Back for Part 2 and Mothers Day

Today I decided to go back and finish the boar.

I only needed an hour or so more to finish.

It is Mothers Day today and Daya came in my room and said she wanted to talk but it wouldn't take long.

And she told me she wanted to say she loves and appreciates me as a mom and she said thank you for everything. And that even though she's not demonstrative she wanted to tell me. And she gave me a hug!

It was so wonderful to hear her say that.

Really, that was so perfect and completely made my day.

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My friend Palma and I were texting early this morning and I told her about finishing the boar and she looked him up.

The Bowery Boys have a page on him, and Sutton Place.

8x10 oil, yes the sky is different today than it was yesterday but I stayed with the original light.

Very Colonial building at Sutton Place.

Start time 12:07, finished at 1:23.

My estimate of needing about an hour or so was correct.....

And also another painter came over to talk to me for several minutes.

She wanted to see my Times Square paintings.

She does watercolor, and her paintings are beautiful.

People ask me sometimes why do I time my paintings.

I time-track all of my paintings, even studio ones.

Back at Pratt we were taught to do that in Illustration.

It was useful for many reasons, including billable hours, but also because you should know about how long it will take you to do something. It's also useful for planning your time.

Figure drawing also makes you conscious of time.

(I miss figure drawing, I need to find a good local group.  Drawing America is still the best but it's now $30/session and I'm priced out.)

Anyhow, I time my paintings and I know I can generally do an 8x10 in 3 or 3 1/2 hours. sometimes less depending. More if it is complex like Juilliard or Times Square. I do not try and constrain the time, I am just aware of it and it's pretty spot-on consistent.

Although the Porcellino Statue painting did take me a little longer than I initially thought.

A Plein Air First!

May is such a nice time for painting.

It's so nice out today......and I was slow getting out the door, because of 2 phone calls but I wasn't exactly in a rush so t was all good.

It's time for me to discover some new painting spots.

Central Park will always be amazing, but I'm finding myself wanting to avoid it lately.

I can't take the nasty pot smoke that is ubiquitous.  Yes, it is illegal to smoke in any park here, and i don't smell cigarettes, but the weed is everywhere and no one enforces the no-smoking law.

I really love fresh air and I really hate pot smoke so, sadly, unless it is really early in the morning, I'm staying out of Central Park for a while. This is not bad because there is so much of the city to explore.

And locals are better than tourists- they always ask permission to take photos, and locals just have a different general vibe which is easier to take.  Last week at Juilliard was WONDERFUL as far as interacting with people. 

I like New Yorkers. 

So anyhow my criteria for today included:

*Pretty close to home

*Somewhere new

*Local non-touristy park

I pulled up Google Maps and had a look around.

And I found Sutton Place, where I have never been.  It is as east as you can go on 57th street.

There is a boar statue there which is odd, and the bridge and water behind it.

So there I went.

I was dragging today.... just being slow. Or maybe this is just a very complex painting.

Actually it really is.

The perspective has to be correct, and there is a lot going on.

The bridge in the background would have been cool the the view was better from the other side.

1pm start.....

15 mins for the drawing

2:19.....my view got bombed.

This was Not Good.

I didn't know what to do.

I have actually never had a person plonk down blocking my view and..... stay.

This lovely man had a book and was enjoying a nice afternoon reading outside.

He wasn't going anywhere for a long time. (And although I was there longer than he was, it wasn't by much.  He left around 3:30 or so.)

....

I got my nerve up and went over to him.... very, very nicely I asked if he might be amicable to moving because he was right in my view.

He was SO NICE about it, said he didn't want to be in the way but only wanted to be out of the sun.

Which I totally get.

He did move and I'm glad I asked.

I also told him it was the first time in 14 years painting all over NYC I ever asked someone to move... and that's true. I of course thanked him profusely, it really was nice of him to move for my sake.

4pm came around, I was three hours in and...out of time!

Tonight Daya asked me to go with her to the Juilliard Choreography honors performance.

Of course I wanted to go, and I was thrilled she wanted me to go with her!

But that meant I had to go home and scrub off all the bug spray and change and leave again hopefully on time. I admitted time-defeat, packed up and left.

The Juilliard show was at 7:30 and we were right on time.

It was excellent and we got home very late.

The Most Helpful Cat

This week has been uneventful.

Just normal days.

The days that happen between life events and changes.

I happen to really like normal days because they are nice and stable, and this daily life is what the bulk of life is, anyhow. I like the non-drama.

Work is busy enough but not overwhelming, my apartment is clean (I even cleaned out my linen closet yesterday!), and I COMPLETELY re-started the series Carey and I are doing together. So that will be some work but that's ok. I do need to get some studio work out at some point.

The next few weeks will be wacky and busy, so I'm enjoying the uneventful-ness this week.

I am deliberately practicing enjoying the time and appreciating the moment and environment, and my peaceful apartment.

Isis is so helpful when I am trying to work.

The 4am Day

I crashed last night at.... 9:30.

Yes, I can be fun like that on Saturday nights.

Although I did sleep very well the problem was that I was Wide! Awake! at 4am.

It was useless going back to sleep so I just stayed up.

The cats woke up eventually and the sun came up.

Sharon's cats are bonkers.

I left at about 7am and went home.

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It's so nice out today, and I felt like I should be out painting.

Even though I am in a daze from being up at 4am.

So I decided to check out Roosevelt Island.

I was thinking at first to do another painting of the Smallpox Hospital, it's a guaranteed good subject.

Before painting I decided to walk around the very southern tip of the island- I actually have never been in the park there before.

It's pretty cool.

Great panting spots, but not on a beautiful mid-day May Sunday.

Too crowded.

So I walked around and settled on a water view instead.

It's a quick painting, 2 hours, 8x10 oil

Here are pics from around Roosevelt Island.

It's such a cool place.

__PRESENT

Juilliard Plein Air

The weather is FINALLY cooperating so I finally got over to paint Juilliard.
I need a matching painting to the LaGuardia plein air.

Obviously we all knew this was going to happen.

I left really early, like 7am.  Best to get there early.

Also, coming up the subway stairs I found $30!!

I did not see who dropped it... and it was very weird how the train just got off but no one was on the stairs in front of me, and that $30 was just waiting.

I am sure it is one of the refunds I'm constantly asking the Universe for.

Although I have been scoping the area out for a while, I never did find a good spot... but I found the perfect spot this morning!

I thought the painting would take between 3 1/2-4 hours, but it took almost 5 hours!

Maybe a little less, maybe 4 1/2 total because I talked to a lot of people today.

Lincoln Center is a great place to paint because the people in the area are pretty cool.

8x10 oil

(I only had to do the lettering twice!)

I met a lot of very cool people, including a dance photographer (we talked whole I was packing up for almost a half hour) and a first-year dancer at Juilliard who knows Daya!

This is Jared.

I guess Daya will see more of him over the next three years.

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Tonight I am at Sharon's for a quick 1 night pet-sitting event.

They are gone this weekend for a couple of nights, and since they are back late tomorrow they asked if I could check on thigs and feed the cats and the guinea pig.

It's only 1 night so I am couch-surfing. They have a very comfy couch.