Spent three weeks road tripping from Tucson to SoCal back up to Northern Arizona. Painting, hiking and eating great food. Could have spent another three weeks and still not see it all.

Come join me to paint or hang out for a…

A three day celebration of outdoor painting in northern Manhattan June 21, 22 and 23

Local artists will paint Inwood’s lively scene and the amazing scenery. This event is brand-new in 2019. This event is being organized by Elissa Gore and Sally Fisher. It will be part of the Uptown Artstroll. Take a look at the post below for more info.

Take a look at all the artist participating https://paintinwood.blogspot.com

Come by to just visit with me in this cool new neighborhood, or stop by and paint with me. I’d love the company! I will be painting Friday night form 7:30PM-9:30PM at the concert, Saturday from 1pm-5pm and Sunday from noon till the closing gala at 4pm. Call or text me to find me at 917 747-6060.

Descended into the remote, magnificent Canyon de Chelly National Monument with a Navajo guide on a 4-day hiking adventure. Amazing sacred desert landscape of enigmatic ruins and vaulting sandstone walls tattooed with petroglyphs.

I backpacked through The Superstition Mountains. Weathered lava, Saguaro Cacti, deep narrow chasms! Incredible panoramic desert beauty! Real backpacking experience, we had to carry everything in and everything out!

LANDMANNALAUGAR to SKÓGAR to SOUTH COAST AND GLACIER WALK

Seven days of incredible hiking through active volcanos, colorful mountains, and an obsidian desert and much more. The most breathtaking country, Iceland is a geothermal wonderland.

We stayed in three different mountains huts, Álftavatn, Emstrur, and finally fiórsmörk which was nesting under the glaciers Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull.

Come and join me in the wonderful neighborhood of Inwood and see my paintings of New York City. Have a glass of wine, see some art and then enjoy the neighborhood. The show is in a neighborhood outpost called Dichter Pharmacy. Read about Manny Ramirez in this NY Times article.

All my paintings and drawing are done “en plein air” which is just a French expression which means “in the open air” and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.

Last time we visited Manny we ate in a great restaurant called Indian Road Cafe. But there are countless other options.

It was over a year in planning, but I finally hiked the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim. It was always a dream of mine to do it. I had a rocky start, on day one I had a bad bout with dehydration and altitude sickness. Was planning on doing rim to rim to rim, but that was not to be. 45 Minutes after arriving at the South Rim I was being taking to the clinic in an ambulance. Spent two days resting at on the south side, and drove to the North Rim on day three. Finally adjusting to the altitude and drinking more gatorade than you can imagine, we set out at 2:30am to hike the 14 miles down to the Phantom Ranch.
We spend one night in the dormitories at the Phantom Ranch and hiked up the 9.5 miles on the Bright Angel Trail to the South Rim. It was 120 degrees at the bottom when we arrived. Brutal!

The hike up the South Rim was challenging but doable. The trail was all switchbacks, but beautiful. There was almost always some shade if you stayed close to the cliff sides. Had to describe the colors of the rocks and none of my pictures do it justice.

The following day we headed to Sedona and did some more hiking, some yoga and a bit of resting up.

Camino de Santiago

On September 18, 2013, I walked with a group of friends the last 140 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain from Ponferrada to Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino is an ancient Christian pilgrim’s trail that’s known for its beautiful scenery, historical sights and fascinating culture. But what most people don’t know about the Camino, unless experienced firsthand, are the lessons a pilgrim (camino hiker) learns along the way, the mysteries that the trail unfolds, and the surreal experiences that a Camino pilgrim may encounter. Every Camino pilgrim has a Camino story that goes beyond the beautiful scenery and historical sights. My Camino experience taught me 1. To slow down and smell the roses, 2. There are mysteries in life that can’t be explained, and that 3. I have a “guardian angel”.

Walking approximately 20 miles a day on the hilly terrains of Northwestern Spain was not an easy task! As a fast paced New Yorker, my New York walking pace made walking the Camino even more difficult. The faster I walked, the more blisters I got. As I continued to speed walk, my ankles started to get swollen. Because I approached the Camino as if I’m in a foot race, the Camino had a way of telling me to slow down, to enjoy the journey, and that it is not about the destination. Why was I rushing? With each painful step, my blisters and swollen ankles forced me to slow down. Finally slowing down, that’s when the pain subsided. In a slower pace, I started to SEE things more, I started to LISTEN to how I feel and to fellow pilgrims and the turning point was when I started to FEEL the Camino come ALIVE!