Landscape: A Wintry Afternoon at Forest Hills, New York

It is the second or third day of winter. It rained hard through the most of the night and this morning but stopped by 10 AM. I checked on the weather forecast and it didn't seem to too bad for the rest of the day. Tempreature-wise, it was not very cold. However, it could be windy. Originally, I planned to paint an old rusty railroad overhead pass near the Michael's on Metropolitan Ave., Queens, but by the time I was walking through Forest Hills Garden, it became so windy and the sky so overcast that I didn't think it was wise to keep walking another half hour before settling down to paint, so I decided to find a spot as soon as possible. I turned into Greenway Terrace and found the view attractive. Quickly I set up and got started. There were many English-style houses with big roofs. The yellowish stone church, which I found later was the First Church of Christ, Scientist, provided variety in color. I didn't realize till then that Christian Science Church had such deep roots in the neighborhood.

It was so windy that a gust of wind suddenly turned around the corner and blew away my palette. Fortunately it went sidewise and didn't come to my chest. I wore only the vinyl gloves. In about a half hour, my fingers felt numb, so I had to hurry. The whole thing took me only an hour a dna half. I like this old beautiful residential area and will come back to paint more.