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September Studio Sale September 2026 - Patrick Okrasinski

When I first got to Florence this year, and my friends asked me how I’ve been, I realized I had sculpted more for the first four months of this year than I painted. I’m not sure what that says about me. But the truth is I didn’t do a whole lot of sculpting, either. It was mostly what I would call, admin work. These extended breaks from painting are not something new to me. I find that there is an ebb and flow to creativity. Whenever I am stuck at home by my computer for such a long period of time, the sunlight and breeze while painting outdoors is just a little sweeter. It was an open-ended trip. What I thought may only be two months turned into three and a half, and the result is the largest collection I’ve presented in a single studio sale. And that is after cutting several paintings out! As I look at these pieces and think about the past few months, I feel the space between each painting is just as important as the work itself. Thank you for your continued interest and support. I hope you enjoy looking through these paintings, and a special thank you if you end up giving one a home! Patrick

CONTENTS

OVERVIEW

pg 4

PRICE LIST

pg 7

I LARGE WORKS

pg 10

II FLORENCE

pg 22

III ROME

pg 38

IV SWITZERLAND

pg 46

V CHAMONIX

pg 58

VI LYON / PARIS

pg 72

VII POLAND

pg 84

VIII BRONZE

pg 106

OVERVIEW

III

VII

VIII

OVERVIEW

PRICE LIST I LARGE WORKS I Fontanna del Nettuno II St Matthew III Orsanmichele IV Shining Zlotoria V Cumuli, Overhead! VI Sunset at Narew VII August Day VIII Gold on the Ceiling IX Eclipse Sunset

$2800 $3000 $3000 $3400 $4000 $2800 $1200 $1200 $1200

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14. 8 Via dei Banchi Vecchi $600 15. Morning Tree Demo $600 16. Afternoon Tree Demo $600 17. Temple of Aesculapius, Summer Afternoon $800 18. Turtle Fountain $800 19. Bridge on the River Tiber $800

pg 40 pg 41 pg 42 pg 43 pg 44 pg 45

II FLORENCE 1. Entrance to the Orphanage 2. Florentine Sunset 3. Light Breaking over Terracotta 4. After the Storm, Florence 5. Lady of San Niccolo 6. Florentine Door Step 7. Duomo South Door 8. San Niccolo, North West Corner 9. Study of Orsanmichele 10. Stained Glass of Santa Croce 11. Clouds over Florence 12. Complesso di San Firenze 13. Entrance to the Mass III ROME

PRICE LIST IV SWITZERLAND 20. The View from Below 21. Gloomy Waterfall 22. Peaking through the Clouds 23. Morning in Rosenlaui 24. Glacier Motif 25. Oeschinensee Panorama 26. Snowcapped Peaks, Oeschinensee 27. Last light on the Wetterhorn 28. Swiss Moss 29. Simplon Pass

$600 $600 $700 $700 $600 $600 $600 $800 $600 $600

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V CHAMONIX 30. Aiguille des Grands Charmoz 31. Mers de Glace 32. First Light on Mont Blanc 33. Lost in the Clouds 34. Path through the Alpine Forest 35. Rocky Road 36. Clouds over the Mountains 37. Long Grass 38. Aiguille du Midi, Eastward 39. Aiguille du Midi, Southward 40. Aiguille du Midi, Towards Mont Blanc 41. Light on the Falls, Repose from Heat VI LYON / PARIS 42. Sunset over Fields near Lyon 43. Morning Shadows 44. Shadow Over the Rye 45. Summer Road in France 46. The Luxembourg Valette 47. Pont Neuf with Blue Skies 48. Saint Sulpice 49. Saint Sulpice Lions 50. 4 Rue Monsieur le Prince

PRICE LIST VII POLAND 51. A Sea of Barley 52. Golden Hour Road 53. Sunset from Tyniec 54. Wawel Arcade 55. Lodged Wheat 56. Suloszowa Sunset 57. Stormy Clouds on the Horizon 58. Sunset in a Haze 59. Layers of Color 60. The Coming Storm 61. Park Kampinoski 62. English Oaks by the River 63. Sunset at Narew 64. Statue in Rogalin 65. Komorebi, Tyniec 66. Wisla, Symphony of Pink 67. Ruby Band in the Sky 68. Streaks of Light, End of Day 69. Twilight after the Eclipse

$800 $600 $700 $1000 $1200 $500 $700 $700 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600 $600

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$6000

pg 113

VIII BRONZE SIERRA

I LARGE WORKS 10

This year, I’ve continued to try to work larger en plein air. Sometimes I ask myself if it’s worth it. The logistical challenges really compound. Little by little, things are getting easier. I find there is no substitute from painting from life. There are three pieces which were probably half of my paintings sessions of Florence, and the rest are an assorted size from Poland, after I finally ran out of surfaces to paint on!

I Fontanna del Nettuno

16x20in

$2,800

This ended up being a four morning painting. I wanted to paint the horses of the Fountain of Neptune in the early morning light, and it did not disappoint. As the sun peeked over the distant palazzos, its light scattered in the fountain’s mist. Even though I was standing a few feet away, it created a beautiful veil and sense of atmosphere. I was unsure how far to push this piece, and left some areas very loose. If I had tried to paint each droplet of water, things could have gone very poorly. Instead I went for one strong optical focal point - the horses. Still, I was tempted into the marble base of the fountain. It’s hard to resist those textures

II St Matthew

16x24in

$3,000

The Niche statues of Orsanmichele have inspired me for several years. This was the first painting of the Statue of St Matthew, completed by Ghiberti, and commissioned by the Bankers Guild. It was the first large work from Florence this May, on days where it was overcast. Even though the statue is mostly in shade on sunny days, the bouncing sunlight off of other buildings and ambients blues of the sky can completely change the scene. I particularly liked the deep and mysterious shadows that formed around the face and robes. The bronze had interesting notes of emeralds, which played off of the color of the marble.

III Orsanmichele

16x24in

$3,000

The blind arches of Orsanmichele are the part of the building I keep coming back to. This is the larger version of the study, and the extra size gave me room to work through the tracery without letting it flatten into a pattern. For most of the day the stone sits at nearly one value. What makes it readable is the raking light just as the sun clears the rooftops across the street, when every rosette and cusp picks up a thin warm edge and drops a shadow behind it. The blue openings were the only cool note, and I leaned on them to keep the wall from going chalky. The doorway below had to stay dark and simple.

IV Shining Zlotoria

18x24in

$3,400

This painting was started last year, yet a poor first session and poor weather led it to being abandoned. This year I picked it back up from its hiding place in my grandparents’ basement, and a particularly vibrant session brought it new life. These larger plein airs still remain a challenge, but there was a specific breakthrough moment on this piece that gave me a new confidence. I look forward to continue working on larger scales outdoors, as I believe there is no substitute for the life and color that we can capture when we are painting directly from life.

V Cumuli, Overhead!

20x28in

$4,000

This was the last painting I made on the trip, and I am glad it ended on a high note. The weather towards the end of my stay in Poland often had massive clouds that towered overhead. Whereas Shining Zlotoria featured a backlit scene, in this piece I tried to capture front lit clouds. I liked capturing a moment of passing light and shadow in the ground plane, and in the sky I attempted a more dynamic rhythm for the passing clouds. I’m unsure whether the clouds were truly so close to the ground, or if it was the lack of any trees on the horizon that added to their looming presence overhead.

VI Sunset at Narew

40x60cm

$2,800

This painting was worked up over several sessions and finished indoors, based off of the work captured in the field, and other sunset paintings from my time in Poland this past summer. The initial layer was what could be called a “sky panel” technique - a preparatory layer where a clean gradient of sky colors is painted and dried. In a subsequent session it is much easier to paint the clouds in and make any adjustments. On this trip I realized how important it is to know which part of a gradient comes from the atmosphere itself, and which is cloud and denser vapor. It’s a useful technique, as long as it stays true to the scene. I always want to avoid painting in a formulaic way.

VII August Day

12x16in

$1,200

There is a very wide area along the closest river to my family in Poland which is considered a flood zone. Nothing gets build, and it’s mostly fields of grass that get mowed and turned to bales for dairy cows. Some painters might think there’s nothing more boring than painting some flat fields, but I disagree. The amount of atmospheric perspective you see in the distance, along with the full zones of the skies is beautiful.

VIII Gold on the Ceiling

12x16in

$1,200

Most people have heard of golden hour. One evening it was particularly strong. It was raining earlier in the day, and everything seemed to be buzzing yellow. Atmospheric perspective usually makes things blue, but on this day, it only managed too eek out a little bit of grey. An overgrown and untilled field sits in the foreground, blending into a field dried oats in the middle ground.

IX Eclipse Sunset

12x16in

$1,200

Painted on the evening of the eclipse, from the same stretch of river as the other sunsets here. It was hard to discern what effect the partial eclipse actually had. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye. I consider myself fortunate that there was a sunset at all, sometimes things are just overcast. It ended up being perfect. A great variety of clouds at varying lengths made it possible to capture a lot of depth. And I had to work fast. It was a larger format than usual for a sunset, and I knew these things go by fast.

II FLORENCE 22

“Florence isn’t going anywhere.” That’s what my friend Dan said when I had to decide whether or not to take a week off in the middle of my stay. I think it was the 6th time I have come to Florence to paint. Or maybe the 7th? There are good reasons there. The food doesn’t get old, and the people are always great. The one challenge is what to paint next, after having painted this city for so long.

1 Entrance to the Orphanage

12x9in

$600

This was the first painting of the trip, and of my stay in Florence. I have done a few pieces in Piazza Santissima Annunziata over the years, and I always enjoy trying to capture the frescoes. The lighting here was interesting as there was an interchange of value between the stone, columns and plaster walls - at the base of the column, they are darker than the wall behind it, but as the columns rise, the wall in arcade become darker than the stonework. This was a three day painting, started alongside fellow American-who-spends-a-lot-of-time-inFlorence Painter Quinlan Cooney. Florence was a lot of fun, as many of the painting sessions were done alongside other painters.

2 Florentine Sunset

9x12in

$600

This piece was done alongside Andrii Kateryniuk. For a while, I had wanted to make several paintings of Florence from a higher vantage point. This year I found a place to stay with a half decent view, and enjoyed painting several sunsets from the balcony. This was the third sunset done, but it is perhaps my favorite of the bunch.

3 Light Breaking over Terracotta

9x12in

$600

This was the first terrace sunset in Florence. It was painted back to back with the following piece. Here, the clouds were parting after some substantial rain during the day. As the sun descended behind the clouds, the horizon turned to a strong yellow which blasted away the contrast from the buildings below.

4 After the Storm, Florence

12x9in

$600

As mentioned, this was done right after the previous painting. The light and colors can change so much in a scene within a single day, especially when we approach golden hour and the sunset. I tried to capture the last few minutes of the day, when the sun was bidding farewell, past the distant terracotta roofs. It is often within these final minutes that the entire scene can turn a brilliant orange.

5 Lady of San Niccolo

12x9in

$800

This was perhaps the most successful demo from this year’s workshop in Florence. It seemed that the large trees on the south side of the park were overgrown from previous years. In the early morning, they seemed almost like ink compared to the brilliant colors of the marble. I was inspired by Da Vinci’s painting of a lady with and Ermine. And it’s almost graphic composition, with a near black background. Funny enough, the iconic background of the painting is a 19th Century paint over, over Da Vinci’s original landscape. At the risk of being controversial, I prefer the change.

6 Florentine Door Step

9x12in

$600

This was a demo for the last day of the workshop in Florence. It was a really fun group with equal amounts of hard work and laughter! This demo was meant to help show the advantages of site size and was a deeper dive into pushing the sense of material and refinement to any painting, even something as simple as the steps of the door.

7 Duomo South Door

12x9in

$700

This was the one duomo painting from this trip. Coming back to a repeat sitter like the Duomo makes us search for new views and different perspectives. This was the first time I painted the south side entrance to the Cathedral. The composition was architectural symmetrical and front facing, but the cast shadows helped carry some level of dynamism to the painting. Little moments like the difference between the

cream and viridian marble strips in the light and shadows allow even simple paintings of the Duomo like this to come to life.

8 San Niccolo, North West Cor-

12x9in

$600

Another view of my favorite marble monument. This was a demo from the two day workshop that I ran in Florence. The biggest challenge of painting marble is moving past the idea that it is white, and learning to see all the various shades of color that can actually coexist in the stone.

9 Study of Orsanmichele

12x9in

$800

I’ve also made a number of paintings of Orsanmichele’s exterior niches - which are adorned by sculptures from some of the Renaissance’s greatest artists - I was allowed to paint inside on several occasions. One part of the building that always captivated me The exterior arches that were filled in, sometime when the building transitioned into a church. The weathered stone and rosette design is incredible, and even more so as the sun just starts to peek over and catch the details in raking light.

10 Stained Glass of Santa Croce

12x9in

$500

Composition often calls for creativity. This morning I met a friend without an idea of what to paint, and we spent quite a bit of time walking until we made our way to a small side street that led to the leather school of Florence. On that road was a view of the clerestory windows of Santa Croce. I attempted a scene of the dappled tree light on them, as I found the outer texture of the stained glass intriguing.

11 Clouds over Florence

12x9in

$600

Despite grand plans, I only managed one daytime painting from the balcony of my stay, and this was it. In theory, the terracotta roof tiles found in Tuscany and other parts of Italy are beautiful. In practice, they always make for a challenging subject, and often the success of the composition is determined by other elements in the scene. In this painting I focused on the clouds eastward, over the city skyline. Focusing on a grander view, the rooftops can almost blend together in little patches of rust. The passing clouds managed to cast a patchwork of shadows that made its way all the way to the distant hills that surround the city.

12 Complesso di San Firenze

12x9in

$500

This is a vignette of one of the side entrances to the Complesso in Piazza della San Firenze. The colors of the wooden doors seemed to oscillate between a deep orange in the light, and a pale violet in the shadows. I enjoyed how the shadow stretched up into and veiled part of the pediment. This was the last piece from this year’s stay in Florence.

13 Entrance to the Mass

12x9in

$600

It was late in the morning on a Sunday when I met with a number of other Florentine painters to paint together near Santo Spirito. However that day happened to be a market day, and I set out to search for a subject. Eventually at the suggestion of Hannah Sutton, I came across this door and its striking light. I set up in the shadow of an apartment block as the sun created a strong, front lit lighting on the entrance to the church. The light and shadow created a strong graphic shape, while I tried to keep a higher key to find the rich magentas and oranges within the shadows, with special attention to the colors of the wooden door. Halfway through, the doors opened, and I decided to change the composition.

III ROME 38

After a long stay in Florence, I head ed south to Rome. This was a short stay, mostly focusing on leading my first workshop in Rome. Last December was helpful to scout several of the locations. The difference in size and sprawl from Florence to Rome is always surprising. In the end it was a short yet fruitful week. It is not always the case that a workshop demo is successful, but I feel that four of the five came out quite well!

14 8 Via dei Banchi Vecchi

12x9in

$600

A roman welcome - a painting I squeezed in before the start of the workshop in Rome, while I was only staying there for a week’s time before reuniting with friends. The better story is that I did not realize the spot in front of this door was a parking space for mopeds. In my nicest Italian (which is not any good at all) I kept asking people to please park a few spaces down. The funniest of which was when a local, elderly man tried to kindly explain that I was not allowed to paint the door - it was private property. After some confusion I managed to explain I was making a painting of the door, across the street, and not painting on the door itself.

15 Morning Tree Demo

9x12in

$600

On the first day of the Workshop in Rome, I wanted to pick a simple subject. Some simple trees and grass and sky are great for a conversation of the basics of landscape painting - masses and composition. In the morning I focused on these oak trees for a typical hey watch me paint demo.

16 Afternoon Tree Demo

12x9in

$600

After lunch on the first day, we set up together for a follow along demo - we draw together, mix color together, and approach the painting step by step. This was my example from the day, for better or worse.

17 Temple of Aesculapius, Sum-

12x9in

$800

This was the follow along demo from the second day of the Rome workshop. We spent the morning drawing the temple together, and then the afternoon painting it. A great exercise for a class. Appearance can fool you - not every temple in Rome comes from Antiquity. This temple is a 19th century recreation. The Romanticized ideal still offers a beautiful scene for us painters. Last December I also painted a view of the same temple. Some differences were the time of day, angle, and color scheme - different cloud scattering and season allowed this piece to find its own voice, compared to its predecessor.

18 Turtle Fountain

9x12in

$800

The Turtle fountain in Rome was designed by Giacomo della Porta and the bronzes were created bu Taddeo Landini. This piece began as a follow along demo from the workshop, and I continued it on my own after the class ended. The particular light of this piece is a day where the sun manages to shine through a thin dusting of clouds in the sky. The lights remain somewhat warm, but the shadows lose their cool blue undertones from the lacking blue sky, and carry more of the silver color of clouds.

19 Bridge on the River Tiber

12x9in

$800

This was the last demo of the workshop in Rome. This one was the only painting which was more of a traditional demo where I painted and chatted about the process for an uninterrupted morning (usually I run around like a headless chicken and don’t get too far on the follow along demos - at least that’s kind of how the first three days went) I particularly enjoyed this side of the Sant’Angelo Bridge. The low water line and shimmering reflection of the bridge really caught my eye. The cutwaters, texture of the stone, and spare greenery also added to the visual interest.

IV SWITZERLAND 46

There were several days spent painting in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Many of these views had been captured by landscape painters for centuries, and it was inspiring to be able to see them myself. Rosenlaui was a great place to have as a home base. Despite some of the early June gloomy weather, I can attest that the cows we encountered along the way were still very happy.

20 The View from Below

9x12in

$600

In Rome I caught up with Kyle Ma, and we flew together to Lyon, where we united with Jared Brady and Marisa Evangelista. After a night we set out to Switzerland and the Bernese Alps. It was a beautiful drive, and I did not realize how sketchy the road to our Airbnb would be. The forecast for our time didn’t look bright, but we found this view for the first evening, as the clouds were breaking slightly higher up the valley.

21 Gloomy Waterfall

12x9in

$600

On the second day, we were met with more clouds. We had to refrain from driving up to the location which I had hoped to get a lot from. On the road there, we found this view of a rushing waterfall on the side of the winding road. As we worked on the piece, set up shoulder to shoulder on a convenient wooden bridge, we noticed that the clouds were starting to part in the trees above us. As we finished our paintings we continued further up the road.

22 Peaking through the Clouds

9x12in

$700

What lay further on the road was Rosenlaui, with its view of the some of the peaks of the Bernes Alps. It’s an iconic view that I had been seeing for some time. A rolling alpine stream through meadows created a picturesque lead-in for any painting. Despite the cloud cover, the base of the mountains suggested the grandeur of the invisible peaks.

23 Morning in Rosenlaui

9x12in

$700

The following day we lucked out with clear blue skies. We reached the painting location around 10 in the morning, and I was astonished at how consistent the light remained for the last few hours of the morning. It seemed that the arc of the sun in those hours was mostly rising in the same direction, and it was only later in the early afternoon that the sun traveled across the scene. Throughout the trip I tried to record several of the paintings for Patreon. This was one of them.

24 Glacier Motif

9x12in

$600

After I finished my painting, I became a little jealous of some of the less obvious compositions chosen by my friends. One aspect of the scene was the glaciers present on either side of the central peaks. One of my tenets of composition is to try to zoom in on interesting vignettes that allow the shapes of the scene to create an interesting, abstract design. That is exactly what I tried to do on this piece with the glacier to the left of the central peaks.

25 Oeschinensee Panorama

12x9in

$600

One of the reasons I really wanted to get to Switzerland was to paint in Oeschinensee. It is one of the most iconic alpine lakes. One thing I realized I was missing on this trip was a more suitable backpack for longer hikes. It was close to 30 to 40 minutes to get to a view of the lake from the gondola. At that point I realized I probably was not going to go much farther with my heavy painting pack.

26 Snowcapped Peaks, Oeschin-

9x12in

$600

For the afternoon, I attempted a cropping of one of the jagged peaks along the lake. I felt I was still warming up, and felt rusty from last year’s pieces in the Dolomites. I think I realized I had forgotten to reach for any of my sable brushes, to the detriment of my paintings. As a result, these two have a slightly more planar feeling, for better or worse. As if I was channeling Edgar Payne and his use of flat shaped brushes.

27 Last light on the Wetterhorn

12x9in

$800

We managed to have some leftover energy after returning from Oeschinensee, and made it back to Rosenlaui for some sunset colors. This is perhaps my favorite piece from Switzerland. As the sun set, the shadows crept up the mountains, and it was interesting to see which parts lost the light first. It’s hard to realize at first, but you are seeing a line of peaks that slowly grow higher. The tallest peak in the painting is one of the shortest in real life - the Klein Wetterhorn, which overlaps the Wetterhorn, the Mittelhorn, and several others. The orange clouds at the end of the session were just a chef’s kiss on a perfect session.

28 Swiss Moss

12x9in

$600

The last full day in Switzerland ended being a bit of a rest day. It seemed that some of us were coming down with a cold. A couple of us tried to create a painting from a nearby forest, filed with Moss. In the past I’ve enjoyed mossy trunks, and felt confident I could find a picture in there. What actually happened is I had two failed attempts for a lift off. I washed out the first attempt, and moved my easel over to focus on an entirely different tree after being unhappy with my first composition, only for that to happen again. The final painting is my third start on the same canvas in the same session.

29 Simplon Pass

9x12in

$600

Moving on from Switzerland, we headed towards Chamonix to reunite with fellow knights Rolf Hellem and Andrii Kateryniuk, as well as artists Pavel Sokov and Shaoli Huang. We chose to drive south and west, instead of going back through Geneva. On our way there, we realized we would not be far from Simplon Pass, which was the subject of one of my favorite landscape paintings from John Singer Sargent - “Simplon Pass”, found in the National Gallery, DC. It appears a lot has changed from his day, and we were unable to find his exact viewpoint, as that would have required hiking through a dense thicket. I wonder if Sargent pushed through that, or if there was a more comfortable trail back then.

V CHAMONIX 58

Chamonix was the largest get together with painter friends of the trip. They say the more the merrier, and they are not wrong. Surrounding yourself with other great painters really pushes you to do the best you can. Not necessarily in a competitive way. You can’t help but be inspired. And Chamonix was a perfect place to do that. The jagged peaks, dramatic clouds, and immense vistas were simply... epic.

30 Aiguille des Grands Char-

12x9in

$1,000

After our time in Switzerland ended, we found ourselves in Chamonix, and wasted no time and definitely did not save the best views for last. On the first full day we took the Montenvers train up to Mers de Glace - the famous winding glacier of Chamonix. It was an incredible view, but in the morning I decided to focus on a different peak - Aiguille des Grands Charmoz. The air was thick, and it created a lovely subtle light on the mountain. There was a subtle contrast between the lights and shadow of the rock, and the remaining snow from the past season draped the sides of the north face.

31 Mers de Glace

12x9in

$800

After lunch, I came back up to the observation deck, and pondered what to do next. As the afternoon came, so did the clouds, and the sunny morning turned into a moody afternoon. The light was briefly shining across the glacier and valley.

32 First Light on Mont Blanc

9x12in

$1,200

While in Chamonix, I had my 30th birthday. One of the unexpected silver linings of the new and advanced age I have stepped into is an inability to sleep in and an inclination for waking up several hours too early. In some cases it has proved beneficial, like this time where I woke up before the sunrise. I stepped out onto our balcony, as I knew the light in the morning must be amazing. I decide to set up my easel, just in case, and was not disappointed. It seemed that the light crept up slowly on the mountain, and I chose to capture a sliver of gold across the cool peaks of Chamonix and Mont Blanc.

33 Lost in the Clouds

9x12in

$600

On the first night we were pleasantly surprised with the view of the mountains right from the town. I remember being a little worried that the compositions in Chamonix could be boring because its a long valley with mountains rising on both sides, but boy was I wrong. The scale was large enough it didn’t matter. This piece shows a subtle pinkish light of the golden hour, as the clouds start to clear up and reveal some of the peaks of Chamonix.

34 Path through the Alpine For-

12x9in

$600

One of the locations we went to was the zoo in Chamonix. It is well known for being open meaning you are walking right next to some of the animals there, ibex, deer, alpaca, rabbits, and more. There was also a view across the valley. I was a little under the weather this day, and had trouble picking a spot, until I eventually settled on this view of the path in the zoo. I thought it was a little Shishkin-esque.

35 Rocky Road

9x12in

$600

Another painting location that we found to be quite accessible was the gondola ride up to Plan du Midi. One gondola ride took you up 1200m to a halfway point up the mountains. From there you had an elevated view of Chamonix to your north, rising peaks above your head to the south, and looking out east and west there were a lot of possibilities. There were almost too many possibilities. Eventually you have to paint something, so I found an interesting view with a natural gesture. This piece focuses on the rhythm of a rocky trail and alpine grasses, rather than any of the grand views.

36 Clouds over the Mountains

9x12in

$600

Afterwards, I found myself waiting by the gondola as everyone else was painting and scattered across the trails. In the afternoon, clouds started to form over some of the peaks. For a while I have felt that there is a lot of room left for me to grow when it comes to my understanding of clouds and ability to capture an interesting rhythm, form, and light design while out in the field. The clouds seemed to hover right on the peak, casting a shadow that lost the edge between the snowy mountain and cloud itself, while spots of breaking light found some of those edges.

37 Long Grass

9x12in

$500

Another one from the trails around the halfway station, and probably the least ambitious view I found up there. No peaks and no sky, just a slope of long grass running up into the shadow of the trees above it. What held my attention was the drawing inside the mass. The grass has a real direction to it, and the painting came down to how much of that rhythm to state outright and where to let it go quiet. The dark treeline at the top is doing almost all of the work of holding the sunlight in place.

38 Aiguille du midi, Eastward

9x12in

$600

The second to last full day of Chamonix, I managed to talk some of the group into making it up to the top - Aiguille du Midi. We were a little worried about the possible altitude sickness, as it is a rapid ascent to 4000m above sea level. I went up with Kyle first, and we painted side by side, looking eastward to the backlit range. The atmosphere was incredible, and the foreground naturally helped capture the eye and lead it into the distant peaks.

39 Aiguille du Midi, Southward

12x9in

$600

I managed to feel fine at the altitude, and decided to stay and search for more scenes. This was a view towards the south, during midday. The sun was directly overhead as it was just a few days off of the summer solstice, which created a surprising effect of barely any shadows. Eventually, I was joined by Andrii and Rolf, and part of the painting was painted alongside them.

40 Aiguille du Midi, Towards

9x12in

$600

In the afternoon, I decided I was not yet too out of breath, and attempted a third piece. This piece shows Mont Blanc with several clouds forming around the peak. The sun starts to cast several shadows down the side of the mountain, highlighting its form and glaciers. The weather kept getting better with more epic views of light and shadow across the snow covered peaks and valleys, but unfortunately the last lift down was around 5pm, and I could feel myself getting winded after having spent the whole day at that elevation. The ride down turned out to be less comfortable than the ride up.

41 Light on the Falls, Repose

12x9in

$800

Painting waterfalls is a great idea in a heat wave. It’s also a great idea with a bunch of friends. And even better if the sun breaks through and makes a beautiful set of light and shadows. This day had all three. It was one of those record-breaking days in France this June, and we had no air-conditioning in our Airbnb. Standing next to this waterfall I managed to feel TOO cold, so I walked up to the nearby café for lunch and an interesting sour cream and chestnut dessert. Then I came back down to paint while everyone else was almost done. The light was amazing and shimmering with all the mist. The best of times.

VI LYON / PARIS 72

There was a week after Chamonix that I had to myself before having to venture north to Paris. The heat waves were persisting, and I tried to paint in the early mornings, inspired by a recent museum visit to capture the fields of grain. Paris was a short stay, mostly focused on the workshop. It’s a beautiful city, and in a way, summer was just getting started.

42 Sunset over Fields near Lyon

9x12in

$600

When we first landed in France, before our time in Switzerland, I squeezed out a quick study of the sunset in Lyon. I had become excited to attempt some views of fields of grain, as I had not had the chance to paint those views in a number of years.

43 Morning Shadows

9x12in

$700

The record breaking temperatures continued as we all went our separate ways from Chamonix. I drove back with Kyle, Jared, and Marisa, and we spent an afternoon in Geneva at the art museum before dropping Kyle at his hotel. There were several amazing Alexandre Calame landscapes there, including his painting “Summer”. It depicted a field of rye, which left me inspired for weeks. I had about a week to myself while France was melting. I stayed near Lyon, where I found accommodation with air conditioning. Most days I went out to paint around 6 or 7 in the morning, before the 100 degree temperatures. Sometimes I spent hours driving and found nothing, but I managed this one morning of a wheat field and rolling hills.

44 Shadow Over the Rye

9x12in

$700

Temperatures started too cool down a little bit, to the point where it was comfortable to breathe as late as 11 or 12 in the morning, if I was standing in the shade. While in France I was worried as it seemed farmers were starting their harvest and mowing a lot of the fields down - perhaps on schedule, or ahead of schedule on account of the heat. I lucked out with this scene - the winding road through entering the tall rye field had an interesting shadow design from the trees on the other side of the road, in which I was able to comfortably stand. The road itself allowed for an interesting compound curve that led the eye into the painting, with several trees grouped on the distant horizon to stop it.

45 Summer road in France

9x12in

$800

Eventually the weather became pleasant enough that I could stand and paint under the sun in the late morning. This was perhaps my favorite field painting completed en plein air, after being inspired by Calame. I also drew on some of William Merritt Chase’s summer paintings of Long Island - balanced horizons and big open views. What I liked was the interchange between the beige fields and road and the green grasses and bushes. One of Claude Lorrain’s formulas is a small light spot in a dark field and a small dark spot in a light field at the same time. This scene offered that balance on its own.

46 The Luxembourg Valette

12x9in

$700

On the second day of the Paris workshop, we returned to the Luxembourg Gardens to work on a marble statue. I continued this piece on the same day, after class was over. It turned into a fun play between lost and found drawing - the statue retaining a relative solidity compared to the abstractions of the foliage behind.

47 Pont Neuf with Blue Skies

12x9in

$600

The third day of the workshop, we went to Pont Neuf. It was a crisp and clear morning. A cooler front was finally moving in and relieving Paris of the hot air of the past few weeks. This resulted in a brilliant blue sky, which was then reflected in gentle ripples of the Seine.

48 Saint Sulpice

12x9in

$800

The last day of the Paris workshop was spent on a complex perspective scene. Years ago I heard artists talk about a special quality of light in certain regions, Giverny and northern France among them. I am piecing together what was meant, but this painting turned up something related. In Switzerland I noticed the direction of the sun seemed more stable in the early morning, and here I realized why. In the morning the sun’s arc is mostly climbing, so its direction on architecture holds much steadier than in the afternoon, when it traverses across the sky and shadows move quickly from one wall to another. It worked very well for the early demo, but I suspect my students wondered why it seemed so much harder for them!

49 Sant Sulpice Lions

12x9in

$600

I noticed the lions of the fountain in front of Saint Sulpice on the last day of the workshop. Students were scattered along all sides of the square, set up underneath the trees to avoid the midday sun. In the center was a fountain with four lions, one on every corner. Like the church, it was undergoing cleaning to remove decades of smog, one section at a time. I decided on a vertical crop to include the dark columns of the church behind, and focus on the quarter lighting on the lion. The water coming over the side of the fountain threw a glare that lit up the cast shadows of the basin, periodically broken by the rhythm of the falling water into an uneven veil and a string of bright droplets.

50 4 Rue Monsieur le Prince

12x9in

$600

This door was just around the corner from where I was staying in Paris, in what looks like an interesting Art Noveua style. I was able to work on it in the early morning before the light started to shine.

VII POLAND 84

My time in Poland this year had a range of emotions. It may not have the same reputation as Italy or France when people think of beautiful landscapes in Europe, but for me it has always felt like a home away from home. I spent a little more than five weeks bouncing around the country side. Visiting friends in far off corners, paintings windswpet fields that went as far as the eye could see. Giant clouds hanging overhead, and some of the prettiest sunsets there are (in my humble opinion).

51 A Sea of Barley

9x12in

$800

The first painting from Poland this summer. Just sat in the middle of a barley field. I’ve been dreaming of coming back to paint before the harvests for a few years, and after seeing Alexandre Calame’s painting Summer in Geneva, I decided this should be the year. I love the expansive fields and open skies here. The only challenge is to find some good compositional elements to lead the eye. Before this summer I didn’t know the difference between barley and wheat, and now I do. What I really need to find is rye, since my favorite Shishkin painting is of a rye field. Some of these pieces may turn into larger paintings in the studio.

52 Golden Hour Road

9x12in

$600

A sandy track cutting between two fields, which solves the problem I kept running into there. Most of these fields are flat and rectangular and offer very little to lead the eye, so when a road turns up I take it. The grain on both sides had gone fully ripe and warm, and the treeline behind it was the darkest thing in the scene. Late light kept the fields glowing while the sky stayed pale, which held almost the whole painting in a narrow, high range of values.

53 Sunset from Tyniec

9x12in

$700

The end to a great day. We drove to Tyniec, which is a Benedictine abbey built atop cliffs, overlooking the Vistula river, and made it just in time for the sunset. I decided the view looked much more interesting south, which showed a brilliant pink band, and it’s reflection in the river below. Along the horizon I simplified the distant hills into clean, graphic shapes that captured the atmospheric perspective.

54 Wawel Arcade

9x12in

$1,000

We lucked out with the weather on the first day, however the following day had scattered showers. Searching for a covered place to paint en plein air, one of them suggested Wawel’s Arcaded Courtyard. The courtyard was originally designed and built in the 16th century, however the arcades today are a 19th century alteration. This painting is a very wide angle view, and it was challenging to fit everything into such a small canvas. My solution was to reconstruct the perspective in my painting to have a subtle curvilinear bend in all directions.

55 Lodged Wheat

9x12in

$1,200

It was mostly overcast, and I was able to work on this piece for almost four hours straight, until I got rained out. Yesterday I learned that when strong storms blow wheat over and make swaths of it collapse, it’s called lodging. That was the main focus of this painting. I may have accentuated it a tiny bit, but it was already beautiful on its own. Most of the fields here were pretty rectangular, so they don’t always have the best compositions. I am considering making some larger work from these studies here in Poland. But I always say that, and then get distracted. I guess we shall see.

56 Sułoszowa sunset

9x12in

$500

Sułoszowa is known for the way its farmland runs in long, narrow ribbons out from a single village road. Standing at the edge of one of those strips, the land simply flattens out and keeps going. Rain was moving in from the right, which is the grey curtain at that edge of the painting. The clouds above the horizon were still holding the last of the warm light while the field below had already gone cool and dull. The whole sky sits in a pale, washed range, and the work was in keeping that softness without losing the sense that the light still had a direction.

57 Stormy Clouds on the Hori-

12x9in

$700

It feels like it’s been raining more than usual this summer. I remember I was moving locations on this day, and had some time to paint while on the road. I knew rain was in the forecast, but I had nothing else to do. I found a nice enough spot, and there were some interesting clouds on the horizon. The worst of the storms stayed to my left and right, so I only had to hide in the car for a short time and otherwise painted from the trunk. It was an interesting scene with the tumbling large cumulus clouds being overshadowed by a large stratus cloud. The shadows were a silver blue against the clear sky on the horizon, and the atmospheric perspective created pale oranges in the distance.

58 Sunset in a Haze

9x12in

$700

This was a two session painting. I found the open skies to be challenging for the full breadth of color that I had to capture. It was difficult to understand what was happening beyond the clouds. In the second session of this piece, I decided to forgo all clouds and focus on a clean gradient of color in the sky, along with a subtle glow on the horizon.

59 Layers of Color

12x9in

$600

This piece started as a second painting in the same session as the previous piece. As the light changes, sometimes you just switch canvases. I started to understand the different influences. The color of the sky and clouds depends greatly on the different light shining on clouds, the distance of clouds to the viewer, the types of clouds, and the layering of the scene. Little by little, nature reveals her secrets.

60 The Coming Storm

9x12in

$600

The harvests were getting started by the time I began this painting. Driving on country roads, I came to a crossroads. In the distance a storm was brewing. To my right, an old combine was harvesting a wheat field. Two kids biked past me, one was carrying a plastic bag. In the corner of the field was a small tractor and hitch. The dad of the two kids was working the field alone. I think they were helping a little by bringing him lunch.

61 Park Kampinoski

9x12in

$600

Kampinos sits right on the edge of Warsaw, and it is mostly sand, pine, and open meadow. I went in expecting to paint forest and ended up in one of the clearings instead. It was a clean, bright day with real blue in the sky and cumulus building through the afternoon. The sandy track was the only warm note in an otherwise green scene, and it gave the composition something to travel along.

62 English Oaks by the River

9x12in

$600

English oaks reach an absurd size in these river floodplains, and this one had the kind of mass that makes everything around it look temporary. Behind it the meadow runs flat down to the water. A tree like this is mostly a problem of restraint. The crown reads as one dark shape from any distance, and the temptation is to break it up with more sunlit clumps than are actually there. I tried to hold it together and spend the detail only where light really did get through. The pink flowers across the foreground were a welcome bit of warmth against all that green.

63 Sun Dipping

9x12in

$600

The first sunset painting from visiting my family in the Podlasie region. There’s something about this region that holds a special place in my heart. Last fall, I kept returning to a different point along the river. Now, during the summer, I found the position of the sun on the horizon changed at this time of year. The scenes were much better in the middle of the flood plains, under the big open sky.

64 Statue in Rogalin

12x9in

$600

A stone statue from the Palace Museum in Rogalin. A nearby tree cast an interesting and subtle dappled shadow on the figure.

65 Komorebi, Tyniec

9x12in

$600

There is a Japanese word for the way sunlight filters through the leaves. I have always found the colors of a setting sun through some foliage to be particularly inspirational. This was painting along side one of my friends from Krakow. It now seems to be a pattern that if we are looking for a spot to paint a sunset, Tyniec does not disappoint.

100

66 Wisla, Symphony of Pink

9x12in

$600

By the time I started this the sun was already gone and the whole scene had collapsed into one color. Sky, water, and the air over the far bank were all some version of pink. Scenes like this are harder than they look. There is almost no value contrast left to build on, so the painting depends entirely on small shifts of temperature inside a very narrow range. The trees along the bank were the one dark note I had, and I kept them as a single mass so they would not compete with the water.

101

67 Ruby Band in the Sky

9x12in

$600

A heavy grey layer had been sitting over the fields all evening. Then a gap opened along the horizon and the entire underside of it turned red. The band was the easy part. The harder question was how far to cool and grey the cloud above it, because that relationship is what makes the red read as brilliant rather than just loud. The land stayed almost completely in shadow, a flat green strip across the bottom, which suited the picture fine.

102

68 Streaks of Light, End of Day

9x12in

$600

The sun had already dropped below the horizon, and what was left were these long horizontal streaks of cloud lit from underneath. I was after the rhythm more than anything else. The bands ran in different lengths and thicknesses, and if they get spaced too evenly the whole sky goes dead. The river handed me the same design a second time, softened and broken up by the current.

103

69 Twilight after the Eclipse

9x12in

$600

The same stretch of river as Eclipse Sunset, painted after the sun had gone. The afterglow lasted considerably longer than the sunset itself. By then everything on the ground had flattened into one silhouette, which left the sky and its reflection to carry the painting. I kept the bank as a single unbroken shape so the two halves of the sky could hold each other in place.

104

105

VIII BRONZE 106

Over the past few years, I’ve realized that what I am really doing when I am painting is sculpting with color. This approach is what allows me to capture form and light in my work. And it’s only possible thanks to my academic education. For four school years, I worked from a live model every day in the studio. Drawing, painting, anatomy, écorché - sculpting the bones and each muscles, finding each insertion. Moving from painting to sculpting felt natural to me. I know there is a long tradition of artists doing both.

107

110

The clay sculpture of Sierra was done in the first week of April, earlier this year, and I knew I wanted a bronze for myself. The idea of a bronze has appealed to me for a few years, and I find that I’ve been drawn to bronzes as subject of my paintings. The combination of form, texture, color after a monument has been outdoors for several hundred years - the result is beautiful. In some ways, painting is very direct. I see something. I mix a color. I put it down. And if my guess was right, I can do this a few times until the painting is finished. A bronze sculpture is a different story. After the water based clay was set, it had to be sprayed with sealant to not dry out and crack. Then a silicone mold can be made. This has to be held together in a rigid mother mold, and both pieces need to be able to be taken apart and reusable. From this there can be a wax positive. The wax needs to be removed, reassembled, chased. This is the stage I can share. Then, there are wax gates and vents attached at various points of the sculpture, to allow for the eventual pouring of bronze. A ceramic shell is made to hold the wax. If everything is good, the the bronze can be melted at nearly 2000°F, poured into the ceramic shell while the wax is melted. Cracking open the ceramic shell, the bronze needs to be bead blasted down to remove any remaining ceramic. Gates for the flowing bronze need to be removed. Parts that had to be cast separately may need to be rewelded. Only after its final cleaning and resolving and minor surface defects can it be chased, patina’d and sealed. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few steps. It is a very intensive process. However in the end, you have something that can truly last. Perhaps one of my earliest encounters is painting in Piazza San Marco in Venice. I thought the horses above the main doors of the basilica were beautiful, but when I realized they were actually ransacked from Constantinople in the 13th century, where they had already been standing for several hundred years (it’s origins being dispute), I was astonished. The same for the Riace bronzes - one of the best examples of sculpture from antiquity survived under the water for two thousand years. I’ve been joking that a bronze will last forever - until someone comes to melt down your sculpture into a canon! The process and final result have long fascinated me. It is a tradition that goes back much further than oil painting.

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112

SIERRA The bronze cast of Sierra will ultimately be around 30” tall, and 40 to 50lbs. The final bronze will be in a dark wax finish. Copies will be cast on demand. Full completion and delivery can take up to one year, to allow for the foundry estimates of 6 to 9 months.

$6,000 113

Thank you for browsing this year’s catalog, and thank you to anyone who would want to give a home to any of these pieces. I think I have the best job in the world, and I’m grateful that somehow people resonate with the art I make, and can share the same beauty I see out there.