Plein Air Painting, Flatiron

Last April my painting bestie was in town, and we decided to hit the streets for some outdoor painting.  We set up in the Flatiron neighborhood, just outside of Madison Square Park.  This is a great painting location.  You can see the Empire State Building to the north and the Flatiron building is to the south.  You can also paint in Madison Square Park or on the Fifth Avenue median.  Most important, Eataly is across the street if you need a loo or something delicious to eat.

We set up just outside Madison Square Park in a little area of the street that is closed off to cars.

I somehow neglected to take a photo of the view that I was painting, but I was looking north toward the Empire State Building.  This was my initial block in.

In a landscape, the sky is your background, so that went in first.  It is way too blue, so I spent some time toning it down.

That is me in my classy painting outfit and the end of the Sikh Day Parade (more on that in a minute) in the background.  I'm sorry to say that I did not finish the painting.  The perspective was just not working out and I spent a lot of time trying to get that right.

This is as far as I made it, but I didn't care.  I had a great time painting out there.  Here are a few more photos from the day.  Painting on the busy streets of New York City is not for everyone, but I love it.


It was a gorgeous spring day and the neighborhood was packed.  We had just had a freezing cold spell and it seemed like the entire city was out and about.  Flatiron is always a busy neighborhood, but this Saturday was busier than normal.  The annual Sikh Day Parade was ending in Madison Square Park and three weddings were performed in the park!

Marchers relaxing after the parade

Everyone was out celebrating the fact that it was finally spring!

This guy was running around all over the place with his big peanut :)

We were very excited to see some blooming trees after our never ending winter.

Flatiron building at dusk

We stayed out there until dusk, then headed off to Nanoosh to revive ourselves.  A great day with my great friend.  I'll have some more cityscape painting coming up soon.