This painting was a donation to the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center annual Bake Near the Lake.  It will be auctioned on Sep. 6th to help raise money for the center. This lighthouse is Old Orchard Shoal and was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy off  the coast of New York.  I wanted to paint it to help preserve its memory.  The design for this painting is generated from earlier lighthouses that I have painted such as the one I have included below of Marblehead.  I wanted to add some interest to the sky and water as opposed to a flat colors as in the previous ones. I was not sure how the designs would integrate with the lighthouse so I gave it a shot and I was fairly happy with the results.

The idea for this painting came to me when I was taking an art book back to the library.  I had flipped through the book a couple of times while I had it at home, but as I was walking it back to the library from my car I happened to flip through it one last time before I returned it, and as I flipped through it I caught a glimpse of a painting for a split second.  So, I flipped through the book again to find the painting before I returned it, but I couldn't find it again before I returned it (I think it was due that day).  So I returned the book and made a sketch to capture the idea for the painting.  Eventually, I did get a chance to find the page that the painting was on and it helped me finalize my own painting.

Every since I went to art school  I became interested in drawing the human figure and have been interested in it ever since.

"2008"

The sign in front of the house sybolizes the condition the housing market was in starting in 2008.
I thought it would be interesting to incorporate the situation of our times into something I was already doing.  It seemed obvious since I was already painting pictures of houses.  So, now the painting is at Harris Stanton Gallery entered into an annual Absolute Art Auction to benefit the Akron Art Museum.  It is a silent auction from May 9th to May 16th raising money for the museum.  The auction closes on May 16 with a vodka tasting party.