Artist's Statement: In actuality, this lion is fewer than eight inches tall – it decorates one end of a wooden mantelpiece in a restaurant located in a very old house in Annapolis, Maryland. But in my imagination, and I hope in this painting, the lion is solitary, powerful, and even frightening. Oil on Canvas 16.5 x 13.25 in I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ​ ​ Until the lion tells his side of the story, the

Artist's Statement: This painting depicts the large, ornate antechamber of a house of worship, and, like the painting posted last week, is set in Turkey. Globes of light, manifold in an ascending spiral, draw the eye upward, along with one's thoughts and perhaps also the spirit.​ Oil on Canvas 38.5 x 28 in Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made mor

Artist's Statement: This painting is the epitome of "imaginative painting." The oranges, their basket, its labels – are from a Parisian market. The ducklings are from a sketch I made at the Minnesota State Fair. Oil on Canvas 15.5 x 27.5 in Paris is always a good idea. Audrey Hepburn (in the movie, Sabrina) A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life. Thomas Jefferson In Paris they simply stared when I spoke in French; I never did

Artist's Statement: Pita can be found throughout the Middle East and beyond. The pita in this painting is from Israel - the "feast" was ordered by a companion for lunch in a cafe' in Jerusalem. Oil on Wood Panel 8 x 8 in The religious and superstitious feeling attached to bread is stronger in some countries than in others. To some it is, more than any other food, a direct gift from God. Claudia Roden The New Book of Middle Eastern Food A book of verses underneath the bough A

Artist's Statement: Since I first started working as an artist (initially in charcoal only), I have been fascinated with the interplay among glass, liquids, lights and shadows. In this painting, the key contrasts for me are among the dark beer, the light "head," the slightly frosted sides of the mug and the mug's translucent base. I acknowledge that reasonable people may disagree as to whether dark beer is a natural high. Oil on Wood Panel 20 x 16 in In wine there is wisdom,

Artist's Statement: At the other end of the day from the breakfast in Tuesday's painting, and across an ocean and a gulf from Cornwall - a dinner of fine oysters served late at night in Mexico City. And an artistic contrast: between the soft waterlines of the oysters and the tough hardness of the shells. Oil on Wood Panel 5 x 5 in - food, glorious food - Oliver musical based loosely on Dickens' Oliver Twist Words to live by and also the number one reason to order oysters righ

Artist's Statement: This painting, and the one to be posted next, show the view from a kitchen (more precisely - standing at the kitchen sink) first in early, then in deep winter. In both paintings, I worked for contrast - the ground cover, the exposed branches, the light particular to the onset of sustained cold. Oil on Wood Panel 7.75 x 24 in Not forever does the bulbul* sing In balmy shades of bowers, Nor forever lasts the spring Nor ever blossom the flowers. Not forever r

Artist's Statement: This painting is the one the bride and groom actually selected to be imprinted on their chuppah. The trees are in the mountains of Colorado, where the wedding took place in the month of October. I particularly like the contrast of the white bark of the birches and the green, gold, and orange of autumn. Oil on Canvas 19.5 x 19 in I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables Autumn is a second spring when every