Welcome to the Gallery. This is a perfect place to find out what new artwork I'm producing and where my visual thought process is evolving to. All images that are represented in the gallery above are for sale and may be purchased at my online store. Clicking on any image in the slide show will bring you directly to the online store as well. Thank you for your interest. Please enjoy the Gallery……….

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BACKGROUND INFORMATIONI moved back to NY in the Fall of 2001 after a 10 year stay in California to focus solely on expanding my knowledge and abilities as an artist. I am currently in the process of compiling and completing images that were produced recently to add to the Female Figurative Print series which will be an ongoing collection. Drawing from the live figure has become a passion of mine and I am happy to be able to show some of that love for it by working on this collection.You will also find galleries for original artwork as well. One of the galleries involves a Collaborative painting project that took place over the Spring and Summer of 2006. Fellow artist Kevin Corcoran and I hosted a collaborative painting night at his gallery that was open to the public to view. We both worked on the collaborative images together and painted through one anothers graphics enroute to finishing each of the pieces. Our thought process behind this project was to paint, learn and explore the improvisational act of creating together just as two musicians would in a Jazz format performance. Our time together produced 19 images that you can view above. Read "How It Started" below….

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Here's a background story on how the Collaborative Series pictured above began….

Kevin Corcoran and Peter Bragino met back in 2003 through a figure study class at “The Drawing Studio” in Smithtown run by Society of Illustrators Board Member Jeffery Fisher www.thedrawingstudioli.comSometime during the late winter of 2006 Bragino called Corcoran with an idea. He asked Corcoran to hang a large canvas on the wall and get the paints out, (spray paint included). Bragino said that he was on his way up to the gallery and that they were going to work on a painting together. They decided to keep the doors open to the public and invite people in to watch. The two were determined to create an art scene and bring a new level of understanding to the process of making art. They called it “Improvisational art”, or “Jazz art”. They wondered, if art and music were so closely related and musicians create amazing work together through collaboration, why can’t artists do the same? It was the willingness to abandon the solitary artist paradigm for the sake of the finished painting that brought this thought process to life.Although artists have been collaborating on images since art making began, it is the thought process of Jazz and it’s improvisational motif that sets what Bragino and Corcoran have done apart. With a high level of respect for each others individual work and extensive experience drawing the live figure they set out on to uncharted ground. Both artists worked on the pieces at the same time painting over and through each others graphics as they went along. With numerous discussions throughout the evolution of the paintings Bragino and Corcoran fine tuned their thoughts about each piece. “We are mainly trying to solve space and composition the whole time while keeping a feeling of movement in each piece. The process is very intuitive.” says Bragino. Corcoran adds “It sometimes seems like a puzzle that unfolds itself as you go along. You just need to feed it the right shapes and colors for it to live.” At the end of each painting both artists were as surprised at the outcome as the onlookers who came each week to see the new piece in progress. That uncertainty was one of the major aspects that kept them interested in the project from week to week.What they did attracted a lot of attention from local crowds as well as collectors and galleries as far reaching as Florida, California, Sweden, Italy, and China. If the past was any indication of the future, than this idea and the paintings that exist as a result of it are going to continue to gain attention. The project did nothing less than inspire and bring a greater understanding of the creative process to all those who witnessed it. This wasn’t your ordinary wine and cheese event and these two guys wouldn’t have had it any other way. Long live Jazz art and the amazing visual songs it creates.Written by Dylan Paton

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