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 t...

  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...