Return to Central Park

View Across The Lake 6x6 oil, copyright 2011

Today while looking through my photos in preparation for etsy, I rediscovered this never posted painting, finished early in the summer and sold almost before it was dry.  It's a view of Central Park, looking across the aptly named The Lake towards Midtown.  Buildings are challenging to me as it's hard to know how little detail you can get away with and still have them look like buildings.  Add in reflections on windows, deep shadows, architectural elements... it can easily become a mess.  Surprisingly though, the real struggle for me was the water.  I just couldn't get the reflections right and it kept looking like a pathway instead of a lake.  I think it was scraped down 4-5 times before I was satisfied.  I have to say though, the most satisfying part for me was that I was able to get a tiny flag on the top of the central building.  Don't ask me how I did it, as I'm sure I won't be able to do it again.

Central Park arch

Eagelvale Arch, Central Park  18x24 pastel, copyright 2010

As promised, this is the first of what I hope to be several pieces inspired by my trip to New York City.  This particular stone arch caught my eye as I was walking through the Park in the late afternoon.  The simplicity of the double archway and the quality of the light and shadow were what drew me in.  Once home I did a little research to find the name of this arch and found that it is the only double arch in the entire park; the right is a bridle path, the left is a walking path.

Turns out there are many stone and metal archways and bridges throughout the Park.  I also have picture of an unnamed "rustic" bridge that I intend to paint eventually.  Had I known all of these were such prominent  features of the Park I would have taken the time to wander through it a bit more.   But now I have something to look forward to for a future visit.

As a side note, after I started this one it struck me as a bit funny that of all the things I'd seen in New York, the first one I decide to paint is the scene that seemed the most like home.