Concept for ArtsPaper Print Edition

"It looks too much like the New York Observer," - Palm Beach ArtsPaper Publisher/Editor, Greg Stepanich.  He is correct, of course but I couldn't resist the salmon-colored paper that sets off art and photography so well. I also took a good look at The New York Sun. I like the old-timey look of the mastheads. 

Best yet is this picture of Actress Noel Neill as Lois Lane, holding a copy of the Daily Planet- a massive broadsheet that would fold into a neat tabloid size. It has a classic masthead as well. And who wouldn't snatch up a newspaper with headlines that large? GRAPHIC ART GENIUS TRIUMPHS! NEWSPAPERS SAVED!

Theatre Invite

The initial sketch (featuring Hamlet) that I sent to the client. 

They requested a couple of changes. Can you see them?

Cutie And The Boxer Official Trailer (2013)

My favorite scene in this excellent documentary about the Japanese-born, Brooklyn-bred painters Ushio Shinohara (The Boxer) and his wife Noriko (Cutie) occurs late in the film as the two are preparing for a joint show in a New York Gallery.

Life for the couple, who have been married 40 years, has often bordered on desperation. Ushio's career peaked thirty years earlier and they have been living from painting to painting in the same cramped Brooklyn apartment, ever since. They NEED this show to succeed.

Revised Show Card (Front and Back)

A few revisions made two weeks prior to showtime. Spot the differences!

Fresh Roasted Sculptors

Leslie Ortiz, Luis Montoya and Pat Crowley minutes after conducting a bronze pour on a blistering hot morning at the Montoya Sculpture Studio in West Palm Beach, Fl. 9/3/2013.

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe- my favorite writer. Wolfe and Pat Oliphant were my greatest influences when I was a  budding political cartoonist. 18" x 24 acrylic on canvas (unfinished.)

Keep Calm and Sing Along

Actor Barrie Ingham wrote and is performing a one man show featuring the words and music that cheered and encouraged the British  people during the darkest days of World War Two. The show is structured like a radio broadcast; hence the radio tower in place of the cross on the crown at the top.

This is the first concept of a poster for the show which will be performed by Mr. Ingham this summer in New England. It'll need a bit of  tweaking. Winston Churchill will be replacing the chap on the right. Several people asked me about the object that has the word "starring: on it. It's a barrage balloon; a common sight in England during the war. The wing-shearing cables attached to the balloons served to thwart low-level attacks from German airplanes.

I'll probably add another balloon in the distance and color the whole thing for clarity. 

Open Studio

A 20 minute sketch executed in charcoal

at the Saturday morning Open Studio session

conducted at the Lighthouse School of Art in 

Tequesta. We're there from 9-noon. 

Join us! 

Invisible Man on First

It's been warmer than usual making it nearly impossible to work in my garage studio (I have several set-ups for painting and drawing inside the Hunt Club.) As the weather cools I hope to finish a series of three large pieces done on dropcloths. This one is called "Invisible Man on First"  and measures aprox. 4' x 6' and will feature trompe l'oeil brushes, tubes of paint and unfinish drawings scattered about.
I'll finish it off with a deep blue frame.
The companion pieces will be entitled "Invisible Man on Second" and "Invisible Man on Third."

Detail of The Skipper

Front view of "The Skipper" from the My Handsome Life series. 

More from the series here.

Support the Artist

I will be posting art for sale on the gallery page. Stay tuned!

The Sunday Comics- then and now

From my Facebook page:

In 1925, a comic page in the Palm Beach Post was a whopping 16.5  wide by 21 inches deep and carried a single cartoon per page. Today the page is still 21 inches ldeep but just 11 inches wide and carries up to SIX comics per page! I superimposed today's Mutts (one of the best comics out there, imho) on a Little Nemo comic published 87 years ago.
In most cases there is more skill, imagination, humor and wonder in a single panel of Little Nemo than in a whole section of the Sunday Comics.
Somehow the newspaper business has overlooked the popularity of comics and cartooning (something Hollywood seems to have noticed.)
And the cartoonists themselves  are for responsible for the dull, unimaginative, formulaic crap they push on the newspapers and readers.
Any single panel in a Little Nemo comic proves that size doesn't matter.

Note the sound effects of the bagpipes- "peep, pup, pip" and Imp's Irish Flute- "peelee, weelee, peep."

Check back at The Hunt Club for more "Little Nemo" comics.