Sketches of Two Male Passengers on Subway

En Plein Air: Someone's Drive (Oil, 12 x 9)

The sky was leaden with overcast today, but it was not very cold. I decided to paint in the afternoon. I didn't go very far, just in the neighborhood. I saw a house surrounded with pine trees. The owner seemed to use them as a fence for privacy from his/her neighbors. Good fence makes good neighbors I guess as Robert Frost says.

Tired Santa

On my way to the grocery store to get some milk this afternoon, I came across this tired Santa who made me laugh. So I took this picture.

Images on New York Subway

En Plein Air: Neighborhood Parochial School (Oli 12 x 9)

This is a very old parochial school near my home.

En Plein Air: Puritan Ave. (Oil, 12 x 9)

I didn't go out to paint yesterday because it rained the whole day. Today I was thinking of going out but it intermittently sprinkled again in the morning. After lunch I told myself that I needed to take a chance, so I pulled my kit across the street. I didn't go far before I noticed two houses on hillside. They were very different in style. I set up on the sidewalk not far from the corner of Shorthill Rd. The drizzle began to fall shortly, but like in the morning, it was on and off. My sweater was not wet through. I simply ignored it even though my painting was covered with raindrops and there was water in my paintbox and easel. the situation only made me rush. The whole thing took not quite an hour and a half.

Sketch: Four Bald-Headed Noisy Poker Players at the Library Reading Area

This afternoon I believe I could manage the walk to and from the local library with my sore legs, so I went there and checked out some new books. To my surprise, the chess and poker players, whom the library staff had kicked out of the reading area because people complained about the noise they made, were back in the reading area again. They played their games as they did before and were as rowdy, too. They were all Russian-speaking, newly immigrated from former republics of the Soviet Union. When I was done with my checkout, I did a quick sketch of the four of them at a table next to me.

En Plein Air: An Overcast Wintry Afternoon (Oil, 12 x 9)

Officially it was the first day of winter. It happened to be pretty cloudy. I went, again, this afternoon to the spot where I painted the sunny Burns St. yesterday. However, I looked at a right angle of Burns St. today, down Ascan Ave. from the street corner, with the community congregational Church-in-the Gardens in the background.

En Plein Air: A Sunny Day ( Burns St.)

En Plein Air: Almost Overshadowed (Oil, 9 x 12)

It was freezing cold this morning. The temperature came down to around 30+ F. Too cold to paint outside. I was deciding whether or where I should go today when out of the window I saw my neighbors' houses across from us were half shadowed by the buildings on our side. I was so impressed by the contrast in value that I wanted to paint it. So I set up by the window and started working on it. Well, even though it was done indoors, I still considered it a plein-air painting.

En Plein Air: The Empty Pedestal on Queens Blvd (Oil, 9 x 12)

It was raining the whole day yesterday, so I just stayed home and didn't go out to paint. When I woke up this morning, I noticed the ground was still wet but the rain had stopped. The sky was overcast. I could see a grayish yellow line over the horizon. Traditionally, we believe it is a sign that heralds snowfalls. Anyway, the weather didn't look good and the temperature had come down quite a bit, to around 40 F.

I pulled my kit all the way to Queens Blvd. It was much windier there. I saw the pedestal standing across the street against the sky over the Grand Central Parkway. There used to be a beautiful statue on top of the pedestal. I saw it several years ago. I had no idea why it had been removed and left behind an empty pedestal for so long. I could not afford the time to day dream, so I set up on the safety island in the middle of the road and began to paint. In a half hour I felt some rain droplets on my arms and it started sprinkling. Soon it stopped. Before I could pat my back to tell myself how lucky I was, it began to rain again. This time it would not stop. I had to pack up my stuff and hit the road. Fortunately it was not very far from home. I was not soaking wet when I got home.

En Plein Air: A Busy Corner (Oil, 9 x 12)

Yesterday when I saw Queens Blvd. in the setting sun, I told myself that I must paint it. So I waited till 2 PM today before I left home for Queens Blvd. It was really a busy corner where Queens Blvd. and Kew Gardens Rd. forked in different directions. Besides Union Turnpike happened to cut across Queens Blvd, not quite a hundred yards away. You could feel the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. This is really an authentic sketch which took only an hour and ten minutes. I set up behind a huge plant pot in front of the federal building, that is why the building doormen didn't see me till an hour later. When he saw me, he came over and told me that he would be in trouble with the building security if he let me stay there. I said I understood what he said and asked him for ten more minutes to wrap up. I like the sketch myself. I don't know why but all my good works are always completed in a time-pressing situation.

En Plein Air: Hillside Walk (Oil, 9 x 12)

En Plein Air: A Murky Day (Oil, 9 x 12)

It was a murky day this morning. Visibility was not good and everything looked blurred in fog. When I walked out of the building, my face felt the moisture of the misty air. In the middle of painting at Forest Hills Gardens, a thin drizzle began to fall. Fortunately it was not heavy.

En Plein Air: Forest Hills Gardens (Oil, 9 x 12)

Forest Hills Gardens is an affluent neighborhood in this area, where you may find a great number of old stylish million-dollar houses. It used to be an exclusive neighborhood. An old Jewish lady once told me that according to her parents, the neighborhood would not allow Jewish families to move into it no matter how wealthy they were when she was a child. Things have changed greatly ever since.

En Plein Air: Hilly Street (Grenfell St. Queens, Oil 12 x 9)

I am pretty lucky recently. The temperature this week has been hovering around 60 F and I don't feel cold wearing my vinyl gloves only while painting outside. I didn't think much of what to paint this morning. After I dropped something in the mailbox on Grenfell St., I simply walked down toward Lefferts Blvd. and the street began to dip. As I came to the intersection of 82 Ave. it went up steeply instead. I just stopped there and set up to paint the street.

En Plein Air: Colors of Autumn (Oil, 12 x 9)

En Plein Air: Before Christmas (Oil, 12 x 9)

It was cloudy today. I pulled my kit down Greenway North in Forest Hills Gardens when I noticed a red car at the end of the line of parked cars along a narrow side street. At the same time, something else caught my eyes. The patches of green grass on the sidewalk, the light-colored sycamore trees against the red-brownish bare boughs, yellow leaves. etc., all reminded me that Christmas was around the corner. I immediately stopped and set up on the street corner to paint the scene.

En Plein Air: A Crispy Morning in Late Fall (Oil, 9 x 12)

I finished painting just a minute ago at the Overlook Point of Forest Park. The whole process went pretty smooth.

En Plein Air: Deciding (oil, 12 x 9)

I didn't dare to go too far as sciatica constantly reminded me of its need of my attention with the numbness and tingling in the left leg with each step I took. Therefore, I simply walked a minute or two along the sidewalk till I came to the spot I picked a few days ago by the park near Hampton Court Apartment building. I felt the view was a typical late fall scenery with its seasonal colors.

En Plein Air: Park Lane S. in the Afternoon (oil, 9 x 12)

En Plein Air: A Wet Day at Forest Park (Oil, 9 x 12)