Quarantined!

My year long trip to Mexico and the towns and villages around Michoacan was doomed to be postponed because of the Carona 19 Virus. I had intended to take my watercolors with me as they are easier to travel with than oil paint. Having long not done any works in watercolor, I vowed to start doing some in advance of my trip. My usual hectic schedule did not cooperate. So when all events and activities started to be cancelled and postponed I took up my resolve to do some watercolor paintings. I have had 2 watercolor instructors.

The first was my dear friend Wolfgang Tritt from my Hallmark days and the second, whose books I carry with me when I go to painting watercolor, is Mel Stabin. My technique moves back and forth somewhere in between their instruction and my own fear of this difficult medium!

My rustiness and hesitation shows, but I was highly motivated by a wonderful experience that I had before Christmas in New York City. A dear friend commissioned an original work for cello that was to be played at Carnegie Hall. It had to be an up one day and a back the next trip. My daughter went with me - I didn’t think I could do it alone! The concert was fabulous a life experience. The day after was a total dreamspell. It was raining, ever so softly, and my daughter and I spent 5 hours walking around NYC in the rain. I only had my cell phone, but I started taking pictures. The light, the reflections, the misty atmosphere all screamed water color to me. The views were water color subjects at their best. I vowed to turn them into some paintings of some kind.

I have watercolors in pans that are fifty years old, Schminke’s the brand. I’ve another little zippered container that has tubes with more recent colors that range from 50 years old to brand new. I have always liked the smallness of water color equipment. Probably no place on earth are there more subjects to be painting that in NYC. Barely out of our hotel was the Louis Vuitton Showroom that was wrapped with their signature Christmas wrap - yes the entire building! Up Fifth avenue at 52nd street were the food carts and buggy rides. The red carriages were like little lanterns in the misty rain. Fortunately for us the temperature was almost warm and the mist felt good to our faces. My paintings have always been mementoes of my travels, they take me back to the feeling I experienced when I was there.

Central Park was especially beautiful. The colors were all so muted through the mist. The last colors of Fall still hung on some of the trees. There were not many people on the street, just people walking their dogs and buying coffee and pretzels from the food carts. NYC is full of monuments. They are like painting buildings but have to be more precise as they usually have statues on the. The statues give them scale. Six or seven paintings into this project, I began feeling a little braver and added the sun coming out from under the clouds. I wanted it to reflect in the water and the base of the fountain, but alas that ability eluded me. Nothing is more indicative of NYC than streets with lights and cars etc. I wanted to get the glow that it has in low light, but I have yet to figure out how to do that. I ordered some more paint and another kind of watercolor paper Maybe that will help! I’m on a roll - still going!

My daughter had a bright red coat. I have multiple shots of her against the grays of the day. When it is really almost dark because of the intense cloud cover the shop windows reflect beautifully on the wet sidewalks. Sadly for many this is a terribly difficult time. For me it is a treasure. I must remember what I love to do and make the most of the time I have to do it. What a windfall the past week has been - to do what I have put off because of things that really don’t matter that much to me!