Harry Forsdick Art
Welcome to my art pages. I have always been a visual person -- I love to see things rather than just talk or read about them. I grew up outside of New York City on Long Island. My parents took my sister and me to all of the museums of New York. So, I grew up experiencing some of the best art in the world. This interest has stuck with me, and now, when I travel, the first thing I think about is what art museums can we visit.
Being a fidgety person, I have always been a doodler. In graduate school, this led me to try some simple drawings. Fast forward to retirement when I took my first classes in Drawing and Watercolor Painting. I wasn't particularly good at free form drawing, but it was fun. At the same time, the Urban Sketching movement started and I was hooked in my desire to get better at producing sketches and paintings of what I saw.
After spending a lot of money on buying traditional art supplies, and producing still pretty mediocre results, I started thinking how I could apply my skills with computers to assist my desire to paint. This coincided with the appearance of the large iPad Pro Tablet, the Apple Pencil and the ProCreate app. After two years of learning how to use these three tools I have now come to like the results I am achieving.
Each painting is a learning experience as I come up with new ways of achieving results. I think that is true of all artists, regardless of the tools they use.
Being a fidgety person, I have always been a doodler. In graduate school, this led me to try some simple drawings. Fast forward to retirement when I took my first classes in Drawing and Watercolor Painting. I wasn't particularly good at free form drawing, but it was fun. At the same time, the Urban Sketching movement started and I was hooked in my desire to get better at producing sketches and paintings of what I saw.
After spending a lot of money on buying traditional art supplies, and producing still pretty mediocre results, I started thinking how I could apply my skills with computers to assist my desire to paint. This coincided with the appearance of the large iPad Pro Tablet, the Apple Pencil and the ProCreate app. After two years of learning how to use these three tools I have now come to like the results I am achieving.
Each painting is a learning experience as I come up with new ways of achieving results. I think that is true of all artists, regardless of the tools they use.
Cary Art Exhibition
I have been fortunate to have been selected to show an exhibition of my paintings in November and December, 2018 as part of the Art @ Cary Library and the Lexington Community Center program. Here is a preview of that exhibit -- but please come and see these drawings at a size and scale that shows them off best.
Preview of Exhibit
Harry Forsdick Paintings,
November & December, 2018
2nd Floor Hallway Gallery, Lexington Community Center
The Paintings
I have grouped the paintings into themes -- a location, a type of object, a set of similar scenes. If you slide your mouse over a painting, you will see a caption. If you click on an painting, you will see a larger rendition of the painting.
Articles about Exhibit
Several articles about this exhibit have appeared in the Lexington newspapers:
- Where Tech Meets Art: Harry's Way, Colonial Times magazine
- Scene and Herd: Harry Forsdick, Lexington Minuteman newspaper
Purchase
You can purchase any of these paintings clicking on the Purchase button below. That will enter you into a store where you will be able to select the painting(s) you want and specify your choice of size and whether or not you wish to purchase it framed or just rendered on a stretched canvas.
I am primarily offering these paintings to recoup the costs of printing the paintings shown in this exhibition. The prices are quite affordable because I can an offer an "original" to everybody given the process I use to produce my paintings. I am willing to sign any of my paintings, if you wish.
I am primarily offering these paintings to recoup the costs of printing the paintings shown in this exhibition. The prices are quite affordable because I can an offer an "original" to everybody given the process I use to produce my paintings. I am willing to sign any of my paintings, if you wish.
Mexico, 2018
Our most recent trip in the Winter of 2018 was to Mexico. We visited three cities: Mexico City, San Miguel del Allende, and Oaxaca. After many years of fearing Mexico because of the reputation of lawlessness and violence, we were inspired by several cousins who traveled there and encouraged us to go. We did, fell in love with Mexico, and will return.
Cuba, 2017
In the winter of 2017 we took advantage of the Obama administration overture to normalize relations and traveled to Havana Cuba. We did this on our own and highly recommend this mode of travel, rather than the all inclusive package tours. We made all of our reservations (Airline, AirBnB, Tour) ourselves and were thankful that we did because we got to stay with a family rather than in a hotel, and become friends with a taxi driver who owned one of those restored 1950's cars. Even though the Trump administration has made noise about shutting down this style of travel to Cuba, I believe you can still do this. In any case, travelling to Cuba is a great experience -- not the least of which are the bright Caribbean scenes you will see.
Slave Children, Whitney Plantation, Edgard, Louisiana, 2016
In the winter of 2016 we traveled to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. From New Orleans, we drove up the east side of the Mississippi river to the Whitney Plantation. This restored plantation is devoted to telling the story of slavery on the plantations. Throughout the grounds, there are statues of slave children placed around and within the buildings. These images of children drove home to me the tragedy of slavery in the USA.
Town Meeting, 2017
Lexington is governed by a representative Town Meeting. Marsha and I are two of 192 elected Town Meeting Members, in our case representing Precinct 7. For 4 to 6 weeks every Spring and one week in the Fall, we meet twice a week for up to three hour sessions where articles governing the Town are proposed, discussed, and voted on. This takes up a lot of time, some of which allows me to draw sketches of fellow town meeting members.
Lexington Friends
I spend a lot of time around Lexington and have a lot of friends who live here. Although I am frequently inspired to paint when we are traveling, it's no surprise that I draw and paint what I see most of the time: scenes and people from my hometown.
Cummington, MA
About 35 years ago along with 3 other families, we bought 10 acres of land in Cummington, MA and over a period of 10 years built a summer house. When I say we built, I mean it: we cut down the trees, stripped the bark of those trees and built the frame of our two story house. We then proceeded to side the house with rough cut lumber from local saw mills and continued to finish the house so that we had space for all of us on a shared basis. Cummington is a farming community in the eastern edge of the Berkshires. There are many great scenes to paint.
The Adirondacks
Marsha and I have spent several of our anniversaries in June at The Hedges, Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks. We love the decor of the buildings of this lodge and so I make paintings of what I see.
MBTA Vehicles
My son Will lives 30 seconds away from the D Line of the MBTA Green Line. One day I was taking pictures and I took one of a trolly. Lots of people told me they liked that -- and so I decided to paint as many different types of MBTA vehicles as I could think of. Here are the 6 that I could recall, including the 62 bus that runs through Lexington Center.
Hancock Shaker Village
These paintings are not in the show because I have not finished the complete set that I have planned to paint. We have spent a lot of time visiting Shaker villages around the country -- as far away as Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. The Hancock Shaker village is quite close to our house in Cummington, so we see it frequently. This past summer, I started this series of painting of this Shaker village and expect to add more,including interiors to these initial three buildings.