Morning, Amsterdam Ave.

Mickey

My sister-in-law's beagle.

Columbus Circle, pre-Time Warner

But just barely.

Cars

Draw the city today and you're drawing cars, cars, cars. A hundred years ago it was horses. Who's better off?

"Ansonia Tower" (detail)

A work-in-progress, in pen & wash with watercolor highlights, to be donated to the Computer School auction next month; I'm waiting to add some leaves and buds, which I hope will show up in a few more days. The Ansonia is the great Upper West Side landmark described by novelist Saul Bellow as looking "like a baroque palace from Prague or Munich enlarged a hundred times." 

"Pears on a Plate"

This started out to be a simple pencil drawing in B&W, but one of the pears turned out to have other ideas . . . .

"Orange Tenement" (detail)

This is one of those 1890s Romanesque Revival apartment buildings you still find up & down the Upper West Side, clad in ochre-glazed brick. When it catches the morning rays, the whole front glows like something alive. Anyway, I'm a sucker for orange. 

Never any problem finding "something to draw" on Broadway. Just look up!

"Fire Escapes, E. 67th Street"

Often, the backs of buildings seem to have more character & interest than the fronts. This view is from the rear of my wife's workplace -- the public library on East 67th Street. 

"Red Tenement, Amsterdam Avenue" (detail)

I pass by this old tenement building almost every day. It's shabby and its coat of cool red paint has ben flaking away for decades, but the flow of morning sunlight through the top-floor windows still gives it a compelling charm. 

Bookshop sketches

Another great vantage point for sketchers -- a seat (if you can find one!) in your local Barnes & Noble. It's delightful, the variety of poses people will unconsciously strike when absorbed in reading.

A pair of portraits

I haven't painted a lot of face studies lately, but it's another wonderful genre that I'd like to explore sometime soon. These are from an Art Students League workshop several years back conducted by master portraitist Ray Kinstler. 

"Wildflowers, Central Park"

This is an old & somewhat overworked pastel, cropped a little at the right edge for this post.  

"Dusk, Summer - West Village" (detail)

At sunset in New York, especially in summer, you have to fight the temptation to overload your palette with sugary colors. I think I resisted here, more or less. 

"Stuyvesant Square"

It was one of the hottest days of the summer -- well over 100 degrees -- but under its heavy foliage Stuyvesant Square offered a remarkably cool oasis. This scene was done in Gregg Kreutz's cityscape painting workshop. 

More subway sketches