Tuesday - paintings, park and film.

Yesterday morning painted for a little while listening to Ramona Koval and the Book Show. We are lucky with our ABC, The Book Show is a good antidote to a touch of homesickness.

On the public holiday we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The oxygen was lovely. 

 Off to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

 Decorative ceramic tiles in the Subway

 Evidence of a gracious past - this end of the gardens is a desert of highways, a Wendy's,  MacDonalds and the only pool I'vs spied so far - a Rehab Centre.

 Funny to see philodendrons in a glass house.

 A terrific collection of Bonsai

 This is a bottle brush

 Lovely waterlilies

Not a waterlily!

 An insect eater

 The Japanese Garden established in 1914

 A wonderful grove of cedars, pines and cypresses

 View of the Museum from the gardens

 The new gates to the gardens on the opposite side to where we entered.

 Subway from the Brooklyn Museum which is adjacent to the Gardens

On Tuesday afternoon I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had three hours looking closely at paintings from the second half of the C19th as well as wonderful 3D works by Rodin and Degas. 

I'll go tomorrow again as there is a new show 'Steiglitz and his artists'. This includes works by the artists introduced to America through his NY gallery Studio 491 including O'Keefe, Marin and Matisse. Also there's a new exhibition of Steiglitz's photographs.

At 5.15 we were all shepherded out of the huge museum. Each day it must be a huge operation to flush out the crowds from literally hundreds of rooms. 

I walked through Central Park to the West Side and down to 59th Street. Then to the Lincoln Centre which is an amazing precinct of halls, performance spaces and theatres. The opera hall has an exhibition of watercolours and drawings by Peter Doig designer of the current opera Sigfried. 

This is also the venue for the 49th New York Film Festival. I went with a friend to see a documentary about the old English band of 'glam' rockers, Mott the Hoople. It was a wonderfully crafted montage of old footage, photographs and interviews. When Ian Hunter the lead singer walked in, the audience, all old rockers as it turns out, went crazy. It was a great night and the film's director as well as Ian Hunter were on stage for questions afterwards. I was definitely in the minority not knowing about them (too young haha) but I really enjoyed the film. It was a funny and poignant human story, an amazing snapshot of the period from 1969-1974. 

Home by subway then cab - the taxis here seem very cheap in comparison to home.