First Weekend - September 23-24, NYSS and 9/11 Memorial

On my first weekend here I had the first of 4 lessons with Clintel Steed at the NYSS which is on West 8th Street. It’s in a charming old building and the studio is reminiscent of the old days at ESTC - just like an art school!

What a treat, four people set up to paint the figure. The model is a young, tall and elegant African American. 

The set up is simple with dark green velvet and a Veronese pink drape. Because of the G20 in town and the big protests the teacher was late. We all started painting straight from the model. There is an assistant who I think may be a post graduate. The teacher has a very direct goal which is to get people to paint the form as a response with colour, finding the exact colour in order to be true to nature. He is inspired by Cezanne - how Cezanne used ‘sensations’ of colour to patiently build up the whole composition.  I have come across a wonderful British painter named Euan Uglow whose paintings are very direct impasto colour studies of simple objects and the figure. Ben Quilty looks a bit like Uglow on steroids with his incredible scale and luxuriant paint handling. Our homework is to go to the Willem de Kooning show at MOMA before next Saturday  - what a great homework task! The paintings are 48x48” which is big. I hope mine will be dry enough to fold up and take home. It’ll be interesting to learn more about the relationship between this art school and its city. It champions the legacy of the New York painters.

Studio NYSS

Courtyard

On the Sunday evening we went to the 9/11 Memorial recently opened to the public on a very restricted basis. It is elegant, restrained and stately and will always be a pilgrimage. There are many advanced plane trees that will mark the seasons. This open space will be treasured I think by many. Trees in NY are few and far between and precious.The ‘footsteps’ of the two towers form two ‘voids’ surrounded by an amazing bronze wall where names are cut into the sloping bronze top. From beneath this bronze lip a waterfall spills about 30’ into a deep pool and disappears down a central square opening which I think replicates the dimensions of the lift shaft of the towers.

 The light at sunset was beautiful and people will keep coming. I’m glad I went.