We’ve been getting out and about quite a bit lately, making up for lost time. Last week, Tom and I decided it was a good opportunity to revisit my hometown roots, and we made an impromptu trip to New Jersey. Back in the day, from the time I was 9 until I got married, I spent almost every weekend except for the winter months at the shore. Together with our family and friends, we stayed in boats that my dad had bought or ones he built himself. The Tradewinds was the biggest one he built, a 38-foot cement-hulled sailboat. I was 12…

The big day finally arrived – the official “launch” of my nostalgic tribute to the Ship Hotel! I was so excited when my framer delivered the prints of “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel” for my customers.  The framed original was also ready for its new home, and we were able to set up a time to unveil it.  Bill, the client who commissioned the painting, had a fantastic idea – why not donate a framed print to the Lincoln Highway Experience – Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor Museum in Latrobe? You may remember that the Executive Director of the Museum, Lauren Koker, was a huge…

The American West is a place of incredible beauty and mystique. Western landscapes are uniquely stunning, with mountain vistas, multicolored canyons, wide open spaces, and a color palette all their own. This week I’m introducing three new paintings based on my travels out west, so if you’re a fan of western art, this may be your week! From our first vacation after our honeymoon in 1980, all the way up to 2001, our family car only knew one path to vacation time… due south to Florida! Eventually, we realized that our little family had just a few more years before…

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed some of the warm weather we had last week before the rain came. I am very excited because all of our hard work on our gardens has really paid off. My flowers are blooming like crazy, and every day I feel joy when I look at their brilliant colors and inhale their glorious scents. I’m enjoying it this weekend, because I’ll soon be busy with a new project. (Not ready to talk about it quite yet – but I’ll tell you all about it next week!) You may remember that since the arrival…

Since we last talked, I’ve had quite a busy, fun, and eventful week… with a few surprises along the way! First, I added the enhancements to my artist-enhanced giclee prints of “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel” and brought them to my framer (Lee Heckman Gallery in Mt. Lebanon). Then on Tuesday, Tom, my grandgirls, and I drove out to Beaver to the Courtney-Laughlin Gallery and Frame Studio, to pick up the original painting now that it’s framed and ready for my customer. I just had to get a photo of Tom and the girls with the painting… especially considering they were already painted into…

After over a year of COVID isolation, who isn’t ready to just pack a bag and get away for a little while… but still maybe a little anxious about getting back out into the world? That was the case for Tom and me last weekend. Though we’re now fully vaccinated and reasonably safe, we were still cautious about our visit to Raystown Lake. So we rented a cabin and didn’t interact much with anyone but our dearest friends (also fully vaccinated), whom we hadn’t seen since 2019. Our cabin was very rustic – just a step up from camping. This…

I hope you and your families are healthy and enjoying the recent Spring weather and getting outside a little more as the temperatures warm up. I’m writing you today with a special request – I need your help to create my new art products line for the coming year. Due to the pandemic and the tough economy in 2020, I’m sorry to say that some of my supplier partners didn’t make it. For that reason, some of my popular items are no longer available. But while it’s sad that this has happened, I’m looking at this setback as an opportunity…

This week I’m officially announcing the release of my new painting, “Lincoln Highway’s Historic Ship Hotel.” When I last showed you my progress on the painting, it didn’t seem like there was a lot more to do to finish it.  It was pretty much done except for just the road itself… I mean, how hard is to paint some pavement? Actually, the road is central to the theme of this painting. The Lincoln Highway brought people to this particular spot… from sightseers who had heard about this unique landmark, to motorists who just happened to be driving by and pulled over…

My plan on Wednesday was to take pictures of my backyard garden, as some of my readers have asked about it. I was all set with beautiful, artfully composed photos of every detail… so many photos, in fact, that you might have died of boredom. Then something unexpected happened… an odd late-season snowstorm! What did you think of this sudden throwback to Christmas? I was like a kid on Christmas morning!  I knew it would only last a few hours, so I couldn’t resist running around my garden, taking pictures of my beautiful blooms covered with snow. Here are photos…

I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. Between Easter celebrations and working hard on my painting of the Ship Hotel, it’s been a very busy week for me and my family.  Easter is such a pretty time of year as the trees begin to sprout tiny green leaves, and flower buds are opening, scenting the air with their fragrance. Yet amid all this springtime fun, my granddaughter Autumn is still obsessed with Santa. “Ho-Ho-Ho!” is her favorite phrase, and she never gets tired of talking about Santa and what he might be up to. Remember the Jolly Old…