Painting & an Evening Walk Through Central Park

I needed to get out after work.

We have rain in the forecast today but not til 9pm, which is enough time to paint.

Today I went over to The Ramble.
The lawn at Cedar Hill is closed, which was where i intended to go, so I walked around a bit and decided to go to the wooden bench because it was comfortable.

I was going to just paint the grassy area and foliage but then saw the tree next to me which has been carved with many messages.  That was an interesting texture study.  I also brought out my old Belly River box and worked 6x8.  I still use this box every week in egg tempera class but it hasn't been outdoors for a while.

Permanent Messages, 6x8 oil

There is a lot of Vasari Orchid in the painting and it doesn't photograph well.

(I had the same problem in Boston photographing violet Monet paintings)

My old reliable Belly River box, which was my main plein air box for 13 years.

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I decided to walk down the park instead of either doing a second painting or taking the bus down.

The Ramble starts around 79th street, and I walked down and exited at 59th St.

Trefoil Arch:

I walked under west to east- this is where I was last Friday painting.

Bethesda Fountain

The Bandstand, I sat here for a few minutes watching the light change.

The Mall, looking backwards towards the Bandstand.

Thankfully, I did get home before the heavy rains started.

Water Reeds

Last night was so peaceful I decided to return to the same spot, because I wanted to explore painting the water grasses. The weather was very different tonight and so were all the colors.

Across the water (which is a good distance) people were BLASTING horribly LOUD music.

I think this should be illegal, well, everywhere- but especially in or by a wildlife refuge.

I asked my friend who lives in Rockaway about it and she said it's probably the track workers on the A train, which is closed now for a long time for repairs.

I HATE all this horrible music blasting, I don't understand it, it is obscenely anti-social.

There are few things more inconsiderate than imposing your noise on the environment around you.

It isn't just a NYC thing; I know this happens everywhere.  It's horrible and disturbing and disrespectful of others and disgusting.

It deeply and negatively affects people with PTSD, misophonia, neurodivergent people (autism), dogs, people trying to sleep, anxiety, and also people who just want a little peace.

It did stop at some point but I felt rattled.

Anyhow here is my effort at the water grasses.

There was wind which made nice waves.

I remain unhappy with my water; I always feel it doesn't quite get there all the way.

Waves are very difficult.

Kings Blue & Water

This evening I decided to explore the other side of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.
It's a little more isolated over there, and I wanted to check it out.

There is a nice bench with a nice water view.

8x10 oil

There are a lot of painting possibilities here:

I love my new Vasari kings Blue!
It is very glowy and I used it for about half of tonight's painting.

Conservatory Water, Empty

First thing this grey morning I went back to Conservatory Water to see if I could stand in it and paint.

As it turns out, I cannot, but the always-closed snack stand is Close Enough and is a great place to set up for painting.

This is a 2 hour painting, 8x10 oil, mostly with leftover paint from last night.

Painting the bottom was a very interesting and unique challenge.

Evening Light in Central Park

The spring forward time change means it's time to go painting after work, weather permitting.

Right now the sunset is right around 7pm.

Factoring in travel time and keeping that under an hour (hopefully) gives me enough time to log off work around 4 and head out. I can be set up and starting to paint around 5:30 if I time it right.

Tonight I brought my new Vasari paints to Central Park to give them a test run.

I stood on a rock by the east side of Trefoil Arch and painted this tree.
It's just a quick sketch and took a little over an hour.

I love... LOVE these new colors!

8x10 oil

Here are some squirrel friends who live by the rock:

Trefoil Arch has a cool-looking orange glow in the evening:

I entered and exited the park at E 72nd and passed by Conservatory Water.
It is still empty; they drain it for the cold season.

Despite it being empty, and probably 3 1/2 feet deep with a concrete bottom, there are FOUR ice rescue ladders there!!

I think the bottom would make a cool painting... I wonder if I can stand in the basin and paint??

Pebbles Lost Half a Pound

Vet Day......

Pebbles lost half a pound.

This is alarming.

She's down to 6 1/2 lbs.

Acts normal, eats... she's going on an appetite stimulant (mertazapine) and i have to measure her intake.

It will make her eat more and also yell at me even more than she already does.

Fun times.

Vasari Paint

It is that time of year when I plan for upcoming expenses for Daya (tuition) and also when I can do something nice for myself.

I am in good balance and everything is taken care of that needs to be, so I decided why not get some Vasari paint? I have been on their website all week deciding what I am getting.

Lately I have been pulling out all my Very Nice Paint for studio work, and I think I might also start incorporating it into plein air.

I'm not a beginner anymore and would like to allow myself to bring the Fancy Paint outside.

I was in the office today, and so was Kedrin.

We are work neighbors and I asked her if she can leave early by chance and come to Vasari with me.

And she said yes!

Kedrin has never been to Vasari before, but I have spoken about it with her often.

She only uses Old Holland, which is excellent top-tier paint but the consistency is very different, it is much stiffer. I think they partially hydrogenate their oil, someone told me that years ago.

Vasari is insanely pigmented but has a very loose consistency, it is a very long paint. 

It is handmade.

Old Holland is insanely pigmented but is a shorter paint.

Kedrin got her first tube of Vasari, Titanium White.

A solid choice!

We played on the mixing table.

I knew I wanted that genuine Naples Yellow, a lead white, and the impressionist set... which I want to bring out for spring plein air.

This is the impressionist set... I actually have three of these tubes already... they are old and half-used up and will prob end up in my permanent plein air pack.

This set is also on sale right now.

And I decided to fill up another box and add to my turquoise problem.

The 2 phthalo tints in there are variations of a tint I have been using a lot in plein air lately, Gamblin's Radiant Green... they are convenience mixes and I know I will use them.

That naples yellow GLOWS and is amazing!

I also picked up a titanium white, a true ivory black (it's charred bone pigment) and a natural French grey earth which is gritty and makes gorgeous grey tints.

And that cobalt turquoise (PB28) is unlike any cobalt turquoise I have ever seen!

Vasari does not have my favorite pigment PG50  (no one's perfect) but this one is pretty gorgeous and is also very close to PG 50.

Everyone needs their thing I guess.... Vasari is my favorite paint and it's expensive but worth it.

More Fur & I Hate AI

 Doug gave me an old huge wonderful tempered glass palette because he made new ones and we have an "overabundance" of palettes for class.

(Actually he gave me two, one is smaller)

So I decided to use this nice huge palette as my main oils palette, and wow is it a nice space to work on.

Last night I did another fur study.

I took the reference from Adobe stock, which I have a license to use as part of my creative cloud subscription.

I'm also still working with linseed oil only and getting used to that, and I brought out a bunch of Williamsburgs and Vasaris to play with because after all, why not use them?

Oh they are soooooo so nice.

So here is a cat fur study that took me exactly three hours.

That's just how long it took; I didn't have a set time or anything.

I painted it straight through and when I was done, I was done.

9x12 oil on arches paper

Here is the drawing, it's not too complicated:

I also pulled out the Vasari set of earth color tints I got in Jan 2020.

I'm going to start using them more and might even take them plein airing.

My nice comfy palette:

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Yesterday I got stuff done, including getting my hair chopped off.

I already knew I was overdue (I am always overdue) but those pictures from the ASL show on Monday had me saying oh my god... I look awful.

So my hair is all short now and it feels much better.

It's so easy to get lazy about stuff like this when mostly working from home.

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I got a comment on Facebook on the cat fur study:

"So AI."

From someone who owns three of my paintings and is my friend and I'm so upset someone would say that about my work.

I do not and have never used AI in any part of my artistic process, and I never will.

My reference is from Adobe, and I have a licensing right as part of my creative cloud subscription.

Adobe requires AI content to be labeled as such, and my reference is NOT AI.

I HATE AI.

It steals from artists, and humanity is losing the belief in it's own imagination and ability.

It's horrendous and heartbreaking to see.

Also, for as long as I can remember and still to this day, when someone who has never seen my work sees it for the first time, the reaction is always "YOU did that?"

Yeah, I just fucking told you I paint and you asked to see a painting.

Is it so unbelievable that I did something skilled?

So now I guess when I use my real actual imagination (Topiary Cats for example) which I have been doing my whole life and making up shit in my head and painting it is just a thing I can do, everyone is just going to think it's AI.

Well, fuck everyone.

I'm just going to keep painting even if it all just amounts to a big nothing because what else can I do?

It's AWFUL.