Ciro Cozzi

Ciro Cozzi was a longtime resident of Provincetown, and well known restaurateur of the famed Ciro and Sals. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ciro, a few years back and here is a clip from that interview. Ciro died on Valentine's Day  at the age of 91.

Cozzi attended the Art Student's League, studying with Frank Reilly and in Provincetown Henry Hensche.

Although Ciro was my neighbor in Provincetown, the only real dialog I had with him was in the two hour interview he gave me back in 2006. 

Cozzi spoke about Frank Reilly's class in New York has being too formulaic and detrimental to the art students own creativity.

Ciro talked about his time with Hensche, as being stifling to his own artistic journey. 

I found that I learn so much in the two hours talking to Cozzi about the process one goes through in painting.

There is no mistake that Cozzi had tremendous drawing facility and a mastery of color he had gained from both Reilly, and Hensche, not to mention his study of sculpture. 

With all this knowledge he still continued to search out his own voice and expression.

Whitmore Lane

Whitmarsh Lane is a quiet lane in the old town in Key West.
I started this painting earlier last week and worked on it the same time of day for four days. I wanted to explore some of the notes of color, without loosing the overall colorful effect the lane has on me.

Tang Figure and Teapot

Tang Figure and Teapot 16x20

Hawthorne once said "where there is still life there's hope". Mike Rooney bought this figure from an antique store. I set up a few things around his house and we set out to study.

What I hear from so many artist's is that they don't like doing still life cause It's boring or they can't sell them. 

It's true that outdoor still life is a slightly unusual subject, however painting still life is really how you improve your color vision. 

In the landscape everything is subtle and difficult to analyze. With still life the color is more vibrant and easy to see. You are never going to see those bright colors in the pure landscape. 

By comparing the masses of colors you begin to see the the differences and then smaller differences of color.

Dinghys

Small boats or dinghies make great subject matter because they are usually painted bright and they make great reflections. I like to make small paintings of this subject because they are going to move a bit in the water and chances are the owner is going to come and get it and off goes your painting subject. So you have to paint  fast.

Key West Harbor

Key West has a great old harbor that I enjoy painting on. It has lots of sailing vessels, schooners to paint. I picked the more modern fishing boats to paint because the composition seemed better.
I really see the difference in the color of the water down here it's much greener than up north.

Sunny Morning Lane

I felt that my color was getting a little dull, so I went back to my pallet knife to paint this lane scene.

The knife really helps when you put down the color. I also helps keep away from endless details.

When you are working with the knife it's best if you wipe the knife every time you reach for a new color.

Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven s 6x6 oil on canvas panel

Blue Heaven is real must, on the paint list. It holds a special place for me because I worked there years ago and showed in the gallery up stairs.

Old Truck

For years I have looked at this old truck and thought it would make a great painting subject.

It's not very serious and fun to paint. Lots of tourists get their picture taken next to it. 

What drew me to this subject is the sense you get of old Key West. This broken down truck with this beautiful bougainvillea growing over the roof.

6x6 Old Truck Oil on canvas panel

The Tree at the Porter House

Oil on Masonite 16x20

I loved painting the banyan tree so much I decided to paint a larger version of the painting.

The tree is on the corner of Duval and Caroline, here in Key West. The house is called the Porter house.
 I don't want my paintings to be about architecture as much as nature, but getting into some of the detail is fun.
I find that when you get into details however, you can go over board, and tighten the painting, loosing the very thing that drew you to paint the scene in the first place.
Certainly it's a fine line between suggesting details and rendering up your painting. You want to make your painting as William Merit Chase called "alive with paint". 

Morning Silhouette

I worked on an old painting this morning on Stock Island, when I was finished I had time to start another,
The boats where silhouetted against the sky and it seemed to me that this scene painted itself. My favorite thing to paint is water and the fishing boats have great reflections.
I massed in the painting with all the big shadow shapes and when I completed the main shadow notes I move on to the water and then the light notes.

Hibiscus Bush

The flowering bush and shutter I thought would make a nice subject.  I usually don't paint stoop paintings, after making a small thumbnail sketch I felt this scene would be fun to do.
Sometimes all that draws us into making a painting is the shear enjoyment we get from painting.
I painted this with a brush and wanted to keep it loose and full of paint.