Independently yours'

He Drives To Paint | New Haven Independent

"Leader of the band"

This is a very special post that I am dedicating to my father Charles S. Ferguson who died on April 12th 2013 at the age of 81. I completed this 8"x 10" Oil portrait in just a matter of hours for his memorial service reception. I rushed to get it ready to be displayed. The painting actually isn't even finished yet. It is still in an under painting stage. But I knew my Dad would have wanted me to have done something like this for him. He was always very proud of my artistic endeavors and he always took a keen interest in them.

My dad worked at the Post Office for 41 years before retiring in 1998. But my father was also a great musician. He played the trumpet, drums and a couple of other instruments as well. I remember as a kid seeing him playing the drums in a band featuring my mom on piano and my aunt performing vocals at a local nursing home. As my dad was playing the drums I noticed him dozing off while performing and yet he never missed a beat. ( I am not making that up).

And so in memory of my beloved father I chose a song by Dan Fogelberg titled "Leader of The Band" a song Fogelberg wrote as a tribute to his own father who was a high school marching band teacher. I thought this song was very fitting. Enjoy...

My dads panama hat that he used to wear will hang near my easel in my studio.

My next blog will feature an update on the book release "The Art of Caring" and I'll resume telling my corny jokes. See you next time..

BY THE BOOK and (Is that you Aunt Esther?)

Still Life 7"x 5" Oil on wood

Greetings everyone. Once again I'm back at the computer with a new blog post update. I've been quite busy and have not been able to post as much as I would like to. For now I'll just have to post when I can and eventually I'll post more frequently again.

I'm just reminding everyone that I still have a number of paintings still showing at The Frame Shop and Westville Gallery  899 Whalley Ave. New Haven CT. Also, I wanted to announce that I was chosen to be included in a book published by students at Yale University. My interview is among others in the book. Some of my paintings will also be featured in the yet to be released  publication. There is going to be a special event held for individuals included in the publication on Thursday March 28th 5:00 pm at Cohen Auditorium inside THE YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE  at 333 Cedar St. New Haven CT. I will also have some of my paintings on display for the event as well. Drop in if your in the area. 
I always imagined that if I wrote a book about myself it would be released in to two parts the first book would be titled "CHRIS FERGUSON IS A GREAT MAN-one mans rise to success in the art world"  featuring a picture of me on the cover holding a paint brush and palette with an airbrushed............heavily airbrushed muscular build. This would sell  two copies. One being bought by me and the other being bought by my dog. Then there would come the inevitable follow up to the first book. CHRIS FERGUSON ISN'T AS GREAT AS HE THOUGHT HE WAS- one man's lesson of humility in the art world" featuring on the front cover a picture of me on the New Haven green on a cold rainy day with a broken down plien air easel pleading with passersby to buy my paintings. Oddly enough the latter book would probably end up on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Anyways I know that the book published by the Yale students will be far better than anything I could possibly write. I'll keep you all posted as to when it is released. I'd like to give a very special thanks to Christine Sunu, who conducted my interview. She made it a very pleasant experience. Thanks again Christine.


And in completely unrelated news, for no reason whatsoever I've posted a picture of Aunt Esther who, according to Fred G. Sanford of SANFORD AND SON, "Has a face that could launch a thousand ships.........................in the opposite direction."                                                  

"Watch it sucker!...........Or the next self portrait you paint will be of you with a black eye and no teeth."



Ooops, sorry Aunt Esther. I'll see you all in my next blog post.

Better late than never

Greetings Everyone. Just a brief entry to let you know that I'll have a number of small paintings showing at THE FRAME SHOP WESTVILLE GALLERY at 889 Whalley Ave. New Haven CT. The paintings will be up until January 31st. Of course it probably would have been better if I told you all about this at the begining of the month when the paintings were first hung.(oops, my bad)  Meanwhile I've been busy working on new paintings and getting ready to reactivate my main website in a few weeks. Also I'm planning to market my paintings to galleries outside of Connecticut. As you can tell I haven't been able to post my blogs as frequently as I would like, but I will continue to keep you informed an up to date. See you soon.