Rambling Around in The Ramble

I went out this morning to do a painting before the rain really set in.
My destination" The Ramble.
I'm trying to find my first plein air spot...... so far, no success.

Maybe it changed...? Unlikely but maybe??

Here is today's painting, it took under an hour and a half... quick...

8x10 oil & raindrops

Autumn colors look pretty against the overcast sky....

Bow Bridge

Bethesda Fountain

The Crap Cleanout

LaGuardia High School has a Parent Association "closet, which is more like the size of a small classroom.

All the studios have dedicated space.

The Dance studio's section was a mess.

I met up with three other moms and we inventoried all the merch and cleaned out all the crap.
It was a fun, nice, and productive way to spend the morning.

Merch inventory and planning the fire sale for Thursday:

It really is a beautiful school.
I hope one day Daya truly knows how fortunate she is to have this as her high school experience.

I can't post about LaG without all the stairs...........

The closet when we were done.

Afterwards, Sharon and i ended up at Daya's old dance studio.
It was weird being back there; it's been a long time.

I used to go here all the time.

It's strange to go back to a place after a long time.

I made this poster for their 10th anniversary.
It's still there.

I guess I leave trails of artwork behind me.....

Seeing these pictures with Daya is like looking back into a different era.

So strange how life passes.................

Relic

I have a neighbor who smokes and sometimes their smoke comes into my apartment, which I find to be highly disgusting. It's not all the time, and not every day.  It's not an issue when the AC is on, and less of an issue when it's cold and breezy out.

My windows are open pretty much year-round except when the AC is on.  I like fresh air.

To counter the smoke I bought a big can of smoke odor neutralizer, and when they smoke I spray it out the window.

Then I aim Fran the Superfan (my wonderful industrial floor fan) at the window for a few minutes and this takes care of the smoke odor.

It's annoying but effective.

But the plastic tip of the can came off, and I can't find it.

I don't understand why I can't find it, because there is an extremely limited area for it to have gone, unless a cat batted it around.

I took a flashlight to the floor and under the heater.

It's not as bad as you might think down there, partially because I have cleaned it thoroughly somewhat recently and it's not a place where "stuff" ends up.

But I found this under the heater, it has been hiding for probably 14 years:

I thought I was done finding these things..... 14 years ago.

I still have NOT found that damn cap and I'm really annoyed about it.

And I don't know where else to look.

Dog Fight at Greywacke Arch, Central Park

Today was another good day to paint, so I woke up early and went back to Central Park, this time behind The Met.  I chose the location last night.  The arches are kinda fun and also very challenging to paint.

I got into the park around 9:30 and started painting around 10.

While I was setting up some dogs got into a fight and I thought that would be a cool thing to add into the painting.

Here's the under-drawing, I remembered to get a picture mostly in time.

This was a hard scene to decipher because of the light and so much green. 

When I started, a lot of the values were so close together. 

Everything kind of ran together. It made me think of that Marshall Jones class where I couldn't make out the model's face right in front of me because of the light, and Marshall couldn't either.

Greywacke Arch was kind of like that, too.

I didn't even realize until the light had changed enough an hour later that that grey thing on the far left is a tree trunk, not part of the bridge.

I reached a midway point where I thought this painting was going to be a failure.  I had added people along the top and also faked the iron fence part (bad idea). The people were in-scale relative to real life but were quite large and distracting.  This is a smallish arch and the top of the rail is about waist-high.

It didn't look good. It bothered me.

So I scrubbed the whole rail area out and used my phone to zoom in to see the pattern on the rail.

That's a tough thing to get properly; it's ornate.

But the painting was doing a lot better without the people.

Here is the painting before I added in the dog fight.

I guess it's ok enough, but it needs a little something more.

By this time I was pretty tired and ... almost... called it done, but I knew I would regret it.

Putting in the dog fight took 20 minutes, definitely worthwhile.

8x10 oil

Driprock Arch, Autumn

I went back to Driprock Arch again.  It's a great arch, and a great view.

And close to the train home!

On the train ride over a mom was complaining to her friend about the way her teenage daughter talks to her and how it is so hurtful! I guess it's pretty much (??) everyone.

So, back at Driprock Arch.
I stood in a slightly different spot than last time but it was a good view.

Setup done at 10:30.

I took a picture of the drawing, because I like it and it is a solid under-drawing.

It took 10 minutes.

Honestly, it helped a LOT that I have painted this view before.

Painting time almost 3 hours, maybe 2 hours 45 mins.

8x10 oil

I am really happy with this painting.

As of the writing of this post, the painting has just SOLD.

Someone I don't know saw it on Instagram and paid a deposit so it's legit.

I like this painting and would have been glad to keep it, but I'm also glad to get paid for it!

Hopefully it is going to a good loving home.

*************

While I was painting, someone came up to me with a huge handful of.... someone's keys.

Asked if they were mine.

Nope!

But they left the keys with me because I was going to be there for a while longer, in case someone came back for them.

But I called the police, the 22nd precinct which is IN Central Park but up in the 80s.

They said they would send someone over to get the keys.

I had to tell them where Driprock Arch is.

They called me 20 mins later saying someone was coming down.

I said I'm here and thanks.

An hour later no one ever showed up.

I was done painting and all packed up and really needed to leave the park.

I called the precinct again.

No answer.

I pressed 2 for the detectives.

They transferred me back to the switchboard where there was no answer.

I called the detective line back.

No answer.

I left a message.

I was going to just leave the keys there but then really didn't want to, so I left them at the visitor's center in the shop in the dairy.

The women in there already knew how useless the 22nd precinct is.

They were not at all surprised by my story.

They said keys aren't considered valuables.

They did take the keys and I really hope their owner gets them back.

There were a lot of keys and membership tags and someone had a bad afternoon over that loss, I'm sure.

Fuck the cops, instead of telling me they were coming by they should have just told me to give the keys to a park-mobile or the visitor center or something.

Tudors, Part 2 & My Favorite Book of Hours

G and I met up again to go to the Tudor exhibit.

It was good to get out; I haven't really left my apartment since Tuesday and I'm feeling weird in general.

So we went to the Tudor exhibit, and it was a lot less crowded tonight--- which I thought was strange.

In general, there weren't a lot of people out by the Met.

We had a very nice evening though.

I didn't recognize last Sunday... but I have a reproduction of either this particular book or one done by the same person, and it is one of my favorites- The Hours of Mary, Master of Burgundy.

Wow to see it in person........

Here are miniatures I didn't photograph last week.

These are tiny watercolors, maybe 2 inches.

There is a kimono show in the Asian wing.

I didn't take pictures except for this detail of a scroll... we were wondering what that cute spotted animal was.

These details are teeeeny tiny on the scrolls.

Tomorrow I think I should go out and paint; it's been a while.

Juilliard Open House

Whoa, college tours....... this is the first one we have done. (Yeah I know I'm late on that but I have to follow Daya's lead)

Everyone is travelling around visiting colleges.

How do people... afford.... to do that?

They are also hiring college advisors.... I think those rates start at like $120/hour and that's also how people get in because it's about who you know and who says "watch for that person..."

Equity, people, it is nonexistent.

(I filled out the FAFSA, wow was that a head-trip in many, many ways.)

Getting into college wasn't like this when I went.

So anyhow, Daya is in Move|NYC which takes the place of a college advisor, and also it is free thank all the heavens. It is run by people who went to LaGuardia and Juilliard.

She also has teachers at MYB who teach at Juilliard, so I think she's pretty well-connected.

Her senior solo choreographer is a Juilliard person.

She has not done their summer program though.

Daya wants to go to Juilliard.

Like she's REALLY set on Juilliard.

If anyone has a chance she sure does, but I remain nervous.

It was like this for LaGuardia too.

(Fun LaGuardia Fact: last year there were over 10,000 applicants for 500 seats.)

Anyhow I have now been all over Juilliard, all 5 floors.

It is a small but absolutely intensely remarkable place.

It is definitely not for everyone, but I think it actually would be a very good fit for Daya.

If she can actually manage to get in (class size for dance is only 18-22 people) I think she would do extremely well there. I can see here there.  Something about it fits her.

Because I think the school would be a good fit for Daya's personality, I am hoping she'll get in, same as I felt about LaGuardia. (Which again is not for everyone but I always thought was a good fit for Daya, and this was correct.)

So, please send Juilliard vibes.  The audition is Feb/March and we will know in April.

Also, I cannot afford anything whatsoever about Juilliard so she needs a free ride.

Oh, photography is not allowed in the Jiilliard building and I was respectful of that.  (Another parent was told, not me.)

This is a very extremely weird experience.... college applications already.

Perpendicular Fur

 Here is Isis on the toilet (she is there a lot) and her fur is perpendicular so I am posting a picture of it.