An Artist Muses

  Third Avenue El Long before I ever set foot in the Big Apple (which wasn't until I was in my fifties, I'm embarrassed to say), I had drawn on it as subject matter for many of my paintings.   That really is no surprise when I look at the body of my work...typically characterized by urban winter scenes from the early part of the twentieth century.  If you think of the ultimate 1930's cityscape, situated in a northern clime...could any place other than New York fit that bill? Times Square, 1930 In fact, a case could be made that the 1930s was the defining era of NYC.  The start of the decade saw the arrival of the iconic Chrysler Tower and Empire State Building, the latter being so prominently featured in the climax of the movie King Kong, which came out in 1933.  The period between the world wars was also the time when America cemented its role as the leading nation of the world, as a result of Britain's declining wealth and influence.  New York was the shining jewel i

  In October of 2022, my wife Siobhan and I took the European trip of a lifetime.  It was primarily to tick off important items on the bucket list, but it was also celebratory on several levels.  The pandemic was all but over.  I had had successful cancer surgery earlier in June.  And we recognized that we weren't getting any younger.  Many life events had conspired to lend a new urgency to the taking of a journey like this.  Time to book the flights and accommodations and go! We picked out four cities we particularly felt we should see.  Only one of the four I had previously been to (that was Paris on a one-day work stopover...the only time I had ever set foot in continental Europe, I'm embarrassed to say).   Those cities were, in order, Venice, Prague, Amsterdam and Paris.   This wasn't exclusively an art trip...but undoubtedly great art and architecture would be an over-arching theme. Venice was stop number one.   I won't try to do justice to the jaw-dropping beauty