Chelsea Building, New York City

"Chelsea Fire Escapes"  Acrylic 14x14"  Click for Info

Lately I am working with old paintings that were started but never finished. In this case I barely got the painting going when apparently life got in the way and it got shuffled to some uncommon place, not to be seen for years. Who knows what reference I was using, a sketch? a photo? whatever, it's gone. It can be freeing to work out of my head when no reference is available, and give myself permission to make fresh decisions about how to make the piece work. I decided to work in a triad color scheme - tried and true red, yellow and blue.

Union Square, NYC Sketch

"Union Square"  Mixed Media  16x20"  $350  Click to Buy

I have so many sketches - mostly figures, lots of cityscapes, layover at the airport sketches, etc.  It can be interesting use them as starting point for a painting.
This sketch/painting was from Union Square, NYC, just across from the subway station on Broadway, looking West. I sat on the sidewalk curb and sketched using vine charcoal on an 18x24 pad. The buildings are mostly red brick but the atmosphere was much more colorful, louder, and everything was so in my face -- busses, people, signage etc. I didn't want to work from a photo - that wouldn't have captured the excitement. The zany energy was the real subject here!