted to share a fantastic book I purchased about eight years ago that goes into great detail about his working methods in creating his oil paintings.

Velazquez, The Technique of Genius

The truly awesome things about this book are, not only do we get well researched details on how Velazquez prepared his canvases and worked with his paints during all stages of his life, but it shows really close-up views of his brushwork, along with the x-rays of the paintings as it breaks down all the major ones, masterpiece-by-masterpiece. Seeing what’s underneath the paint surface gives us a real interesting glimpse into the working methods of the artist.

How the “old masters” prepared their chosen surfaces not only had a big part in how the finished painting looked, but in how the painting physically held up for centuries to come – one look at the current condition of da Vinci’s “Last Supper” illustrates that.

Prior to the mid 1800s oil colors and canvas primer (known as gesso), were not manufactured and packaged in neat little tubes ready to be used. The "plug and play" mentality we love so much today did not exist in the time of Velazquez. Painters had a lot of work to do before they could actually begin to paint. "Wallowing in the muck" of creating oil paint, as professor Simon Shama called it in his "Power of Art" documentary, was something all great painters did at one point or another in their careers. The most successful painters had studio apprentices doing all the prep work for them sooner or later.

Velazquez’s brushwork seems loose and abstract close-up, but stand back and those little areas of impasto dovetail perfectly with other, very thinly painted areas, creating textures such as sumptuous Hapsburg costumes or the hair of a horses mame. No wonder he was such a hero to a young John Singer Sargent.

Click here to see a great documentary called “Velazquez - The Painter's Painter”.

Click here for the book, which I cannot promise you is not out of print.

Visiting the Met - Velazquez

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has great, large oil paintings by the Spanish master Diego Velazquez. However, two of my favorite Velazquez pieces are "Juan de Pareja" and "Portrait of a Man" because they are intimate and striking portraits that you can get up close to and really study.

"Juan de Pareja"

Detail of "Juan de Pareja"

You totally get the sense of the sitters dignity and self assurance in the above painting.

Technically speaking, the thing that strikes me most whenever I see any Velazquez in person, is the fact that the paint is applied so economically. It always seems there is a huge disparity between the amount of paint he applies to the canvas, and the tangible sense of three dimensional form Velazquez is able to achieve with it.

"Portrait of a Man"

Detail of “Portrait of a Man”

For instance, in the portrait study above, look how Velazquez lets the raw, earth-tone canvas ground color be the shadow area under the jaw and chin. Look at the cool gray area just above it too – so subtle, yet so effective. Even if this were a "finished" work, he would not have to go much farther in rendering form.

It is always interesting to see how different portrait artists treat the lower portion of the male head. The better ones usually use a cool blue/gray value to denote beard or stubble that is in shadow, while the main, top-lit upper area, from cheeks on up, remains warm values, that are painted a bit thicker.

The "Portrait of a Man", like so many Velazquez paintings, has a long and painful history – being painted and varnished over so badly that for many years it was attributed to other artists. It was finally properly restored by the Met in 2009.

While in the book shop there, I purchased a book they published about its restoration. Experts believe this is a self-portrait study Velazquez did in preparation for the man at the far right edge of his larger painting "Surrender of Breda".

Check out the Metropolitan Museum video on this painting and it's restoration here.

Visiting the Met: Caravaggio

If you love visiting the great art museums (who does not?), then do not miss seeing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. On a recent, first time visit to the Met I found it to be as advertised – the entire world history of art, all in one place.

Main hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,

with the 5th Ave. entrance to the left.

The main reason I went to the Met was to see the European paintings of the 16th to 18th centuries. After purchasing my ticket – the cost of which is any amount you wish to donate – I went straight up the main stairwell, across the corridor, through two glass doors and found my way into gallery 621 to experience, for the first time, two Caravaggio oil paintings.

Google Art Project not withstanding, I had never been that close to one, let alone two. Quite a thrill to be in the presence of the works themselves after seeing them in books and documentaries for so many years. Not many Caravaggio paintings live in the United States, so I knew this visit was going to be special.

"The Musicians"

So much went on in such a short time in Caravaggio's life, my head was spinning looking at these works, as I tried to put them in the context of their time. From the above painting in the early part of his career when he was the darling of Rome's art scene – to the painting below, done in the last years of his life when he was a fugitive in Southern Italy trying to paint his way out of trouble as the Knights of Malta hunted him down.

"The Denial of Saint Peter"

Only about 15 years separate these works, but, oh so much happened to him in that time! You can totally see the effect those years had on his style by looking up close at these works in the Met.

All through his career however, he was a master of the cropped composition – cutting his subjects off midway while keeping the crowded picture plane filled with movement and intrigue, making us the viewer, as much a part of the action as the subjects themselves.

If you are planning a trip to the Met, or any great museum, I suggest doing all the research you can on what specific pieces you need to see. Also learn which specific galleries those works hang in before you visit. That will make your experience in front of the works themselves, all the more enjoyable.

The Met is a vary busy place – it's now open seven days a week, yet suprisingly the European painting galleries were not crowded. Here's a travel tip: Visit on a Monday like I did. Tuesday the population seemed to double. Click here to plan your next visit to the Met.

In the case of Caravaggio, click here, to consider a great read by the art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon.

Great Caravaggio Read

We all know the basics about Caravaggio don't we? He never used preparatory drawings in developing his paintings. His paintings are dark and contrasty. He was violent. He killed a guy and died on the run.

But why did he paint like he did? What made his work so different from other artists of the day? What are the details of his death? Why is he so popular in culture today?

We don't have to search for those answers ourselves because Andrew-Graham Dixon has done all the hard work for us and wrapped it all up between the covers of his fantastic book, "Caravaggio, A Life Sacred and Profane".

Andrew-Graham Dixon is a talented and entertaining author, documentarian, and art historian who researched Caravaggio's life and paintings for over ten years in order to create this book. I can only imagine what meticulous effort and passion it takes to do that much digging, translating, reading and investigation of a subject. His work paid off beautifully, because in that span of time he was able to uncover facts about Caravaggio from various Italian archives that shed new light on the painters life which for me, makes his book the one to read if you love Caravaggio.

Read the book to learn what rival artist work

St. Paul's horse’s bottom is deliberately pointing to.

Among the sorted details revealed in the book are translations of various police reports from the altercations that Caravaggio was involved in, as well as the very probable and plausible events of his last days.

Of course Andrew-Graham Dixon explains all of Caravaggio's paintings and helps us see things we normally would not see, but his book also puts into context Caravaggio's life and work so well, we can all have that much more appreciation of them. How lucky we all are!

Buy the book here: http://amzn.to/1t4T0xW

Click Here for a great post from Retrograde Canvas on Caravaggio's influence on films.

Postcard From Italy - More Venice Views

Earlier this summer I posted some pictures I shot in Venice, Italy to celebrate the beginning of this year's Venice Biennale. At that time I promised a follow up with more pictures.

After being side-tracked with setting up a new studio, and submitting artwork to various new exhibits for the last month or so, I'm finally following up on that Venice post.

It comes with a most unfortunate sidebar however - The historic gondola rides the world has enjoyed for centuries on the Grand Canal are about to be cut way back due to the death of a German tourist earlier in August. Read the Daily Mail article here.

But before you do, enjoy these shots, two of which I shot from my gondola. Fortunately my entire party survived our foray into the Canal (guess our particular gondolier wasn't doing drugs this day.)

Ciao!

Postcard From Italy

Just got word via facebook, that your favorite Beatle and mine will be doing a concert in the ancient Roman amphitheatre in the city of Verona!

So this weeks “Postcard from Italy” shows a few of my views of the ancient rocks in which he'll be rocking.

Verona is home to the world’s third-largest amphitheater to survive from Roman antiquity.

The amphitheatre was built in 30 AD and could host 30,000 spectators. (Better be more seating now if Paul is going to play there!).

Today the arena is regularly used for Verona’s opera performances. Pretty cool, and Verona is a very pretty place.

Next postcard we'll look at some other views of Verona.

Ciao!