Pensive Penso

Bob, you are Matisse the Younger! An Artist of great talent!I just might have to get your autograph.

I'm glad you got a cruise job as an ART teacher. It will be more up your alley as you are no great ballroom dancer! Leave the DANCING to ME, and the ART to you.

Your Amigo, Pensive Dave

Kansas City Gary

Very impressive! Professional AND a blog!

Are you wearing ShOES?! (No, do I need SHOES?)

Unique - reveals so much of yourself, beyond your Art. Typical Bob: open, intelluctually stimulating, and having fun.

I predict your web will be busier than ever, and so will YOU! KCG

A Connecticut Fan

i love your use of color re the Pittsburgh cityscapes! (One of my favorite places,having lived there many years.) You make the city look vividly ALIVE! Wonderful! Bob Ben

Princeess Noordam

I am the proud owner of your portrait of my grand daughter, Sydney. The painting shows not only her big, beautiful blue eyes, but her sweet innocence as well. When Sydney saw her portrait, she loved her dress with the BIG pink bow, and the kittycat, Peaches, in the lower left. This painting will be treasured forever!
I want to thank you, Bob, for this MASTERPIECE.
When you wrap the painting for shipment, it is WRAPPED, WRAPPED,and WRAPPED again! The anticipation of getting to the painting is almost unbearable - but worth the wait.
Thank you again for this beautiful work of Art! DiAnne

John Murphy l2/31/05

I LOVE THIS SITE! Thanks for sharing your work and your knowledge with the great unwashed. We need a lot of rinsing.

Admirer and Friend

Bob, love your website! ... Besides "Funny Cide". whioh has always been one of my favorites as well as Mykanos. Did you exhibit this at PPG? I saw the painting and had a feeling, I had seen it before. Soon it will be time for me to commission a portrait of my "baby" Love, F.

Anonymous Comment 12/31/05

I love your perspective on Pittsburgh!
Yes, I remember the smoke from the mills, and the chronic grey dullness - but you have given color and life to dreary memories. I love your paintings!
Indeed, I am glad that the smoke/grit from the mills is gone; unfortunately, the jobs and the prosperity as well!

messages received

from Kurt Shaw, Art Critic, PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE, Dec 31, 2005

Old St. Nick has already smiled on me this year - more than once! I just acquired my second original Schmalzried! It's a beauty.
We have to get together soon.It will be fun to walk down memory lane wih these works. One is from l97l, is of birds on a shore, another is one of our Big Dormont scenes, l985.
Love your website! The blog is the perfect ging for you, Bob. I'll keep my eye on it. Whenever you want to get together, please let me know.

Post holidays

Christmas comes and goes in a twinkling! Shopping, decorating, sending cards, wrapping (and rapping) are usual - but the only decorating I do is on masonite, with brushes and acrylic: painting children's portraits.

Two of this year's Christmas-due were Sydney (no, NOT Australia! THAT WOULD take some DOING!),the 5-yr-old grand-daughter of a lovely lady I met on cruise - and Blake, whose grandfather is a life-long friend. One hand washes the other. Blake's portrait (32" 48") I began in September - then put it aside to begin Sydney's. Blake's mother recently painted - meticulously! - several LARGE rooms, with vertical stripes. Impressive! Handsome! I decided to "use" these for the background of Blake's portrait. I liked them so well, I "borrowed" them for Sydney's portrait! More or less. In Sydney's portrait, the "stripes" became sheer curtains, softened/broken by horizontal waves of sunlight! Ethereal, lovely. In the color slides that Sydney's mother sent, her clothes were casual. Party time! Casual became a pink flowered dress, sleeveless, full skirt, a pink sash, BIG bow.
In the foreground a bevelled glass table, reflects all of the above! Perfect, except the table needed SOMETHING ON IT. What? Need you ask? A BIG ORANGE CAT (our Peaches). Sydney LOVES Peaches!

Back to Blake. It seems that a shirt is not a shirt without a logo. How about BLAKE? Yes! BLAKE
BLAKE
BLAKE
BIG BLOCK letters subtly painted, right side of his shirt. In the foregroun
a toy. What kind? I thought train, then decided PLANE! (Grandpa pilots his own.)

Bottom Line: Everyone IS delighted. including the artist.

Sometime in January, both portraits will appear on my site. I will be eager to read your comments.

random thoughts

Well . . . like it or not, winter is here. This morning, it is (more or less), "making nice". Earlier, when I left for McDonald's (New York Times tucked under one arm), the horizon was a glorious RED! Delighted with this HOT display on a cold morning, I stood by the car until it faded.

The Times had a remarkable article re Richard Pryor - affirming that doing his thing HIS WAY was the basis for his unique achievement! Let that be a lesson to us all.

Among MY "things"(comparatively trivial) is using public transportation whenever possible. Driving has never been
something I enjoy. Particularly to downtown; parking is expensive. Yesterday was different. Fresh snow! Sidewalks a MESS, streets the same - AND I was toting a PORTRAIT, 3' x 4' (!) (carefully wrapped in a sheet, fastened with safety pins and scotch tape). The above notwithstanding, I managed to make it to Tri-State Reprographics to have copies made - not as large as the original: 2' x 3', two for the subject's grandparents, one for me - to be digitally photographed, and added to my website. Tristate will keep the "negative", making it possible to have any number of prints, any size, anytime.

That done, I treated myself to a BIG slice of pizza, wandered about more or less aimlessly, happy to be "out" as opposed to sitting at
my easel.