Times Square Plein Air

Times Square, 8x10 oil

About 4 hours, 100% on-location.

I am super happy with this painting, I consider it to be a personal best due to the level of difficulty and the environment.

Here is the second painting I did after, 6x8 oil, about an hour and a half:
David Paints Times Square

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There is a reason I have never painted in Times Square.
First and foremost, because it's Times Square.
It is INSANE.

Also having worked in the office there for 14 years (15 if you count covid??) made it a place to get away from, not seek out!

I took a day off work and went painting with David Nakabayashi, who I have mentioned before.
He said, "Let's go to Times Square!"
I said "....ok!"

When out painting, bathrooms are a thing... as in not having them.
People often ask.... what do you do?

My answer is that I dehydrate,
I'm a very hydrated person in general, but when I'm out and I know there will not be facilities, I plan ahead.

So I woke up at 4:30am so I could caffeinate properly with my morning tea, which I require in order to be a functional human.

David and I met at 7am.
We were both on time!

The plan was to paint from the top of the TKTS steps.... but they were closed due to bullet damage from a gunfight last night!! Apparently there is structural damage and the steps can't take the weight of people up there until it is fixed.

So we painted in the area in front of the steps instead.
It was INSANE.
Not too bad early in the morning but as the morning progressed, the insanity came out.

David said 'Whose idea was this?"
I said "Yours.  I hope it is ok if I hate you a little bit."

We both took pictures.

Natalia who runs the official Times Square NYC Instagram saw us painting from her office and came over to interview us! She posted a video on their instagram and featured us!

My instagram has been blowing up a bit....

The Ceiling, Fixed

 As of today, the plywood covering the scary hole in my bathroom ceiling is getting repaired!

This will be painted!
The super left for a few mins, I think he's letting the plaster dry.

My poor bathroom!

Lincoln Center

I have been wanting to paint Lincoln Center for a long time.

I was floundering around at home having no plan and absolutely no idea what to do with myself, and I was going crazy.

I haven't been out painting for... two weeks!!.... so I made myself go.

When I was setting up two security guards started walking over.

I knew they were coming for me.
I never worry about setting up anywhere because it's never a problem.

So the guards came over.  One said "you can't have that tripod here."
His companion said "She's painting!"

I thanked him for knowing that, and he said my apron told a story.

So if you are a photographer you cannot use a tripod but if you are a painter it is ok.

They kept coming back to see the progress and I put one of them in.

The guy on the fountain also came over and I told him he's in the painting.  

He was so excited about it and we exchanged instagrams.

8x10 oil

I need to work on my wide-angle view.
My composition is good with shapes etc but i'm still zoomed in farther than I meant to.

Friday #2

So, this morning was at CityMD for Daya, and this afternoon was me sitting around at the eye dr for way longer than usual.

I got dilated.

I have been having a lot of pain in my left eye more often than I like, and all of it has been post-surgery.

It's bad enough that I have to take advil several times a week because my eye aches so much.

Dr said everything looks good but the reason I have pain is that my muscles are trying to focus.
But they can't because my implant is fixed-focus. But the muscles keep trying and as a result are straining.

This is even with my multi-focus contact lens, which I greatly prefer for any computer work.

So he prescribed a drop that I can take as needed- it might or might not work.
It is an eye muscle relaxer and ..... will also dilate my pupils and make me light sensitive.
It will also make me look funny so I will never use it if I need to go out.

Also- I learned that eye color and muscle mass in eyes is a thing- people with darker eyes are harder to dilate than people with light- colored eyes. My dr said sometimes he has to do 2 rounds of dilation drops in his Black patients.

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After the eye dr I went down to the boathouse for a maybe-kayak trip.

We did not go on a trip but I did get officially certified in self-rescue, in case my kayak tips over.

I can get back in.

And I have now officially sawm in the Hudson River.

Now that I have officially taken that plunge (the river is kinda gross still) I'll probably be jumping in a lot because it really feels nice in this intense heat.

I'm now a next-level New Yorker!

Swimming in the Hudson!

I never get tired of the view.

Minor Injury

We can add "toe" to the xray list.

Tape, ice, elevate, she should be ok by Monday.

I'm here!

I'm passing a slumpy uneventful (so far) August.

It's hot, I am lazy and unmotivated, I'm not painting, work is very busy.

Daya started her intensive with Move NYC today and I think she's in for quite the journey with them.

Oh, and Pebbles goes to the vet tomorrow.

Visitor

I had a visitor today:

This cat is GORGEOUS- long hair tail, blue eyes, just stunning.

And it should NOT be on the fire escape.

I didn't know at first where it came from. So I gave it a treat.

The cat ate the treat, hissed at me, then tried to come into my apartment.

Then I saw it ran into the window next door.

My neighbors left their screen open and weren't home.

Great way to lose your cat!

I called the super and with his knowledge I closed their screen.
He is going to talk to them about not letting their gorgeous cat out.

August OMG

 New month, its August...

Carey said she thinks July was actually August this year so we'll be ok.

I hope she is right.

Not only have I been (and still am) insanely busy at work, I'm also in a summer slump.
There is no Wednesday drawing right now either, and I really miss it.

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Daya starts the first of 5 weeks straight of dance, 6 days a week tomorrow.
Manhattan youth Ballet for 1 week, 3 weeks of Move NYC, then another week of MYB.

I am very glad about this and honestly I feel like it s the end of this long stretch of her covid lockdown.

I know she's been out dancing but this feels different-- now there is officially no more remote class and this 5 weeks brings us into September, and school is opening full-time in-person thank God.

So basically her loooooong stretches of time home are over.

I am still working from home.

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I do feel very fog-headed and overwhelmed.
I didn't even paint this weekend!
Saturday was just a day at home and today was shopping and food prep for this upcoming week.

I hope this month goes by smoothly without incident.

Friday

Today is Friday, and here is Pebbles in the sink:

There was a kayak trip at the boathouse, but I ended up staying in the bay area because the wind was insane.

Everyone else came back early and the group didn't get very far.

View of NJ from Pier 26:

Avoiding a Ceiling Collapse

Last night there was brown stuff on my wall and on my top roll of extra toilet paper.
Although very weird, I thought a cat puked or something. I couldn't figure it out.

I cleaned it up.

Then today.... it was back...... no smell, not a cat, but a water leak from upstairs.
From the upstairs toilet, to be exact, but not the dirty water.

But still.

My ceiling was squishy.

You do not EVER want a squishy ceiling.

The super came immediately and made this scary gross wet hole in my ceiling.

He said it's good I called so fast, a few more days and my ceiling would have collapsed.

He patched it up temporarily with plywood. 
We have to wait for it to dry to make sure the issue is fixed, and then he'll re-build the ceiling.

SO GROSS.

Uuuuhmmmmm.....

I have been BURIED  and I do mean BURIED at work.

I often edit podcasts..... and this particular one I thought would be fast and straightforward but...... no......

one of our speakers said uuuuhhhmmmmmm about every 4th word.

The below image is about 2 minutes of audio.

Every line is where I cut out the uuuhhhmmmmms....

And there were 4 sections just like this.

It was brutal, tedious, and took forever.

If you are ever recording spoken audio, PLEASE be mindful of your uuhhhhmms and tongue clicks, because some poor soul has to take every single one of them out.

Conservatory Water

Here is a painting done at Conservatory Water in Central Park.

A passerby said something really nice- that my painting made the real-life scene look fake! Lots of cool people stopped by, and one extremely rude lady, which happens almost-never.

Grace came by near the end and it was good to see her again.

The BEST Cat Toy

I went to Marshalls with Janet to just float around and hang out while she got some clothes.

The checkout line is a maze of stuff no one needs but everyone will buy because it is cool and you don't know you need it until you see it.

Like this BEST cat toy EVER..... which obviously a painter designed as it is a spoof on Winsor Newton paint.

Furball and Isis LOVE it.

I love this picture of Furball... she looks completely ridiculous!

Terrace Painting- Night

I did a leftover paint painting at night.
it will not photograph and I need to wait for it to dry properly.

I am so, so exhausted, I haven't been sleeping well here although it is very comfortable.

Work is insane and I'm pretty stressed.

Terrace Plein Air-Day

Here is a painting from Sharon's terrace, 8x10 oil

I left my box outside overnight and it was fun to see it from the street. (Third floor)

Guinea Pig Studies

I am kind of treating my time guinea pig-sitting as a mini artist retreat.
The guinea pigs (and the fish) don't require much, I just make them a little salad in the morning.
And I am almost done with all the planning work (digitally) for the remaining 4 paintings in my in-progress new Topiary Cat series.

It was very nice of my friends to let me stay here, they know I need a change of scenery.
It's also nice that they are so close to home- 15 mins on the train/bus, or a half hour walk.  I have been stopping home every day.

They adopted a cat 2 months ago and it turned out the cat had FIP which is fatal, and the cat had to be put down the same day they left for vacation.  I was originally going to watch the cat too, then they were going to take the cat with them.  And then he got very sick. So they have had a very hard time with that, and I wanted to do something nice, give them something to make them happy. 

I used some sketching pencils, Jerry's jumbo sketch pencils, on grey paper.  

Each of these studies took around 20 minutes.

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The cat story is sad.
I know my friends because our daughters used to dance together.
Sharon and Matthew's daughter.
They are absolutely wonderful people, just.... very kind, good people.
The guinea pigs are technically their daughter's but in reality all the pets are Matthew's.

He REALLY loves those guinea pigs.

There is cat stuff everywhere here.  They went all-out, there is even a custom-made food mat with the cat's name.  I feel awful for them. Their daughter immediately fell in love with the cat at the shelter.  Sharon thinks the cat knew he was sick and chose them because he knew they would give him the best short life he could possibly have.  I agree with her.  It's still hard.

Art Show on the LES

I went down to the lower East Side to go to an art opening.

David Nakabyashi had some cool collages in the show and he gave a wonderful art talk.

It was a nice thing to go to.

Part of one of the art talks was drawing our fortunes with a quote from an artist in the show.

I really relate to this.

Quote was from David! ha

.

And also attached to the fortunes was some adorable Japanese candy. 

House-Sitting

My friend is going out of town and I'm taking care of the guinea pigs and the fish.
I have been staying over there, but they live in the neighborhood so I'm also going back and forth.
It's nice to have a change of scenery.

I like the guinea pigs; they are nice peaceful creatures.

They are named Oreo and Buttercup.

They have adorable guinea pig blankies they like to hide under.

This is the fish.

I will be watching them until Wednesday morning.

Well I Tried

 Going into the office was nice...... except the internet is so bad it is not really useable.
I made it until 1pm then went home so I could actually get stuff done.

It was nice to get out though.

The views are good.

Tuesday Thoughts

I have been SWAMPED at work for the past couple of weeks.
But I don't mind. It was slow for a while and I was starting to get a bit nervous.

Also, I have a new series of Topiary Cats in progress.
.... i have actually been doing studio work!!
Like, for real! Three of 7 are completely finished!
I'm planning all of them digitally in Procreate.

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Not sure if it is this stormy humid summer weather or what, but I am also feeling incredibly lethargic.

So are the cats.

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Tomorrow--- for the first time since March 2020...... I am going back to the office to work.
Just for one day. I can book a desk whenever I want, but there is no requirement to go back.
And I will be working a hybrid of home and office, balanced however I want.

Going back feels... weird, like a gap I have to step over to end this 15 months of covid working from home. A milestone, an end to being stuck alone in a 236 square foot room all day every day.

It feels like a new phase, and honestly it is.

New office. And new company sort-of because we got bought in Feb, lots of changes there.
It's completely different. It's not like I'm going back to something familiar. I'm going to something totally, vastly, completely different. I even have a new work laptop. (Which actually is really nice, but change.  Nothing is the same.)

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So much change over the last 15 months.... so much change I'm fatigued from all of it and it seeps out in weird ways, like.... my toaster oven started dying. It wasn't heating up reliably anymore. I have been using it almost daily since 2013 and it has definitely without a doubt run its course. (It was a good one, a Breville.)

So I got a new one, which I like quite a lot, and it is also an air fryer which is awesome.

But the change of.... a freaking toaster oven.... kind of stressed me out as yet another change and I was sad about it. Just another familiar daily thing that has changed.  My friend Janet said I'm not crazy for having a reaction to it, as silly as it is.  (And yes I did dispose of the old oven. I'm not crazy enough to keep that around!)

Reservoir Birds

Back up at the Central Park Reservoir.
8x10 oil

Wednesday Drawing

More Game of Thrones!
I was pretty happy with my work tonight.

7 mins, 20 mins, 1 hour poses