I have applied for and been accepted as the artist of the month for September 2010 for the Weinberg Center for the Performing Arts in Frederick, MD. I am excited to be working on art which is a new direction for me. I've been creating some works with "wet-in-wet" acrylic backgrounds, and with brightly colored images rendered in Sharpie markers over the background. I was inspired to do this through a class in abstract acrylic painting taught by Ed Ramsburg at the Delaplaine Visual Arts & Education Center in Frederick. I was doing a lot of work based on pouring wet acrylics on paper or canvas, letting the wet paint dry, and then pouring some more layers. I was thinking about making some gifts for parents who were helping me with an art show at my school, and I came up with the idea of the wet-in-wet backgrounds with brightly colored drawings over them. The parents seemed to really like their gifts, and I enjoyed making them, so I began creating more art of this sort for myself. One of my chief sources of inspiration was our pet guinea pigs, so at the Weinberg Center next September, performing arts patrons will be treated to artwork whose subject will be Brownie and Double Stuff, our two pets, as well as landcsapes and various other subjects.

I'm planning on having around 25 pieces for the show, at sizes like 18" x 24" and 16" x 20". I still have quite a few to complete, but as I am an elementary school art teacher, I have my summer vacation to look forward to during which I can create full time. I hope you can come to see my work at the Weinberg Center in September 2010!

"Battlefield Reflections at Frederick Cellars

Four artists including myself are having an artshow at Frederick Cellars at 221 North East Street in Frederick, MD. I, along with Rebecca Jackson, Deborah Lovelace Richardson, and Glenn Souders have on display plein air landscapes of local battlefields such as Antietam, Monocacy, and Gettysburg. In 2008 I encouraged other artists to paint en plein air and so we started in March of that year at Monocacy Battlefield in Frederick. This is a lesser-known battlefield, and it's an undiscovered gem in our area. We painted together with many other artists from Maryland and Pennsylvnia in June 2009 at Gettysburg, as part of the Gettysburg Festival. Then we hit on the idea of having a joint show so we kept on painting separately and together at Antietam, Monocacy, and the South Mountain battlefield. We organized the show with about 30 pieces, all paintings, at Frederick Cellars for the month of November and it was very well received.

Gettysburg - The Trostle Farm

Last week I and about 16 colleagues spent several days in Gettysburg, PA, on the battlefield, painting en plein air. That means that we painted outside, in the open air. It was great! On Monday, 6/22, we were at a place called the Trostle Farm. My painting is looking at the Codori Farm. This is located along the Emmitsburg Road, which is about the mid-point of Pickett's Charge. During that momentous part of the battle, Confederate soldiers took refuge from murderous Union fire momentarily, until encouraged to keep moving by their officers. It was gorgeous day to paint, and visitors to our easels made it even more pleasant.

This artwork is also viewable on my website, www.art-from-maryland.com.

OK, I'm getting into this. I'm going to Chesapeake Beach, MD, tomorrow with my lovely wife. We have the day off in the teaching biz because it's the date of the Maryland State Teachers' Association yearly convention. Do I ever go? NO WAY! I just like the day off from educating our nation's youth. I hope to get in some photography as a way of practicing my artistic skills without totally boring my wife, who isn't into accompanying me on painting trips.

The Bay is great. I haven't hung out there much since the early 80's when I owned a decrepit, previously-sunken sailboat, which I attempted unsuccessfully to rescusitate. Now I mostly stay in Frederick County (home) or Montgomery County (work) and create art around Central Maryland landscapes.

But my daughter is attending school in Southern Maryland so we have occasion to travel near the Bay frequently, so I thought of it for our three-day weekend. Hopefully it will be relaxing and artistically rewarding.

I've included a picture I created entitled "Bay View, Shadyside, MD". It was drawn in pencil back in my boat-restoring days. I'm really proud of it. I've owned it for years and just recently sold the original, but I have some fantastic prints available of it for $95. They come in a silver 16" X 20" frame with a double white archival mat.

Art in Maryland is getting started.

This is my very first blog posting! I have been working on a colored pencil rendering of a Middletown, Maryland sunset. Also, I'm watching the third Presidential debate. The colored pencil drawing is more exciting! It takes me a few months to complete one, since I only get to work on it a few minutes on a typical day. Elementary art teaching (my full time job) is VERY time consuming. I mostly create landscape art. I love rendering art of the outdoors, whether it is in acrylics or colored pencil.