My  group of paintings in a museum are from visits to see Carnegie International 2013-2014 in Pittsburgh.

“Family portrait in the CMOA Modern Gallery”  NFS

I kept this one in my own collection. Sometimes I paint people  in the setting of a museum or gallery.  I am depicting how everyone is using their camera now to capture the art they love or friends and family with the art.

In this painting of Gallery 12 at Carnegie Museum: Stuart Davis “Composition Concrete” 1957,  Ellsworth Kelly “Aubade” 1957, Isamu Noguchi’s “Structure” 1945,  Alexander Calder’s mobile 1941, and Ad Reinhardt’s Blue” 1952.   In 2013, the galleries of art since 1945  were renovated as a component of the  2013 Carnegie International. Re-hung by the International curators, the galleries  feature important acquisitions from past  Carnegie International exhibitions and  examine their place in the major art movements of the last 90 years.  This was the work of the curator of contemporary art, Dan Byers, and one of his co-curators of the International, Tina Kukielski.  Museum Director Lynn Zelevansky and the other co-curator of the International, Daniel Baumann, also had input.

“Carolyn photographing her daughter” SOLD 

Pastel and charcoal.  My pastel portrait of Carolyn Pierotti and daughter Catherine at entrance to Carnegie Museum of Art. I am depicting how everyone is using their camera now to capture the art they love or friends and family with the art they love. Artwork in this portrait is Richard Serra’s “Carnegie” and Phyllida Barlow’s piece titled “TIP”.

“WQED shoot at 2013 Carnegie International ” SOLD  

Watercolor and Pastel. I painted WQED’s  Tonia Caruso hosting  a short film in front of the Phyllida Barlow sculpture “Untitled: upturnedhouse”  which CMOA purchased. WQED’s roducer Jill Neely, museum spokesman Jonathan Gaugler,  a bystander and  Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man I“  is seen. Tonia said her staff could not stop laughing when they saw this and they ribbed her that there were so many takes an artist had time to paint a portrait.

“Phyllida Barlow and Richard Serra welcome you to 2013 Carnegie International ”  $350.

17” x 11” Pastel and Charcoal.  Contact me to purchase. Charcoal and pastel is inspired by “TIP” British artist Phyllida Barlow’s  sculpture at the CMOA entrance, and the contrast with Serra’s “Carnegie” 1985  Core -ten Steel sculpture. The Scaife Galleries were designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1974. You cannot see it but Dan Kiley designed the nearby landscaping. Dan Kiley developed the planting schemes surrounding the Scaife Galleries as well as in the  sculpture court entered from parking lot.

“Selfies” a collage of ballpoint pen, pastel and watercolor at entrance of  CMOA   $350.- — Contact me to purchase. 

22″x 12″ Ballpoint pen, pastel, watercolor collage. Contact me to purchase.

“Polly studies Tayrn Simon photography”  SOLD

19” x 12”  Pastel, watercolor.  Tayrn Simon’s series is a photographic inventory of the women, weapons and vehicles of James Bond films made over the past fifty years. My friend photographer and fiber artist Polly Whitehorn (graduate of FIT) relocated to Pittsburgh from NY.

 

“Sketch of Fuji Kindergarten Installation” $350.  

22” x 12” Pastel and Charcoal. Contact me to purchase. This was part of the Playground Project at the International. Kids could play within this installation and there some pictures of that here.

“Scott Nearing: I have my Book; Helen Nearing: I have my Big Ass TV” NFS

19” x 12” Watercolor, color pencil, collage with Joel Sternfeld’s photograph of the Nearings.  Inspired by  Sternfeld’s  installation series documenting  Experimental Utopias in America. The yellow cat is a tip of my hat to Nicole Eisenman’s painting  “Beer Garden with Ulrike and Celeste”. Got to meet her at Life Drawing Workshop at Carnegie Museum! Reflections show Mexican artist Pedro Reyes “Disarm”, self playing instruments made from weapons confiscated from the drug war installed in the Hall of Sculpture. BTW no one could be less likely to own a big ass TV than the Nearings.

“Serra’s Carnegie and Barlow’s TIP at entrance to CMOA” 

32” x 22 ½” ink, wash, gouache on newsprint, mounted on foam core board. This was my first sketchy and loose sketch for my sketchbook.  Available for sale.

Media: acrylic paint on archival satellite photograph; permanent metallic gold ink

Archival print created by Haiko Spallek

Approximate Size: 20″ x 16″

Framed painting over print with text.

Contact me to purchase  a print of it.

In this piece I replace urban planner Robert Moses with my own name.  R.K. Mellon and Mosites Co.’s names crossed out as players for the role.

In this piece I replace  journalist, author, and activist Jane Jacob with  Chris Ivey’s name. Others crossed outed are Arthur Ziegler, James Van Trump, Franklin Toker.

Juror Kathleen Zimbicki awarded this piece a Juror’s Award at Pittsburgh Society of Artist’s June 2010 exhibit titled  “Urban Dreams” at Fein Arts Gallery on Pittsburgh’s Northside.

Central to my theme is my proposal of 80 green roofs within Penn Circle, organic gardens, a lazy river moat ride around East Liberty Presbyterian Church, outdoor pools and a summer stage for a “Chris Ivey Film Festival” in the middle of it all.

If want want to read more about my thinking in creating this piece read here.

My thinking about green as relates to my East Liberty art piece:

• East Liberty and contiguous lands were once green before all the subdivisions first created by first Jacob Negley (laid out East Liberty in 1810) and then Thomas Mellon his son-in-law.
• Liberty itself used in the British usage meant free place to graze (not from the Revolution as I had always imagined) – so I’m thinking historically it housed a bucolic cattle grazing place (apparently there was also originally North Liberty, South Liberty and West Liberty). Since now there is only East Liberty- maybe now a name change can be considered to go with the “greening of East Liberty- hence “Liberty Green”
• “Green = $” — When thinking of the financial engine that the land Thomas Mellon acquired (as a result of his marriage to Jacob Negley’s daughter Sarah Jane) became,  it’s impressive how it fueled the many other business ventures he is more associated with
• Green the way we think now… sustainable, energy conservation, recycled

19″ x 19″ print:  $50
30″ x 30″ print: $120

To order, contact Carol.

“Nice to meet you too Carol, thanks again for the print! It’s even better than I imagined!” M. Fitzgerald June 2020

Media: Digital print on heavy satin paper. Color and alterations to this charming vintage map copyright 2009 and 2013 by Carol Skinger.

Some background on Schenley Park: Once Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park in NYC, every city worth its salt had to have a grand park. Schenley Park was Pittsburgh’s response to Central Park.

Schenley Park is one of several jewels of park planning in Pittsburgh. Through my research in the 1980’s,  I found this beautiful illustrated “pictorial” map from the 1930’s, which was strictly a black and white line drawing, in some ways unfinished. It was so beautiful, as an artist I appreciated it and thought others would too. I wanted to make it available to the public. But first it needed color.

The most important change I made to the vintage illustration was adding color, which I did using color pencil. I also updated the street names, and noted the proposals shown in the drawing but never built. Then I added elevation notations, and the key dates of the development of the park in the text box on the left, which had been left blank. Finally the red border that surrounds The Frick Park Map was an important addition as so many folks frame them together as a set, so I added that. It is possible the two maps were drawn by the same artist Ezra Stiles. He certainly penned the Frick Park Map. Note added in 2024, The Frick Pittsburgh Museum store no longer carries the Frick map.

Many Pittsburghers are familiar with the Frick Park Map. Rick Landesberg  spoke about the Frick Park Map on this YouTube filmed at TEDx Leadership Pittsburgh.

My color print of Schenley Park Map is a high quality digital print on heavy satin paper.

Who might love a print as a gift? Schenley Park is located in the university district of Pittsburgh known as Oakland. Residents of Pittsburgh’s East End, students and staff at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh and Carlow University, not to mention staff and families of patients at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Pennsylvania’s largest employer with 55,000 employees — all count Schenley Park as their own. Schenley Park was a character and location in Stephen Chbosky’s 1999 book and 2012 film Perks of Being a Wallflower! The park is home to a vintage motor sports car race, the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix every July. It is also home to the Komen Pittsburgh Race for the Cure, an annual fundraising event for breast cancer and a Mother’s Day tradition with more than 35,000 participants. Phipps Conservatory and Schenley Park Café & Visitor’s Center host numerous wedding parties, not to speak of cyclists who bicycle though the park on roads and trails.

When you return from a whale watch in Provincetown, the boat takes you by Province Lands, 4,500 acres owned by the National Parks and is part of Cape Code National Seashore. The painting is SOLD.

Title: Tidal Flats Diptych
Media: Oil
Approximate Size: 20″ x 16″ each painting, overall 40″w x 16″h
Description: Truro, Cape Cod