SoWa Artists Guild of 450 Harrison Avenue

I am a professional full time painter. I paint as an American painter. While paying homage to Hopper, Katz, Warhol, and Thiebaud, I try to find my own way.

Though my observational work in oil can be described as “contemporary realism” I prefer to give you “believability”, not reality. I paint honest to what I believe and see as true. My observational paintings are direct and applied primarily with pallet knife. My intention using this direct approach is to be honest to the medium and to make my painting “a painting” and not an illusion nor a recording or reporting of photographic reality. Being raised on the, Italian American ,East Boston harbor, I am very drawn to the objects in a working life; objects and food from the kitchen, laundry and laundry lines, working boats on fishing harbors and humble homes.

The use and qualities of paint are as interesting to me as the image that I am painting. My paintings have an active surface of paint texture and colors that vibrate. I paint on cradle panels, without the aid of a frame, using the edge of the panel to create a compositional tension that holds the image on the surface. My interest in surface quality and texture has led me to explore the ranges of encaustic wax technique in both my observational work and my abstract work. In encaustic technique, pigment is suspended in bee’s wax, then heated and used as paint while it’s in its fluid stage. The translucence of the pigmented wax is controlled the amount of wax, medium and pigments so that lush, veiled, luminous surfaces are possible. I will be experimenting with this technique at my studios here at 450 Harrison where I was first introduced to encaustics by Janet Bartlett Goodman. Painting in encaustic paint embodies two of my loves; painting and cooking. I have no idea where this new pursuit will lead me but the path is very exciting.

I have exhibited since 2002 – Soprafina Gallery, Somerville location – Alper’s Fine Art, Andover-MA - Paradigm Gallery, Taos, NM - Rose Gallery Fine Art, Greenville, NY- Eisenhauer Gallery, Block Island, RI, Gallery 333, North Falmouth, MA –The BAAK Gallery, Cambridge, MA – Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville,,Ma – and numerous juried and group shows through The Duxbury Art Association, The Concord Art Association, The Newton Art Association and the Brickbottom Artists Association, Somerville, MA. Since 2005 I have been an Invited guest critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge MA .