sneak preview of NYC History panorama, photo by Christopher Lovi

The opening reception for the 400 Years of Manhattan exhibit is on Friday, February 6, 2009 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Salmagundi Club. The Club is located at 47 Fifth Avenue in New York City, call 212-255-7740 for more information.

Also on display will be an exhibit featuring the importance of NY’s waterways as well as an additional Dutch history themed exhibit of smaller works.

Later I went out to Brooklyn to help Naomi Campbell with transporting her painting. Using her wheely gizmo, we took the subway and carried it up and down the stairs of the various subways, arriving just before closing time at the Salmagundi Club.  Naomi is pictured here with, Leendert van der Pool,  the artist and organizer of the History Panorama.  the Show opens Monday and the official opening is February 6th, 2008 at Forty-Seven Fifth Avenue | New York, NY 10003 | 212-255-7740 | www.salmagundi.org

George Washington, NYC was Capital of US, oil on canvas, Tom Taffee

Statue of Liberty, oil on canvas, Tom Taffee

 Profile (2 panels): George Washington and the Statue of Liberty, oil on canvas by Tom Taffee

A lot of people did not know that New York City was the first capital of America so I decided to do this portrait of George Washington at his first inauguration in 1789.

The statue of liberty was supposed to be dedicated in 1872 to celebrate the 100^th birthday of the Unites States but sat for ten years until school children collected enough pennies to pay for the base of the statue an interesting story so I decided to do this painting.

The panels will be assembled and photographed on Sunday.  I will post photos of the exhibit here as soon as they are available.

For the sky, which was originally  blue, I worked in between the steel ropes with a mixture of Indian yellow and little cobalt blue with a small pallet knife, preserving the shape of the cables.  My aim is to give the painting an impressionistic look, a style that was fashionable around 1867-1886.

In the photo on the right, I blocked in the figure and shadows.  I added the girl, which I took from an 1883 painting by Albert von Keller Kleine, entitled Pariserin 1883.  She was originally facing away from the light, so I changed the lights to dark shadows,  and the dark to lights.   I added the dog as she was looking down, (he came from a puppy food ad.) The dog, I feel gives the girl a focal point and adds a touch of sentimentality which the people of the 19th century loved so much.

Flatiron Building, oil on canvas, Michael Budden

Profile: Flatiron Building, oil on canvas, Michael Budden

I choose to depict the Flatiron Building for a couple of reasons. First it is considered one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York and I found its shape interesting snuggled in between Fifth and Broadway. Certainly one of the tallest when completed around 1902.

The second reason is that I did a small painting for the Salmagundi Club Thumb Box Exhibition in 2007 and the club purchased the painting for their permanent collection. For that reason, seeing the Flatiron will always bring a special feeling to me.

I enjoy painting challenging light situations and I choose to portray the building almost silhouetted enshrouded in mysterious light, possibly evening or morning light representing the “Dawn of a New Era”. I’m sure when the building was built most people felt a mysterious feeling about it. I read that the locals even bet on how far the debris would fly when the wind knocked it down. Picking up the panel was a challenge becuse of my fear of driving into the city alone so it started out on the right foot. I drove in, no problem, and parked near the club. Got the panel to the car and had time to spare to walk around for a little look/see. Once home I figured I would paint in acrylics which I used to do as a wildlife artist. These days Im using oils so I figured painting something this large in acrylic was going to be a challenge because I like softness and that is hard to achieve with acrylic. Since I teach high school art I took the painting to school to share some of this with the kids. I was able to sneak some time during school to block in the panel and start the building process but soon realized that I was going to have to change to oils which meant taking it home to work on in the studio. With the ceiling in the studio only about 7 1/2 feet high I had to paint the bottom of the painting in a very umcomfortable position on my knees which also gave me a chance to pray this would all work out. I tried to portray what life might look like in the early 1900′s. 

Thomas Alva Edison & The First Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brooklyn Bridge underpainting

I chose the Brooklyn bridge (1883) because it is an icon of New York. The bridge was the vision of an engineer called John A. Roebling, but it was his son, with the help of his wife that bought the 16 year project to fruition.

My first task was to simply get the 72″ x 36″ canvas panel back to my studio; no easy feat without a car in Manhattan. I then removed the shrink wrap and gessoed it with one more coat of oil ground to give the surface a slightly smoother surface. I also painted the edges black, as we have been requested to do so. This will keep our paintings consistent and to make it easier to touch up in the course of their travels.

I drew my inspiration for the view from researching pictures on the web of the Brooklyn bridge and taking my own photos. My main inspiration came in the form of a small black and white photo, taken early in the 20th Century. As things may have changed since the opening in 1883 to when this picture was taken, I supplemented this with prints of the original plans, and the etchings of the opening day ceremonies. I also researched the color of the bridge; a reddish color made from a mineral pigment, called “Rawlins Red.” The mineral came from a mine near Rawlins, Wyoming.

Pictured here is the underpainting in red and raw umber in oil.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 - oil on canvas, Anne Kullaf

This is the official blog for the Salmagundi Club History Panorama exhibition. 

The Salmagundi Club of NYC, the oldest arts club in the US, has been invited to participate in an international celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Manhattan by the Dutch. In collaboration with the Zeeuws Maritiem Muzeeum of Vlissingen, a maritime history museum in the Netherlands, the exhibitions will be shown for the entire year 2009 at the Club, in the Vlissingen Muzeeum, and at other NY and Dutch locations.

All artists participating in the exhibit are invited to post images of their work in progress for this exhibition. This will enable us to share the development of this exciting project with other club members, collectors, the press and the world at large.

Profile: The Great Blizzard of 1888 – oil on canvas by Anne Kullaf

My panel shown above depicts the Great Blizzard of 1888. I chose this subject because I love painting urban landscapes that contain atmospheric conditions,  repeating shapes, exaggerated perspective and all those icons that make NY so unique. I also wanted to challenge myself by painting something from another time period, my own work is typically very contemporary and I tried to approach an earlier era from a modern perspective.

I worked with a limited palette consisting of burnt umber, titanium white, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue. These colors enabled me to capture the colors of the brick buildings, telegraph poles and figures in a way reminiscent of old sepia-toned photographs. The same colors were echoed in the shadows of the snow and sky to create an atmosphere of wind-blown snow and threatening clouds, with a little glow providing just a hint that the snow was on its way out and NY had survived the worst of the storm.