Newyorkamera.com

In late January I began to paint again. There are a few canvases  in the studio that have gone through many changes in my mind, it was time to put pigment to the thought. This one finished itself before I was ready.  There’s another large canvas in the studio that seems to be finished too, but I don’t feel done with it. It will probably sit around another year before I show it. This one is fine as it is.

I’m not sure this is finished yet. I’ve been sketching this in color on my iPad which has given me the luxury of trying a number of compositions before I got to the easel. But the paint doesn’t always do what you want it to do.

Colman and I went out to Gennady’s studio during the school break to visit and get my spout welded. Here’s Gennady just after the job was done.

The welded spout, cooling down.

Now it’s cleaned up, ready to be annealed and filled with pitch.

At home I was working on a number of projects. We were waiting for cups and saucers to be electro formed in Rhode Island and I was working on another cup and some jewelry. These are pieces of a chain, I was working on two at the time. Both of them were finished today. The recent rise in silver prices has made finishing these chains a proposition to consider, the selling price is going to be much higher than it was last year.  Each of the chains weigh in at 4 ounces.

My whole work bench with several projects on it.  The large vase in the center is  an attempt to completely shape and chase without pitch.  It has progressed since then but will probably need another 15 hours or so.

The finished chains. Ovals and Bubbles. . .

We had a nice day about 10 days ago and Colman took this shot of me with a new begonia that has bloomed. 

This is a small silver leafed begonia  (in a 2 inch  pot ) that Tibor gave me,  it has taken off and is blooming too.  He says that his plant is bigger and fuller but hasn’t bloomed, it’s probably the extra light in our greenhouse that is giving our plants a longer stretch of daylight.

Last week I finished a lot of Portfolios for Talas.

In the back yard crocus are blooming. Spring is not far away.

I’m about a month late posting this and the show has probably come down by now. (The evening of March 9, 2010)  I took almost a hundred photos and it’s taken time to put this posting together.

We were invited to the opening our friend, Gwen Strahle, (she lives in Connecticut) who was selected for this exhibition. It’s been a long time since we were in this neighborhood, 20 years ago Colman and I had an apartment a few blocks from the Museum of the American Indian and the Hispanic Museum complex. Since then, the Museum of the American Indian has moved downtown to the old Customs House near Battery Park.  The Academy exhibit is in two of the buildings in the center of the museum complex near 158th street on the West Side. The photo above is of some of the grand sculpture in the passage between the museums on the way to the academy  exhibition space.

This is the central area of  the first  building.  The exhibition is in two buildings with a small courtyard in between.

Taybin and Kat were on the same train, we met them as we were getting onto the platform at 157th street.  Taybin is in this shot.

This is Laura Battle with some of her work.  It turns out she knows Gwen. Laura battle info.

This is Lisa Sanditz with one of her paintings.  I thought I would try to get as many of the artists with their work as I could find.  I was only able to pair four with their work all evening. Other images by Lisa.

One corner of the gallery.

Some more Gallery shots, the next few are taken in the second building.

Gwen Strahle, who has work in the exhibit, talking with Anja, Austin and Colman.

I like this large sculpture. It was very difficult to get a good angle on it, you can see how wide it is in a photo above of the whole room. It’s called Fold  by John Grade.

Kat, Taybin, Anja and Austin talking with Colman

I thought these were particularly strange.

Laura Battle talking with  some of her friends.

I was surprised to see two friends from Staten Island, Mitchell and  Lorraine.

Alexi Worth with a couple of his paintings.

This is where we came into the show first, a very large room with a really high ceiling and enormous skylight.

The courtyard between the buildings, looking toward  Broadway.

Friday, Colman and I went into the city to deliver paper and samples. We parked the car in the big lots on the far side of the ball park. Some of the new trees were in bloom, one type with large heart shaped leaves had large clusters of white flowers on it. here’s a shot of the whole tree followed by a close up of the flowers. Since the trees are new and young, there are branches close to the ground and we were able to see, and smell, the flowers up close. It is a very nice fragrance, the flowers are nicely marked with purple and yellow spotting.

   This weekend marks the first Art by the Ferry exhibition, a showcase for Staten Island artists and performers. Musical performances and readings at various venues will take place again next weekend along with the displays in the galleries, all within walking distance of the Ferry Terminal.

Saturday night we attended an opening at Gallery 6 on Beach Street. It’s a beautiful, Manhattan style loft space with good lighting. The show, Skin, features a lot of nudes in painting and sculpture.  It was the first time for me to see my friend Susan’s paper pulp sculptures presented in a gallery setting. Robert introduced some new large paintings of sycamore tree trunks, the compositions like close ups of aging bodies with greenish skin; a surprise, but an approach not too far from his figurative subject matter. I didn’t take any photos, maybe next weekend we’ll visit Gallery 6 again when there’s less of a crowd.

Sunday we went to see some more of the visual art on display at 120 Stuyvesant Place. The group had taken over the entire first floor of a building that used to be the College of Staten Island. We met Esteban there while passing through the 20 or so rooms. There was a lot of familiar work on the walls but we were surprised to see a lot of work by Staten Islanders completely unknown to us. I liked a number of pieces by these unknowns. Esteban walked with us to another gallery at 150 Stuyvesant Place and then, after a downpour, to a building on Richmond Terrace that had recently been a Fish’s Eddy Store. Here’s a shot of Esteban and Colman by a little park on the way, where some oakleaf hydrangeas were blooming. 

On the way to the Fish’s Eddy building I took these shots from the terrace which rises above the harbor at this end of Staten Island. 

Then, to the right of this red building, I made photos for a panoramic view to the side walk where Esteban and Colman were entering our next stop.

At the Fish’s Eddy building we met Griselda, here she is standing  in front of two of her paintings. We had seen a very nice group of small paintings of Snug Harbor scenes and a Autumn Hydrangea at the 120 Building. It was good to meet her and put a face with her work.

This is a piece by Julius Wasserstein, I’ve written about him in the old blog. It’s a been long time since then and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to see some of his new painting. I enjoy Julius’ work and I like this wild painting.

Esteban has a piece here in addition to the paintings and carved wood sculptures the 120 building. Here he is with his celestial City Curtain. Esteban has a web site at : http://www.estebanchavez.com/

Saturday we went to visit our friends Bob and Patti in Pennsylvania. It was a cold overcast day but we had a good time going through Bob’s Greenhouse, visiting with other plant friends who came from Philadelphia and then later talking with Bob and Patti in their living room. 

Sunday was much a brighter better day. The rhododendrons in the front and side yard are performing beautifully.

In the side yard, our redbud is in full bloom along with the Ken Janeck rhododendron.

The first dwarf black iris bloomed this weekend. More will follow.

A japanese tree peony by the front walk, one of several flowers on the bush..

My Purple Velvet Smoke tree peony is blooming by the back terrace. The camera never gets this flower color right, it’s much a darker, almost black-maroon.

On the edge of the piano bed, one of my azalea seedlings, Elizabeth Wilson, named for my mother, is starting to bloom. It’s about 10 years old now and I should propagate it.

Near the Elizabeth Wilson azalea, Dream, another azalea, along with a rhododendron, Gordon Jones is in full bloom.  

This is a close up of Gordon Jones, this plant took a LONG time to establish itself. It’s only been blooming well the last 2 years, I think we planted it about 15 years ago. 

Over the years Colman has pollinated our tree peonies and planted a few of the seeds. This is a first bloom on one of the seedlings, I think it turned out well and we’ll look forward to next year when it should have more flowers. This plant is about 3 years old. 

Inside, in the late afternoon, the sun cast an unusual reflection from the studio into the entrance hall. It lit my sculpture and the collection of glass and pots on the shelf above out mantel. 

Colman is painting a lot, he’s started to work on small canvases. This one is of a net, it’s photographed on my work bench.

While in the city I often pass by an oriental antique store on Fifth Avenue and 27th street.  The windows currently have two Lacquer screen panels decorated with fish and waves made of mother of pearl, abalone and tortoise shell.  Each panel is about 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide.  Here are some photos of  them taken through the windows, complete with some reflections of the street.  Couldn’t do much about the reflections.

In the second panel, the carp is made of tortoise shell.  I was surprised by the effective use of the natural mottling of the turtle shell to represent the coloring of a spotted carp.  Changing the color of the fish made the panel look completely different even though , as I see them again on my screen, the composition is nearly identical in both panels. 

We have been in a process of matting and framing a number of Colman’s paintings.  We entered three into the  annual Small Works competition at NY University about two weeks ago,  one of the two you’ll see below was accepted. In the show all works have to be 12 inches or less in all dimensions including the frame. This one is called Evening’s Advantage.

This one is Recovering from Prophesy.