Before anything, I am very pleased to announce my first giveaway on The Bright Side Project! Follow the link to check it out! I think they did a wonderful job of introducing my work!

Americana… I know I find it irresistible. Baseball, apple pie, American flags, fireworks on the Fourth of July, classic cars… I think we’re all on the same page. There is an undercurrent of patriotism there; also, a sentimentality that might disguise other truths about ourselves and our history. So, it is a fraught area.

As an artist, whenever I stray into this kind of territory, I try to focus on the truth of the thing and not what I might be projecting on to it. This is the guiding hand of realism in art. The flag, the ice cream, the first blush of a sunset over a small midwestern town – these things are real. It is important to present them honestly.

Here are a few new works. The one above and below are gouache paintings of Route 66 in winter, the overcast conditions and melting snow dulling the romance and reminding the viewer that these are artifacts, existing in the present day. I’m very happy to say the first one sold just a couple of days after I finished it.

This next one is of an ice cream shop sign in Plain City, Ohio, just before sunset:

And here for your enjoyment, what you might call my first foray into Americana, a painting I call “Ohio.” It was my first painting of marbles! Stay tuned for more…