Category: landscape

The Senate in the Forum

Susan and I were hobbling back after a long day of walking around Rome. We walked along the Via dei Fori Imperiali looking for a bus. I looked right and saw the back of the Roman Senate in the forum right next to the baroque Chiesa di Santi Martina e Luca. The simple brick Senate building (the Curia) next to the elaborate church made a wonderful contrast between ancient Rome and counter-reformation Rome; and the pruned Roman pines made the whole scene much more graphically interesting.

Oil on canvas
36”w x 24”h

$950.

Carcassonne II, France

Castle of Carcasonne, Languedoc, France, Impressionist cityscape/landscape

Carcassonne is a castle town on a hill in southwestern France. In the 1200s, the Pope and the king of France agreed to conquer this part of France. The locals were Langue d’Oc speaking Cathars. The Pope declared Cathars to be heretics and the French and Papal forces killed millions of Frenchmen. France got vast new territories and the Pope got to kill off millions who wouldn’t accept his authority. The fortified city of Carcassonne still survives from that period.
This is one of two small paintings of Carcassonne. I was trying to capture the otherworldly, medieval look if the town in late February.

Oil on canvas
16” x 20”

$700.

Olive Grove II, Beja Portugal

This is one of a pair of paintings of the olive grove on the grounds of the castle in Beja, Portugal. In this painting, the trees are painted as masses of light and shadow, and some leaves are added afterward to create the impression of leafiness. The other is painted differently.

Oil on canvas

20”w x 16”h

$700.

Mdina, Gozo, Malta

Susan and I spent a month in Malta many years ago. We were visiting the smaller island of Gozo, on the way to the old capital, Mdina. While we were in the sun at the bottom of the hill, it was showering in the city. When we got to the city gates, we were drenched. Every inch of Malta is terraced and farmed and not a spot is wasted.

My aim was to capture the drama of the medieval city on a hill with the terraced gardens flanking the slope. The dramatic cloud was a bonus.

oil on canvas

36″w x 24″h

$950.

Temple of Aesculapius in the Pincio Park, Rome

The Pincio Park, or the gardens of the Villa Borghese, are the Rome equivalent of New York’s Central Park. We’d often sit in our favorite café in the park to write Rome Secrets or CityTravelBlog. This is the Temple of Aesculapius in the park. It was built in the early twentieth century as an ornament for the little duck pond in front of it. It is actually just a temple front, with no building behind.

This is one of the many classical focal points in the park created in the early twentieth century as a green relief in very urban Rome.

Oil on canvas

36”w x 24”h

$950.

Cape May Wetlands

This is a small painting that I did years ago of the Cape May wetlands between Wildwood and the mainland of New Jersey. The mud flats in the foreground were next to Ocean Drive and the bunch of trees on the horizon are adjacent to the banks along route 47.

I put the horizon very high to try to capture the vastness and flatness of the wetlands in a small canvas. The color is laid on in washes to reproduce the beige and green of early spring.

oil on canvas

$900.