More Painting Updates, Empire State Building and Union Square

Happy first day of spring!  Here in New York City, we are still digging out from last weeks blizzard/ice storm and it feels nothing like spring.  Our insane weather is actually what led me to redo these two paintings.

The Art Guild of Port Washington is having a show celebrating America and I want to enter.  Back in February, my plan was to go down to Battery Park and paint the Statue Of Liberty.  Of course, in February, it was 65-70 degrees every day.  Since March started, it's been nothing but rain, snow, blizzards and freezing temps.  Battery Park is on the cool side most of the time.  There is no way I was going to hang out there for hours painting.   I took these two photos today.  There is a snow mountain at 13th and University and cars all over the city are stuck in blocks of ice.  I knew if I were going to do something for this show, it would have to be done in the studio.

I was about to give up on entering the show, when I remembered that I had two paintings I might be able to use.  One of the Empire State Building, and another of Union Square that happened to have an American flag in the background.  The only problem is that these two paintings were not among my best.  I had worked on each of them twice on location.  I'm not a landscape painter, so two passes are not nearly enough for me to complete a canvas.

I decided to tackle them in the studio.  I figured the worst that could happen would be that I would totally ruin them and would skip entering the show.

This was the original painting of the Empire State Building.  I always thought this painting needed a bit more work, but never got back out there to do it.  It was a little too gray for me.  It was a gray, rainy day when I was there, but I thought I would take a chance and try to brighten it up a bit.  After two sessions in the studio, I'm much happier with it.

Empire State Building, 11x14, oil

 Here is the updated version.  I feel like this one has more life in it and I'm now happy with the painting.

The second painting was done in Union Square.  Unfortunately, I do not have a before photo for you. I neglected to take one when I began my painting frenzy and the originals were lost in the iPhoto to Photos transition (the worst thing Apple ever did, in my opinion).

Anyway, here is what I ended up with.  If you are familiar with Union Square, I entered the park at 17th and Broadway and I was looking across the park toward Beth Israel.

Union Square, Summer 11x14, oil

Now all I have to do is enter these in the show!  Even if I am not chosen, I'm still happy that these paintings are now officially finished.  I'm on a big clean out and every thing that is not suitable for framing and hanging is either getting an update or getting painted over.  I'm glad that these two were able to be saved.

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.

Havana, Cuba: The Malecon

Greetings from snowy New York.  We are having our third blizzard in five days, so that has me thinking about the great weather we had in Cuba. One of my favorite things that I did in Cuba was to paint the sunset along the Malecon drive.  The Malecon is a five mile road and seawall that stretches along the coast of Havana. It is a busy road with very fast moving cars, but the main attraction is the sea wall and the incredible views, especially at sunset.

We drove down the Malecon every day on our way into town and on our second to last night, we decided to try and paint the sunset.  The sunsets there are amazing.  I've never before painted a sunset, but decided to give it a try.

 

The seawall is right along the road.  The waves come splashing up against it and sometimes people get soaked, but that does not stop everyone from walking along the promenade, meeting up with friends, and it seems to be the place for lovers to watch the sunset.

I took these photos at the beginning of the trip.  We asked our cab driver to pull over so we could take some sunset photos and he was kind enough to do it, even though traffic on the road is insane.

We had spent the day painting on the Paseo de Marti, so we grabbed a pedicab and headed over to the Malecon around 6pm.

Our wonderful pedicab driver

The pedicab was a wild ride, but a much more humane option than the horse drawn carriages.  Our driver was great and he even came to pick us up when we were done.

This was the view that I painted.  I set up my easel and paints, then got to work getting the canvas covered.  I knew I did not have much time, so I painted as fast as I could.  If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a very slow painter, so this was definitely a challenge.

School girls walking along the seawall

I painted as fast as I could for about 45 minutes.  I got just enough done to show the basic idea of what the sunset looked like.

I stopped at this point and just watched the incredible scene happening before me.

The little painting will never be finished, but it will always be a lovely reminder of a day spent with a dear friend in an incredible place.

My Biggest Painting Adventure Yet: Havana, Cuba!

Hello from the frozen tundra that is New York City!  I'm hoping my modem holds out so I can complete this post.  On top of the unrelenting cold/ice/snow,  Mercury in retrograde really hit me hard this time around.  However, I'm quite happy to report that my planned trip to Cuba went off without a hitch.  My teacher, Gregg Kreutz, and a group of 24 of us went to Havana to paint and photograph the city.

I started planning this trip last August, so it was a long time in the making.  We started planning our trip well before the US loosened travel regulations, so there was (and still is) a lot of paperwork and planning to be done before you can get on the plane.

We had to get a visa to travel to Cuba and there was a host of other paperwork, but it was relatively easy.  In the US, you take a flight from your home to Miami or Tampa, then after much paperwork and luggage weighing, you get on a charter flight to Havana.

This sign greeted us outside the airport.  I expected to see many more of them, but there were not many around.

Upon arrival in Havana, we boarded a bus to our hotel in the Vedado neighborhood.

The hotel kitty.  Everyone stopped to talk to him, but his only interest seemed to be what time the dining room opened.

After resting up for the night, we set out to find our first painting spot.

This was where we settled the first morning.  The streets and architecture reminded me very much of New Orleans.  Even though many of these buildings have not had any repairs in years, they were still very colorful and beautiful.

To start off the workshop, Gregg did a demo for us.

Gregg starts his cityscape paintings by taking a paper towel and some turp and blocking in the buildings (the paint is usually a combination of ultramarine blue and transparent red oxide).

Next, he puts in the sky and then gets to work on the buildings.

After just a few hours, Gregg finished the painting and it is beautiful.

After the demo, we each found our own spot to paint.  I chose the coconut seller just across from where we were standing.

The Coco Loco coconut sellers

I'll give you the details about this painting in another post.  It was great fun and the guys at the fruit stand were incredible to me.

I'll be back with many more posts about my Cuban adventure.  It really was the trip of a lifetime!