I’m still in San Francisco, avoiding the withering heat of Florida’s monsoon season. I am also taking a break from my regular commentaries, since writing about the greed and stupidity that have propped up the stock market and the economy for the last decade was growing boring and repetitive. Instead, I’ve featured paintings by friends, most recently Geoffrey Leckie and Deborah Oropallo. The photograph above was taken by Victor Riess, whom I met two decades ago in Colorado when he took my trading course. An avid bicyclist and musician, Victor is also the best photographer I know. He took the picture above near his home in Lancaster, PA. It is a wintry Pennsylvania scene that vividly recalls landscapes painted by the Dutch master Pieter Bruegel in the mid-1500s at the height of his powers. All of Victor’s photos are for sale, including the picture of the Amish girl featured here last week. The work above, a signed, original print, is priced at $32,000. It is approximately 20″ x 30″. For further details, email me at Rick’s Picks.
You know how, sometimes, you look at a painting and say, “Wow! that looks so real, it looks like a photograph!”? This one struck me in that, if you hadn’t told me it was a photograph, Rick, I would’ve swore it was a painting. Everything is perfectly in place and with a just-right balance of colors, its almost too good to be real! My compliments to Mr. Victor Riess!