Studio Birds

An abandoned robin's egg

There are a bunch of bird's nests around the studio. Some are in hanging baskets, others are in the eaves of the porch. Those birds dive-bomb whoever is coming and going. There were robin chicks in this nest earlier this spring, now they're gone and there's just this little egg left. 

Same Old

Phil and Peter eating lunch at the Waterwheel Cafe

Sometimes life is repetition. Peter works. I work. Things break. We get them fixed. We eat. We sleep. We do it all again. I guess there's more going on, but that's how it feels today.

Life is Good

Camy enjoying the warm evening air

Lisa took this photo of Camy the same night I took the "Car Ride!" photo of them. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy!

Got Weeds?

Dandelions in sunlight and shade

This morning when I took Camy out, the sun was catching the tops and stems of the dandelions and carved them out of the shadows on the grass. I sound like Peter! Anyway, I thought they were pretty and worth photographing.

Ferns and More Ferns

There are tons of ferns on our property

I was wondering what I could plant around the house that the deer wouldn't be interested in eating and the answer has been in front of me all along -- ferns! I'm sure deer eat ferns too, but it looks like there's plenty to go around.

North Light

The men of AMP hard at work

Like most artist studios, the main windows in Peter's studio face north. He also gets a lot of help from a bank of fluorescent lights above the windows that are balanced for daylight. He has a nice even light throughout the day and into the night. 

One by one the ballasts have been breaking and he keeps losing working lights. He finally had new ballasts installed. Now it's so bright, it's like a surgical suite in there! He's very happy with his new lights.

Misty Morning

Ancient olive trees in Umbria

Italian Week on Peter's Landscape a Day blog ended on Saturday. Thank you to all who have been looking and enjoying. Tomorrow, Tuesday May 18th, is his 100th study posted. Check it out!

Making Pizza

We started the fire in the early afternoon

One of my favorite memories of Italy, ever, was making home-made pizza with friends in a huge outdoor pizza oven in Umbira. It was a group effort from starting and tending the fire all day to everyone who chopped and assembled the ingredients and shuttled the pizzas between the prep area, ovens and back out to the hungry. It was a magical and memorable night.

Peter continues to stoke the fire as the sun goes down

Outdoor pizza making production line. Are there truffles on those pizzas? Yum.

Pizza man Peter at work

The oven was so hot the pizzas cooked in seconds!

Fresh, hot and delicious and most importantly made with love by all.

Doesn't this look like a Caravaggio painting?

A Misty Morning

Old lady with sheep

We always explore back roads where ever we go. On a foggy morning in Umbria, we kept turning down smaller and smaller roads until the road came to a dead end in the courtyard of an old farmhouse. All the dogs were barking at us and the chickens went scurrying and by the time we turned around, this old lady and her sheep came crashing down the hill and blocked our way out. She was driving them down the road and kept wacking them with her long stick. She was surprisingly nimble, hopping over drainage ditches on the side of the road to go after the occasional errant sheep. Peter thought maybe she wasn't as old as we thought she was! The whole site was very impressive.

Whatever it Takes

Olive tree at sunset

I was looking through Peter's photos of a trip we took to Umbria in 2006. I really loved this olive tree he photographed at sunset. Later, I was looking through my photos and found this one of him taking the photograph.

Peter gets down and dirty

More Italian Week

Hazy morning, Tuscany

Peter is showing 7 more studies from Italy this week on his Landscape a Day blog and I'm going to show a few more of my photos from our past trips. I never get tired of looking at photos of beautiful Italy!

Tiny Flowers

Bits of beauty from our yard

Happy Mother's Day everyone. It's going to be a beautiful day in the northeast, enjoy! 

Car Ride!

Camy loves the wind in her ears

It's so nice to have Lisa with us for the summer. She and Peter spent the afternoon painting and I finally felt motivated enough to start cleaning up the yard. To see what Lisa has been up to, visit her new blog lisafiore.blogspot.com.

Tonight after dinner we went to Polar Bear for ice cream and then went for a car ride with the dogs. Peter stopped and took some photos of one of his favorite fields. This time of year it is very green and makes him miss winter. It was a beautiful evening, big clouds and warm breezes.

Cinco de Mayo

Middletown, NY

We moved Lisa out of her dorm at SVA this morning at 6 am. We had a full day of work and then went out to kick off our summer with Lisa at El Bandido. We've been going there with the kids for years. Peter caught the festive atmosphere in this photo.

At Work

Contemplating the next stroke

OK, this photo is kind of blurry, but I liked it.

I finished up the illustration job I was working on last week and am exploring possibilities for another. Paul was here this weekend and we all worked, but had fun too! Paul is a junior in high school and has 12 drawings and paintings due this week for his AP art class. When he wasn't texting, he was finishing up his last couple of pieces. As well as driving out and back to Long Island twice, we delivered a couple of coastal pieces to the Kerygma Gallery in Ridgewood, NJ.