New painting: Central Park - Gapstow Bridge in Winter

A friend posted a picture on FB of the bridge on The Pond in the Southeast corner of NYC's Central Park, looking towards the Plaza Hotel. Liked it so I painted it. I posted an in-progress picture of the painting on FB and she said she might buy it. I do need to work on how I paint bare trees.

10 rules for artists to live by - the Elite Daily version

I know, I know, there are many versions from many sources  of this "10 rules for artists to live by" tag, enough that you can go into a MEGO (my eyes glaze over) state. Ad-infinitum, ad-nauseum. Despite that, they are worth looking into. While most repeat, they each can give different insights on the same idea that will help someone reading it. Its good to check each of them out, 'cause you never which one will speak to your situation.
This one is from Elite Daily
One of my favorites is:


4. Nothing’s free.
You will often hear, “I can’t pay you, but it will be great exposure!” You must value yourself and not give into these offensive offers.


Check out the rest

Art posters - "Blessed are the weird people" and more

The various art pages on Facebook and some artist friends are always posting what I would call artist encouragement poster. They are there to comfort and encourage those of us who see the world in a different way and express it via painting, sculpture, and other forms. Here are a few I've collected and I hope they help you on your artistic way

Mother & 2 year old daughter art collaboration

Every parent or aunt or uncle or grandparent knows the joy of a taking a child's painting or finger painting or some other artistic output and putting it up for display somewhere in the house, usually the refrigerator or bulletin board. Hopefully the kid finds this an encouragement to go further. Artist Ruth Oosterman has take this a big step further by taking her two year old daughter Eve's doodles and made the  basis for some beautiful pantings. I first saw pictures of this on The  Architecture and Design FB page, but with few details. I found an extensive article on it in the Huffington Post.
Check it out.

 

New Painting: Nantucket Harbor Fall

As stated in previous posts, Nantucket is one one of my favorite places to go (if only for a bike trip and Hostel stay) and paint. Can across a picture Fall of Nantucket Harbor, so I painted it. Hope you like it. As usual you can buy a Mug or a  bag fro Zazzle with this image on it

NYC's Cooper Hewitt Design Museum reopens

The Copper Hewitt Design Museum (a branch of the Smithsonian) has always been one of my favorite, quirky museums in New York.  Its in an old mansion a few blocks north of the Guggenheim and its all about design. It doesn't get as much attention as its fellow museums to the south on Museum Mile, but its worth looking into. Its been closed for a few years for extensive renovation and is just re-opening. I've not seen it yet but would be a great check out the changes.

Neighorhood in Califorina Links their Christmas lightshows

This time of year we get the ever escalating Christmas light decorations and shows. People go nuts decorating their homes with sometimes hundreds of thousands of lights and, with the advent (pun intended) of more powerful electronics, can find more and more creative ways to synch them to music. It can be fun for visitors passing thru and get your display on the news or social media, but might be a tad annoying for neighbors. One neighborhood in California overcame that problem and got really creative by synching the entire neighborhood to music. With a drone hovering above, we get to see the entire thing.  Once a year, right? Here it is as reported in the Huffington Post

Video - The Silent Monks and the Hallelujah Chorus

We artists appreciate creativity, especially when it gives a new view of things we already know and love. Here is a creative way of performing the Hallelujah Chorus. Its been around awhile, but if you've not seen it, its worth a look.

Lost art work found in Stuart Little movie

Next time your watching a movie at home or in the theater, take a moment  to check out the art in the set decoration. You may find something like like art researcher Gergely Barki did while watching a Stuart Little movie and see a lost masterpiece like Bereny's Sleeping Lady With A Back Vase in the background. Be watching!

New York's High Line Park - old into the new

My city New York is ever changing, ever re-purposing the old into the new. The new High Line Park on NYC's Lower East Side is one of those stellar re-purposings. An old elevated train line, that sat abandoned for years and turned itself into a wild elevated forest. Debate raged as to what to do with it and the end result is this wonderful park in the sky. It ends at the NY train yard around 38th st which will soon have skyscraper forest arising on a platform being built over it.It is becoming a very in place to be on and for restaurants and other institutions to be around.  The Whitney Museum, when it decided to move from its Upper East Side location and had to chode a new site for its new building, chose the lower end of the High-line instead of the South Street Seaport to place its new home  Check out the Washington Post's article on it.