Hope

Welcome, Spring. Renew our hearts with hope.

Tracks, Rails and Otherwise

Train tracks. They always catch my eye. Well, why wouldn't they? They get you from here to there, and back again.

It's not just the visual allure. Having grown up in a railroad town, the sounds of the trains as they roll down the tracks, and the sound of the whistle are enough to stop me cold. It sounds like a lullaby to my soul. It is the aura of romance and nostalgia. The faintest sound can reach for miles. I hear the railroad moving through Hartford as I write this, and it soothes me.


With sepia simulation, an image taken today can speak something of yesterday. All this, and at the site of some boyhood memories, that is, at historic Philipse Manor station, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, on the shores of the magnificent Hudson River. Is this a place of some magic? Yes, I think so, and so did Washington Irving!

Rachmeal By Night

Read Joanna Wolff's unexpurgated interview of Rachmeal by clicking here.

Intermission

Here is a representative sample, taken from my old design school sketchbook, that demonstrates the quick sketch rendering style that I love so much. It really doesn't take much to indicate "human figure" to the casual observer.

Waiting for the Sun

Here is a painting taken from the stack of works, most of which have been stored shortly after drying. It is not quite the kind of work that I might cover with gesso and repaint, but it is not quite something that I would hang on the wall either. Yet, there is something here that speaks to me.

Somehow this work reminds me of design school, where I might have quickly sketched figures into an environment to indicate scale and mood. It has always amazed me how the human figure can be represented in a seemingly infinite number of ways, limited only by the hand and the imagination of one that seeks to render it.