Diamond Dance
Pastel
Framed 18 x 21
300.
For a number of years, I spent several months each spring, working on artwork in the Florida Keys. Perched literally on the waters edge with a miraculous view of the Gulf of Mexico in front of me, I was inspired to create nightly sunset paintings … During those few years in the Keys, over 150 waterscapes were created. Diamond Dance is a special pastel that represents the quintessential view from our porch in Marathon Florida, and is a prime piece in the entire collection.
One of my first experiences exhibiting in art fairs was in Islamorada, with The Florida Keys Art Guild. This show was also a debut for “Diamond Dance”. Both the piece and I were Newbies to this kind of situation.
After hovering around the prized pastel for a long time, a nice couple finally turned to me and said, “This Diamond Dance…Could you do any better on it?” And, like it happened yesterday, I remember saying “Geeze”, appearing somewhat surprised but amused. “I thought I did pretty good on it the first time.”
…It took several years for me to realize what they were trying to say, and that I had missed the best sale of the day. Oddly, “Diamond Dance” remains unsold, and perhaps it’s waiting for that nice couple to return, whoever they were.
Pierre’s Palm, Islamorada
Pastel
Framed 19 x 16
Private collection
Giclee available
Countless family photos and have been taken and memories have been recorded with this graceful palm tree as back drop. The tree sits on the sandy front lawn of Pierre’s Restaurant, bay side, in Islamorada and tenuously overhangs the waters edge. It is truly a treasure to many who visit the Keys.
Rickety Picket, Old Key West
Oil pastel
Framed 20 x 18
Sold, private collection
Giclee available
Old Key West is full of charming houses, some called conch houses, some of the old wooden Bahamian and Cuban style. Most all suffer from the elements including heat, sun, salt air, storms of hurricane season and age related illnesses. All of them exhibit a charm and beauty that only old age can bestow.
Such are my favorite homes in the historic district of Old Key West. This is one of those grand old ladies. When I studied it, several families of hens and chicks pecked in, around and through the rickety old picket fence – a scene totally common and part of the character of Key West.
Rainbow House — Key West
Pastel on Hahnemuhle suede paper
Framed 28 x 22
350.
Giclee available
The rainbow house as I call it was a wonderful excuse to use all the prism colors in my collection of pastels. The first season I saw the rainbow house, the small garden at the front door was profuse with primary and rainbow colors and it was a given that it be included in the series of Houses of Old Key West.
Diverse and open-minded Key West, Florida is welcoming and available to all visitors and folks wanting a more free and easy life-style.
Applauding the embrace that Key West gives to all makes and models of our human race, I wanted to commemorate a particular happy looking house near the center of Old Key West by capturing it in pastel. The piece, a favorite of mine, is now framed and ready for adoption.
A Moment in Time
Oil Pastel
Framed 24 x 22
125.
Each evening while spending my winters in Marathon, in the Keys, I would create a sunset to commemorate the lowering of the sun and the ever changing scene in front of me. As I sat on the porch of the house we were in for those months and years, I relished the incredibly beautiful event. Every evening and every sunset was different and the elements that had made up the day played an important part in how I felt about the sunset that evening. Each of the over 100 sunsets I eventually did during those years, captured a treasured MOMENT IN TIME ~ and this was one of the first ever done.
White Stripes — Historic Audubon House, Old Key West
Oil Pastel
Framed 20 x 18
Sold, private collection
Giclee available
Yellow House on Whitehead Street, Old Key West
Oil Pastel
Framed 20 x 18
Sold, private collection
Giclee available
Seven Mile Bridge at High Noon
Oil pastel
Framed 8 x 10
Sold, private collection
520 Off Whitehead — Key West
Oil pastel
Framed 26 x 20
Private Collection
Bougainvillea House — Key West
Oil pastel
Framed 20 x 18
Sold, private collection
Giclee available
This little house is profuse with fucia bougainvillea boughs, growing over, under around its front porch. The patterns made by accumulated fallen petals on the ground surrounding the house are sometimes as beautiful and artistic as the blossoms above.
Key West Pink
Oil Pastel
Framed 18 x 20
Sold, private collection
Giclee available
This old pink house with the wonderful poured cement wall, either was pink or appeared pink, on the original late afternoon when I first saw it and was captured by the charm of it. The title of the piece is in honor of the shrimp many of us have devoured there — my favorites, Key West Pinks.
Seven as the Sun Sets
Oil Pastel
Framed 8 x 10
100.
I know you can’t see it here, but the old Florida Keys 7 Mile Bridge stretches out into the water from beyond the land on the left side of this picture. I love that old bridge — originally built 100 years ago!
Though a good five miles from it, I captured the bridge, the gulf, the sky, the storms, the waves, the glitters and sometimes even the moon in nearly 100 intimate 5×7 sunset works while staying in a house perched on water’s edge, in Marathon during each spring. This is one of those “daily” sunset pictures from my personal collection.
Tropical Tweak
Digital Remix of an oil pastel
Framed 11 x 14
90.
Giclee available
Taking a favorite oil pastel one step further, I digitally tweaked the original image of Hibiscus growing near the house, from yellows and blue greens to tropical pinks and key lime greens. Seeing where technology could take me, I was rewarded with this surprising and very lively “tropical tweak”.