My 'Eyes' landscape series has been weaving its way through my career for years. These paintings have become some of my favorite projects. It has been a chance for me to experience the world through someone else. This series started with an amazing sunset view of Manhattan taken by the talented photographer Sabine Jacobs. I translated her vision of New York City on a standard single edge razor blade. 

Years later my daughter Emily, on one of her trips to New York, had taken a fantastic picture of lower Manhattan. She posted it and once I saw it, I immediately knew that this image needed to become a painting. I could sense her feeling of excitement in this picture, I could feel the transition in the city from a daytime metropolis to the center of the night time world. The sunset was at a perfect point to bathe all the buildings that were not mirrored in a rich copper. Those buildings that were mirrored, reflected all the deep blue that was left in the day.

That right there is the soul of this painting. My love for my daughter, my vicarious excitement for her adventures and the wonderful way Mother Nature always tops anything we can come up with. 

Now it is time to put on my Artistic Nerd hat. 'Through Emily's Eyes' was lined up to be much more of a challenge than a razor blade painting. I know, you would think jamming Manhattan on a single edge razor blade would be the end of the crazy train. Yet with the razor blade painting, the majority of the buildings were so small, they merely needed to be indicated. The viewer's eye would take care of the rest. Emily's painting, at 4.5 x 2.5 inches is ten times bigger than Sabine's painting so that allows for a lot more information to be seen. While still a tiny painting, you can clearly make out most of the hundreds of buildings. That meant digging in and just taking it millimetre by millimetre.

A painting like this takes a mind shift. Some pieces take ten hours and you can see the finish line from the very beginning. 'Through Emily's Eyes', was more of an epic journey. You almost need to just look at your feet and concentrate on each step that you are taking. Notice and enjoy the rocks on the ground and the small flowers growing along the way rather than the monumental distance that needs to be traveled.

'Through Emily's Eyes' has not only become one of my favorite pieces it also marks a moment of evolution in my work. This painting has been my most ambitious miniature cityscape to date.  

This painting is now available as a giclee in my store. The print is exact to the original painting in color, detail and size. It is printed on Hahnemuhl 308 gram paper. Please visit my store to collect one of your own!