Merry Christmas

-R

Bill Evans

Bill Evans is my favorite Jazz pianist. I love his music. If you have never heard Bill Evans please do yourself a favor and go out and buy any one of his 50 or more albums.


Bill Evans (1929-1980)

Ballpoint-pen on paper.

-R

Nassau County Museum of Art

As most of you know I love this museum. So here's a watercolor of the front of the building.


It's much looser than how I normally paint, but I like the final result.

-R

A small piece of Rome

Tempio di Elagabalo in Rome.



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More Monteriggioni !

I can't stop painting Monteriggioni !


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Raina in the studio

This is a sketch I did of my friend Raina, while a bunch of us hung out in her and my other friend's studio at school.


I'm pretty happy with it. I did it quickly since she was moving and working.

-R

Goya at NCMA

I had the opportunity to visit the Nassau County Museum of Art over the weekend to see the Goya exhibit. Goya's "Los Caprichos" a set of of 80 etchings were on display. I am very familiar with Goya and his work, but I never had the chance to see these etchings in person. They are very delicate, dark and very ominous in certain aspects. Goya made these etchings as a social commentary on Spain, specifically on the monarchy and the clergy. I took notes and did some drawings copying some of his etchings. This is one of the most well known images from the group, and also one of my favorite. This is plate number 43, it's titled: El Sueño de la Razon Produce Monstruos.

Besides the wonderful Goya etchings, the grounds at the NCMA are beautiful, the property is enormous. The weather allowed for us to walk around and explore a little. The museums used to be the house of W.C. Bryant, and it's a very well designed American Beaux-Arte mansion.

If you're ever in Long Island you should attempt to visit this under-rated museum. They always have interesting exhibitions and you get to see a beautiful garden, and the property is littered with interesting sculptures.

-R

Montalcino landscape

Watercolor painting of a small city in Tuscany, Italy.


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Self portrait in blue

This is the most recent self portrait I have done. I'm content with the final outcome. I look tired, which I was while I was doing it.


This was done with Daniel Smith watercolors on 140lb paper.

-R

Painting for a friend

A friend and colleague of mine commissioned this painting. I think she's giving it to someone as a present. Anyway, it's finished and I'm happy with it. I hope she is as well.


-R

Arezzo, Italia

Il duomo Aretini.


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Two versions if one landscape

I painted the landscape on top a while ago, then I decided to retry only painting in primary colors.


The bottom landscape is the one done in primaries. I used Daniel Smith watercolors: French Ultramarine, Aureolin, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

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Portrait in watercolor

I should be doing more watercolor portraits.


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Self portrait

Once again I'm apologizing for not posting more often, but in my defense I've been swamped with school work. Midterms and research papers take time away from drawing and painting.


Here is a self portrait I did in graphite. It's about 18" x 24"
More graphite and charcoal drawings soon.

-R

Santa Maria Novella

The famous Florentine church; Santa Maria Novella, in ink.



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A page from my sketchbook

Some value studies and a quick self portrait.


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Smoking nervously

I was at a coffee shop and saw this gentleman outside smoking nervously.

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Powdermaker Hall

Powdermaker Hall, CUNY Queens College.


I apologize for the lack of posts, but it's midterm season.


-R

Drawing after Vanderpoel

Colored pencil in moleskine.


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Last page of another sketchbook

I finally got around to finishing another sketchbook. This is a house in Belleville NJ.


I painted this house before but I think I dedicated a little more time to this version.

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Ancora lavorando con olio

Monteriggioni una volta di più. Olio sul tela.


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Ancora dipingendo in olio

The towers of San Gimignano in Tuscany, Italy. Oil on canvas.

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More Tuscany in oils.

Another view of Monteriggioni in oils.


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Drawing in class

Some doodling done in class.

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Montalcino, Italia.

Olio sul tela.

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More oils, Venice !

San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy. Oil on canvas.

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Oil painting

It's been over a year since I painted in oils, and I thought it was time to start again. So today I decided to go to school and take advantage of the open studios. I am still far from comfortable with painting in oil, but I plan on doing one of these a week, minimum.

By the way this is from a photo I took in Monteriggioni, Italy.

-R

Beautiful San Gimignano, Italia

One of the most beautiful places in Tuscany, San Gimignano.



-R

My finished sketchbooks

I'm still recovering from hurricane Irene. My place was under about 7" of water for a day and a half. The clean up is still in effect. It's slow and tideous, but I'm getting through it.

I did get to organize my sketchbooks and look at some of my old work that I haven't looked at in a while. I love all of these, and I'm glad I keep them. Not only is my artistic progress documented, but also my trips, voyages, and travels. I will continue to draw, and paint as much as possible. It feels good to have these safe and sound.

-R

Weather change

When I started painting this it was nice and sunny out. By the time I got to paint the sky it was cloudy and darker.


I need to learn to paint faster !

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Back at school for the Fall

The backside of Jefferson Hall.



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Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene came and went, but not without leaving a trace of her presence. My entire place is flooded with about 7-10 inches of water. It's safe to say that posting regularly isn't going to happen.
I'll put up any new work, but in all honesty all of my time will probably dedicated to schoolwork and completely removing all my furniture, cleaning and re-organizing...slowly. Perhaps I'll post some older work from sketchbooks that I salvaged, perhaps not. We'll see, stay tuned.

-R

Church in East Rockaway.

I was at my brother's house all day, and when I was driving back home I noticed this church.


I believe it was presbyterian. Anyway I enjoyed the architecture so I painted it.

Please excuse the mediocre photo.


-R

Condos in Hewlett, NY

Condominiums across the street from the Starbucks in Hewlett, NY.


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One more for Cancun

One more from the beautiful beaches of Cancun, Mexico.



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Finished sketchbook

Here is the last watercolor painting in my latest (now finished) sketchbook.


This book is filled with plen-air paintings done in several neighborhoods in New Jersey and New York.
I've learned a lot from these pieces and I must admit that this is one of my favorite books I've completed so far.

-R

Another church in Bloomfield

Nice church in Bloomfield NJ.


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Too hot to paint

It was incredibly hot when I painted this. I was on the beach about 15 minutes away from my resort. There was no shade so I tried to execute as quickly as possible. As soon as I was finished or felt like I couldn't take the heat anymore, I basically dropped all my painting supplies in the sand and ran into the water. Both the painting and the cool ocean water were satisfying.


-R

Painting in Cancun

Here's an action shot of Justin and I painting in Mexico. It was no easy task painting in that sun.

I'll post some work very soon.

-R

Back from Cancun

I'm back from Cancun.



-R

Off to Mexico

I'm heading to Newark airport right now, catching a flight to Cancun, Mexico. I'm going to attempt to post regularly, but I'm not sure about the Internet service. So I'll do as much artwork as possible and hopefully I'll post as much as possible. Thank you !

-R

Rosedale NY

Masonry in Rosedale.



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A little bit more Siena

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Siena walls

I miss Siena. Specially the streets and windows and doors such as these:



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My home

It's way past overdue. This is a painting of my house ! I had a lot of fun trying to do the shadows coming off the trees onto the house.



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New Blog design and new banner.

Since I am no longer in Italy I thought it was only right to switch the banner on my blog. My good friend, and graphic designer extraordinaire Joe designed the awesome banner I was using while in Italy. I decided to ask him to please come up with something new and snazzy for the blog and he created the banner you see now.

I decided that since I was going to use a new banner I might as well redo the design of the blog in general. So I took the new banner Joe made for me and I tried my best to make a nice blog design to match. I'm very happy with the new layout and appearance, I hope you enjoy it as well.

Do yourself a favor and checkout Joe's blog as soon as possible ! : There's a mouse in my room.


-R

200th post !!!

I finally arrived at my 200th post!!


Here is a watercolor painting of Frese Hall at Queens College.

I hope you all enjoy the work and I post here, I aim to post as much as possible.

Thanks !

-R

A portrait by a friend.

A photographer friend of mine asked me to pose for some photos while we were hanging out in my studio. He wanted to do some lighting studies and I just happened to be the subject for some test shots.

He took a bunch of photos and here's one of them. This is in my home studio . I do artwork here and I also study here. Anyway Check out Eric's work, he's a very motivated young photographer.

-R

Back in NJ

I'm back in NJ for a day and my good friend and fellow artist Joe took the trip with me. We drew at a couple of places around Belleville, Clifton, Nutley, Bloomfield and Montclair. Here is another house in Clifton.



-R

Clifton in ink

I'm here in Clifton and I found a nice spot to paint a watercolor of. I sat along the pond and I pulled out my tools. Long story short I dropped my favorite mechanical pencil into the water and the stream took it. I decided to ditch the watercolor and do an ink drawing.


It felt good to do some drawing. I'm quite happy with this drawing, but I'm not happy about losing my favorite pencil. Oh well.

-R

Belleville NJ

Here's one more from New Jersey. This one on Greylock St, in Belleville.



-R