Silo City, Buffalo

Light in the Tunnel

As much as I love natural landscapes, and often omit buildings, powerlines and other built elements in my landscape paintings, preservation of historic structures remains important to me.

I have created a series of drawings and paintings that chronicle endangered buildings in Buffalo, on Saturdays with Sara Zak's Painting for Preservation initiative. Her work on behalf of architectural gems keeps in mind the history of our city, formerly one of the largest in the United States, the gateway to the west for wagons, boats and trains.

Silo City, location of 'City of Night' and other public concerts and events is in Buffalo's Old First Ward, is rocks and gravel, weeds and massive impressive grain elevators, some still in use, all awe inspiring. Having annually painted this area from the other side of the river with Sharon Fundalinski and Margaret J Walker, working on the grounds with the Preservation group during a convention of out of town visitors was a fun challenge.

One of the huge open indoor spaces was converted to a meeting area while caterers provided buffet food and drinks on the waterfront. Painters scattered around the site as convention 'entertainment', and talking to people from across the country about our unusual location was energizing. The huge scale of the silos is enough to challenge understanding of the purpose and investment that originally created this modern concrete playground, more than a century ago.

This long alley was partially out of bounds for the conventioneers, I was intrigued by the natural  landscape framed by the overhead walkway as well as the tiny bright red folding chair waiting for a guard or perhaps a graffiti artist. Capturing the curved sunset shadows before the entire area was in shade was the challenge here.

Light in The Tunnel oil, 20x16, 2013

Wine on Third

What does one do on the most lovely of summer evenings in Niagara Falls? Why not sit around with a glass of wine on Third Street. How about adding my french easel full of oil paint and a bunch of other artists working together for a NACC fundraiser.

The Niagara Arts and Cultural Center will be auctioning donated art this fall and a group of artists got together to create the work for that evening.

It was time for me to do a summer nocturne and all the stars were aligned. At least the stars were, the nearly full moon did not appear over the restaurant until about a half hour before I completed this plein air. Such serendipity!

I am wondering if this will be my donation, looking at it, I can still hear the music that livened up the night for me. The wine, food and music at Wine on Third is always excellent.

Wine on Third, oil 12x9

A series of oil waterfall paintings

Wolf Creek Moment, 16x20 

In response to a long distance prospective customer, I posted this series of paintings based on some of her criteria. She eventually selected a 24" tall, 12'' wide painting of a section of the Horseshoe Falls, a prominent rock that creates rooster flares of water, right at the precipice. It had an abstract quality that was similar to some of the paintings she originally selected from my website, www.kschifano.com.

It was interesting to find waterfalls in my collection without including large pastels, it is a whole new way of looking at a series for me. Here are 15, selected because they are waterfall themes and none of them are smaller than 10x14, all will be wall enhancing beauties!

All of these are OIL paintings. Most are painted on canvas mounted on a panel, a few larger ones are on canvas mounted on stretchers or a panel, but all have similar textures of paint on the surface. I tried to post the same sizes together for comparison, size determines the cost. The sizes on the screen are not to scale here, so look at the size listed underneath. Colors on the screen will not be exact as every computer is calibrated different. Some colors may not be as bright-or dark- as they look here. Framing can be arranged.

Interested? Comment below or my email, which is  ks [at] kschifano.com

Peace at Blossom Falls, 16x20 

Steps of Niagara, 16x20

Noise, 16x20

Rush, 16x20

November Plume, 18x24 {On Easel}

 Dam Leaves 12x18

Morning Light on American Falls 24x24

Rainbow Bridge & Mist, 24x24

Rock Of Ages, 24x12

Riding the Middle Falls, 12x24 

International Mist 12x24

The Horseshoe from 3 Sisters 12x24

Composition With Ice, 10x14

After the Rain, 11x14 

The 'shoe, 18x24

www.kschifano.com

First Prize

I enjoy the challenge of painting water.

Once in a while a plein air show is juried. Our NFPAP annual show is an art exhibition, but this time the Impact Artist Gallery put a call out for plein air art work, to be judged for entry as well as for prizes.

I spent quite a while deciding which paintings I should put in, frequently changing my mind, until I determined to choose these favorites, as neither had been shown before.

Lo and behold, at the reception I was awarded First Place, with a prize of a solo exhibit for my ocean panorama, but also was given Honorable Mention for my flume. This was the pastel I did in the rain, standing on a huge round boulder, surrounded by poison ivy. When the water seeped through the fabric of my umbrella I realized I should get out of the rain and poison ivy and dry off, preferably in a safer spot as the water coming down the creek was steadily increasing. Quickly finishing the forms was all that was necessary in this Adirondack scene frequently painted by the Hudson River School Painters.

This Long Island jetty was my subject for a week last summer, and the fisherman was there whenever the tide was right for fishing. The largest work I completed in oil, it has a calm but humbling mood to it. When he saw my painting, he offered his lunch to me, sticky rice and seasonings wrapped in a leaf and tied with thread and was quite tasty. I gave him some of mine, which was probably PB&J. We didn't share languages but had a fairly good conversation about the day, our camera and painting. And then I took a first prize for my experience.

Slippery When Wet, pastel 12.5 x 9.5
FIshing for a Big One, oil, 12x24

Youngstown Yacht club 'Art on the River'

Last week, the Youngstown Yacht club hosted 'Art on the River'. I often paint there, so I joined the event with some samples and had a lovely evening. After setting up I took a little cruise along the river to find a new spot to paint a sailboat commission. I'll be back next week to do that, and next year to set up at the club!