New York in the pink

Today's effort. Very sketchy, maybe shouldn't have been. Saw this pink shop along either Prince or Spring St. (I've changed the name of the store). And I always forget to erase pencils marks. Sometimes I like the addition of the pencil drawing below but other times I wish I had erased before I scanned the picture. I'm just in too much of a hurry to get scanning and blogging.

December 16, 2009 - New York park bench

And now the bench. This is from a photo from my November trip to New York and it's just outside of Central Park. Seems like it was only yesterday that it was autumn. Really it still is but it was awfully chilly today and there were some flurries about.

December 8, 2009 - New York street

I nearly completely forgot that I bought a set of watercolour pencils in Berlin. How did that happen? I do enjoying experimenting with them and I feel I'm still at that stage. I thought I would use the Hahnemuhle rough paper for it since it would add to the pencil look.

Today is an odd day and not what I had planned. The gym - out the window and pushed to tomorrow. I slept in, which I haven't done for a while, because of a storm last night that kept us awake and me worried about our porch screen coming through our new front window. This necessitated action at 2 in the morning. Anyway, I sold a photograph last night on etsy so that has been printed out and I have to add more. Just thought I would get this in first.

November 27, 2009 - Dutch house in New York

Again, this was from my April trip and on the same walk. I spotted this little house that was nothing like any of the others and reminded me of Dutch architecture.

And once again I'm not happy with this work but felt I had to do something today. We're off tonight for a birthday concert to see James Ehnes at the new Koerner Hall. So glad we can make it. Anyway, that's the excuse. I didn't want to do anything too time consuming since time is ticking but then again, some of my favourite works didn't take that long. Oh well. Better tomorrow? Let's hope.

November 24, 2009 - New York (again part 2)

Yet another image of New York and once again this image came from a photo taken during my spring trip there. I love the brightly coloured restaurants. I'm fuzzy about location again but see below about my walk one Saturday with group friends, savouring wine, eating good food, and crossing a bridge for ice cream and a magnificent view.

November 23, 2009 - New York (last trip!)

Been getting a lot of ideas for paintings by going through some old photos. Perfect day to get that done.

I believe this restaurant is in Greenwich Village but honestly, we walked around so much that day in April that it could be Nolita or Soho because we walked through all of those and Chinatown and lower East side and Brooklyn. You get the picture - lots of walking. This was interspersed during part of the afternoon with tastings of rioja wine in several liquor stores. Not something you will get in Toronto.

Anyway, I wanted a sketchy quality to suggest movement and to just suggest people rather than a study of individuals.

November 20, 2009 - New York still on my mind

Last week I was in New York on Friday night and was having my nails done. This week, very different.

Anyway, I spent this evening tidying the kitchen and dining room (got to have it clean before hubby gets home), reading my book online for book club tomorrow night and I thought I should fit in a quick watercolour before settling down for the night with a cup of tea, some ice cream and some tv watching (maybe get caught up on some Coronation Street?). Then I also want to fit in some reading of my photography magazine in bed.

So yet another New York house. This one is a bit sketchier. I was working very small (6 x 4") on paper that I got in Germany. I've never used it before. It is very fine with not much forgiveness. You have to be quick when working a colour through or you see your start and finish areas. I think if I was working a bigger area and not worried about leaving small detail areas free then it would be fine. In case you're wondering it's Lana watercolour paper.

New York photos

In case you were waiting in anticipation for those black-and-white with colour photos of New York well here they are. Frankly, I'm not in the mood to sleep yet so why not post these before bed.

I won't post the one that I did for our Christmas card because some of you may be getting one of those. I just hope they come in time. It took forever getting the website to work (after a failed attempt on another one and finding out a third was going to cost a fortune). You'll be happy to know that the Canadian printer came out on top.

November 19, 2009 - New York brownstone

Been working on photographs of New York today while waiting around. They're much like the Berlin and Paris black-and-whites. I even posted two on etsy. I may even post a couple more. But I really wanted and needed to do a watercolour today as well so I'm posting that first. I may still post the photos.

I love the brownstone buildings in New York. In fact most of the buildings in New York have incredible detail. It's difficult not to photograph them all.

I painted this on my new favourite paper that I mentioned before - Hahnemuhle's Burgund matt. In case you're wondering I also have a favourite photo paper for those black-and-white prints. Unfortunately I couldn't get it again in New York and had to settle for a sample pack of Gekko by Pictorico. The "Red" version worked so well when I printed out the Paris photos. It's from Japan and gives such a nice luminous quality to the blacks.

November 17, 2009 - New York!

So if you've been following and wondering if I have given up or where I was I was in New York for 5 days. And the shop theme continues! I think this shop was on Spring Street. I wandered around that area for a couple of days. Great shopping. There are the big name shops on Broadway nearby but also some quirky and different shops on the side streets especially Spring and Prince. I love it there.

At first I wasn't liking this painting. It's sketchier than the rest but I think it somehow works like that.

Off to have some coffee now, get hubby packed for his trip and have some delicious hazelnut spread from Le Pain Quotidien.