Hi
2008 - 11"x12" Acrylic, colored pencil, oil pastel, charcoal, on wood.
Finished with one coat brush on Liquitex Matte Varnish #5232
(Available - Inquire for pricing)

This is a painting of Manhattan and a friendly New Yorker waving to you. The title was inspired by a misnomer that New Yorkers are less friendly than other people. My experience so far has been great, and I like the New York crowd.

The friendly New Yorker is taking his pet lizard for a walk through Central Park. I have never owned a normal pet (dog or cat), it's always been reptiles. Giant Monitor lizards are one of my favorites, and someday I want one as a pet that I can put on a leash and walk through the park.

There was a lot of trial and error with color, but once the sky was painted off-white (yellow paint & gesso), it had some direction. I'm still fascinated by combining color and black & white, so this is yet another example of this.

I have been experimenting with what I call controlled chaos. Chaos is the random scribbling and doodling. It's controlled because it's mostly inside the mountains which serves as a boundary. The reason for it being controlled is to create open space, which are the white areas in this painting. There's scribbling/doodling in the white areas too, but it's more minimalistic. I like the look of chaos (scribbling and doodling), yet I like having open space. Controlled chaos is my approach to achieving both goals.

As a side note, when I am painting, I'm not consciously thinking about all this stuff. I'm really just focused on making a painting I like. Once the painting is complete, I try to understand what I did. I do these write-ups shortly after each painting is completed as a learning and documentation tool.

A photo of the painting in development: