Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Rex Steno and Family

oil on canvas / 20" x 16" / NFS

DPW

This portrait was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Rex Steno for their son's birthday, now an adult in his 30's! 

The reference photo I used was from the day of his birth, his favorite photograph. I included their son's childhood treasures-his favorite storybook, Peter Pan; his favorite baseball glove and baseball; and his childhood football.

I used variations of orange and blue, complementary colors to produce vibrancy. I kept my palette warm to bring life and vitality into this portrait-the celebration of new life.

The Calm After the Storm

oil on linen on board / 6"x 6" / unframed

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HERE

I was going through a box of old maps during spring cleaning this year and found a map of the Adirondacks Mountains in Up-State New York. My fingers traced through the roads that led to the campground my family and I frequented during hot summers to get relief from the city heat. 

There it was on the map near Lake Placid...Rolland Pond. 

During one of the overcast days, we drove from Rolland Pond to to Lake Placid to watch the skaters at the Lake Placid Ice Skating Rink that was built for the 1980 Olympics. 

On our way back to the campsite, a summer rainstorm had blown through the campground. As we approached our campsite, we noticed the fly that covered one of our tents was missing. It had blown off during the storm. 

We wondered where the fly had gone. We searched through our campsite without any success. We headed for the pond in hopes of finding our fly. To our amazement, the fly was caught on one of the rocks in the pond. We were very relieved that it had not floated away.

After attaching the fly onto our tent, we sat by the pond enjoying the setting sun.