Discover Jersey Arts - Featured Artist for December

I am very pleased to say that Discover Jersey Arts has selected me as their featured artist for the month of December.  You can see a virtual gallery with 8 selected paintings of mine here on JerseyArts.com.

"Grandview Sunset"
18x24" oil on canvas

Discover Jersey Arts (DJA) is a cosponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and ArtPride New Jersey Foundation working in partnership with other cultural service organizations statewide including the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, South Jersey Cultural Alliance, and New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism. The project’s mission is to increase the awareness of and participation in the arts in New Jersey.

Kaz Country

There was a very nice article about me written by Gwen Shrift and appearing in this Sundays' Bucks County Courier Times - you can read the full text of it here.

page 1

page 2

A big thanks to Gwen Shrift for the wonderful article, and to Bucks County Courier Times for publishing it.  Thank you!

Hunterdon Life

For folks not familiar with this area, Hunterdon County is the region in central New Jersey that I paint most often. The first week of each month, the Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper contains an issue of Hunterdon Life magazine, and the March issue of Hunterdon Life contains an article about me:




Sorry about the full page picture of me, and I usually don't walk around with a handful of paintbrushes - that was the photographer's idea. All kidding aside, I think the photographer, Ben Scheetz, did a really nice job and I can't thank the reporter, Lillie Dorchak, enough for writing such a great article.

You can click the above images for a larger version, or visit the Hunterdon Life website for a more readable version of the article. The images reproduced on that website are way too intense in color saturation, but the images in the magazine and the photos above are pretty close to what the paintings look like in real life.

I believe that the article about me in Garden State Town & Country Living is still out on newsstands if this one isn't enough for you.

Garden State Magazine Winter 2007/08

Garden State Town & Country Living magazine has an article about me in their Winter 2007/08 edition, out on newsstands now through the beginning of March 2008.

Every issue features an artist in their Gallery section, and of course it was quite a thrill when they contacted me and asked if I'd be interested. Arts reporter Cathie Viksjo felt that my work has "a beautiful realism that our readers will like very much".

Since it's the winter issue of the magazine, one of my snow scenes was chosen to accompany the article - Amwell Valley Winter - a painting currently hanging in my solo show at the Triumph Brewery in New Hope, Pa., which runs until Dec 17.

I must say that I thought the article was a bit too flattering, but a friend said it describes me perfectly. One minor thing I'd like to correct though, is that when bicycling across the country, I rode pretty much straight west from Virginia to Colorado - not to Chicago as stated in the article - that would be crazy! From Colorado, we followed the Rockies north to Montana, then west again to Oregon. And it was a road bike, not a dirt bike. Other than those very minor points, I suppose the article sums me up pretty well:

You can read the rest of the article here on my website.

Phillips Mill 2007 Poster

One of my paintings was selected for the poster for this year's Phillips Mill 78th annual juried show. This is the biggest, most prestigious show in the area and I feel very honored to be on their poster:


It's an honor, but there is an irony which every artist out there will appreciate: this painting was my entry into last year's show - it was rejected from that show, but ended up on the this year's poster!

Getting into some juried shows is tough, but not getting in doesn't mean that your painting was bad, the jurors could have rejected it for any number of reasons - sometimes something as simple as already having selected too many realist landscapes and needing more variety in the show. Or maybe there was just too much good art submitted, and it can't all be jured in. By the end of this week, I'll know how I fared in this year's show.

Here's a better image of the painting from the poster:

"Phillips Mill"
8x10 oil on panel

---

On another note, the opening reception to "Finding the Extra in the Ordinary" went very well. The weather cooperated and we had a good crowd of people show up. I had my digital camera on my belt the whole evening, but somehow I forgot to take a single picture. I guess I was too busy talking with all of the guests, so that's not a bad thing.

New York Times

Last night was opening reception for the annual holiday show at the Artists' Gallery: Small Works / Stocking Stuffers. The show features smaller works from all of the gallery members. Much to my surprise, the New York Times printed an image of one of my paintings in their gallery listings:And here's a better image of that painting - it's a scene on the road that I live on:

"Longhill, Looking North"
8x10 oil on board

The holiday show runs through January 7 - I hope you can stop by.