Teacup Drawing

I was working on this close to the due date for getting the Affinity show up, I ran out of time to finish it and the piece was never included. So far, this is the only finished drawing from this body of work.

graphite on cotton paper
5 x 7.5 inches

Candy Pumpkin

I wanted to make a little painting of one of these, I made it before this past Halloween and was excited for the season.

It was pretty popular at the show, a very nice architect bought it on the opening night.

Oil on Panel
4.5 by 4.5 inches

Drain Stop

I always wanted to paint this old plug! It belongs with my parents laundry tub in Buffalo, where I first noticed its inherent beauty a couple of years ago.

This past October, with only a week to go for the show, I pulled out my old under-painting and finished this little painting in a couple of days. We included it in the affinity show as a smaller work, and happily became a few peoples' favorite piece from the show.

Oil on Panel
4 x 5.5 inches

Pound Cake

This is a pound cake! I baked this before I photographed it and painted it-- it was incredibly unglamorous (compared to finished painting), but delicious. Anyways-- this was the final painting made for our October show.

I wanted to use a pointillist technique to render out the many pores in the surface of this cake and make subtle distinctions in the varied microscopic landscape of the cake. I don't have anything incredibly profound to add, I just wanted to forget everything stressful and enjoy the cake, the color, and the process.

So next on the plate will be eventually creating more in this series. I would like to think that we'd hop on that right now, but we might take a break from this line of work for a couple of months. We're in the midst of a lot of stuff right now. We are working on some very traditional small paintings about the fingerlakes and western NY area. We're applying for a few group shows as well as widening the breadth of our work. We have some more Affinity stuff unfinished in the studio right this second, so it's by no means over! We'll be sure to keep you posted whenever something happens.

Trouble Light

Painting #12 for Affinity



Lana and I were definitely attracted to this object, it's almost hard to say why, it was just something that resonated with us. We completely changed the coloration, the original light was orange and relatively warn looking.

2 layer painting

Done with two controlled wet layers, not much in the way of glazing happening here.

Oil on MDF 18" by 13"

Soap

Painting #11 for Affinity



This is the most textural painting made so far. Whenever your subject allows you to create a solid mix of transparency and thick opaque applications, take advantage of it! Painting this way is fun, and forces you to think about a singular use of shape and color as a means to immediate drawing.

Rembrandt and other masters used this method to achieve stunning results. Lana and I always love looking at his pieces, and were thrilled to come across subject matter where we could try our hand with this juicy application of paint. Although Affinity is broadly about everyday objects and their relationship to our lives , we were really looking to bridge the space between neo-pop painting and classical technique.

Finished job at Art By Commission

Hi! We just finished an Affinity style commission for someone! It's on Art By Commission.

The process photos will follow.

Pink Lemonade

Painting number #10 for Affinity

I was in Wegman's and noticed a spiraled tower of those tasty lollipops we all have seen somewhere, or bought for charity purposes someplace else. The colors, surfaces, and overall character of the candies were really quite beautiful. In an instant, I became reminded of the jewels so intricately placed on the robes of the Madonna by Jan Van Eyck, the perfectly reflective glasses in still lifes by Willem Kalf, or the hand-wrought imperfect glass panels that fill modern architectural voids.

With these references in mind, painting this object became inevitable. Later that day, I opened the candy I had bought placed it in my mouth, pulled it out, and noticed the windows of the cottage where we live reflected into the wet red sugar. I took a snapshot of this and used it as the guidelines for this painting.

3 layer painting - (underpainting done with vermillion, black and white)
oil on panel
12.5" by 14.5"