North and Damen, Chicago

This painting is of a scene at the intersection of North, Damen, and Milwaukee Avenues, in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. It is a congested intersection and a rare example of a diagonal street (Milwaukee, which travels from the northwest reaches of the city to downtown) intersecting Chicago's gridded streets. It's also an example of the dynamic nature of the city. In the 60s and 70s it was a predominately poor and working class, with a large latino population. Later artists moved in, and more recently hipsters and young professionals. This painting will be for sale at the Ravenswood Art Walk.

Spider Island

I spent this past Saturday at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It was my first visit of the summer. I rode my bike 15 miles on the North Branch and Greenbay trails to Glencoe and about 20 miles home through the Forest Preserve. I had coffee and a walk with a friend, sat in some shade at the Esplanade studying for an upcoming an exam, ate my packed lunch, and found a scenic spot on Spider Island to paint before heading back to Chicago. I enjoyed painting the water in this scene and was interested in the different techniques of depicting vegetation at various depths. Overall, it was an extraordinarily delightful day--a lovely adventure for only $4.33 (the cost of coffee and a cinnamon roll).

The Deagan Building

This tower is located in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. The building is the historic home of the J.C. Deagan Company, which produced about 440 tower tube instruments. The company operated at this location from 1916 until the mid-sixties. The cupola once had an organ pipe hanging from the ceiling that played whenever the clock struck 12PM. I work on this section of Ravenswood, which was once heavily industrial. Today many of the old factory buildings have been transformed to house artist studios, apartments and offices. This painting will be for sale at the Ravenswood Art Walk.

Commissioned Work

This is a recently completed commissioned painting. The image is a beautiful old home in Detroit with a generous garden lot adjacent. I am soon to undertake another commissioned work--a stylized portrait of a recently married couple.

If you have ever wanted a commissioned painting of your house, favorite beach, dog, etc., I would be delighted to discuss your project. My preference is to price commissioned paintings based on a "hourly sliding scale." I consider my time to be among my most valuable assets, so I price paintings based on the number of hours they took to complete. I ask the purchaser to pay me for that number of hours based on their hourly salary. This allows me to compensated for my time at a rate equivalent to the value the purchaser assigns to their own time.