It’s never too early to start painting, right? Also…exhibit A on the quality of my pics- placing my camera order today!

Help! I need a new camera. I need it for taking pics of things to paint around NYC, but mostly I need it to take pics of my 8 month old, who’s baby book will probably be filled with grainy snaps from my blackberry, the poor child. So, any suggestions on something relatively light and portable? Many thanks.

PS…I also need these jeans, though this is not as dire my need for the camera, obviously.

It’s been a crazy few weeks- lots of fun and exciting work-which means less blog time. There are so many things I want to write about, and so little time! I do still take long walks with Alex and take photos in my head of things to paint later. For example, people who look exactly like their dogs, weird sea urchin-y plants outside of a Japanese restaurant on Varick Street, my favorite subject Hamish in front of Citarella wearing bright blue loafers and a deep green coat, the empire state building popping up over Sullivan Street….can’t you just see the paintings now?! They are all there in my head waiting to be painted. Hopefully I’ll get to it.  In the meantime, I saw someone wearing these shoes with green jeans, it looked adorable, so here is a quick sketch.

I wanted to do something floral and bright for my next round of prints, so I got orchids with an orange ground stuck in my head and I couldn’t wait to paint! Then I changed my mind half way through…..It has to be pink! So I tried again. Still not feeling it. Just thought I’d post them. Sometimes the best work is spontaneous and comes out exactly how you want it the first time, but sometimes it’s trial and error. Going to try again and see what I come up with!

I was challenged to do some posts on my favorite NYC places by the lovely Andrea on my facebook page. I am going to start with one of my all time favorite blocks: West 28th street between 6th and 7th Avenue, which is NYC’s flower district. In the dead of winter this block can make me very happy. It’s lined with everything from the tiniest succulents in little clay pots, to huge topiary and potted 7 foot tall trees.Most of the flower shops open at 5am, and the block might be bustling with event planners choosing hundreds of pink orchids for table centerpieces, interior designers hoping to add some color to a neutral loft space, or stylists looking for the perfect shade of hydrangea for a photo shoot. Most of it is wholesale, but I think now a lot of the shops sell to regular people like you and me. I used to frequent the flower market when one of my first jobs entailed buying flowers to decorate our showroom. It’s still a huge source of inspiration for me. I love peeking into a tiny storefront and seeing a huge jungle inside.

ABC home is having some pretty big sales….I went in looking for some fabric for curtains (living next to loading dock and a firehouse can be bright and noisy!) but instead ended up looking at all of the beads and cool jewelry in their bazaar area. Wouldn’t a tangle of colorful beads be great against a black silk blouse?

The funniest thing happened to me today. I decided to take Alex out for a walk just as it was getting a little dark out. A little confession here- my favorite thing in the world is looking in other people’s windows….haha…not in a creepy way, just a ‘oh doesn’t the fireplace in that brownstone look cozy and wouldn’t it be great to sit in front of it with some wine right now’ kind of way. I even make up stories in my head about the people who live there.

So I’m walking through Greenwich Village and I’m totally lost in looking at all of the holiday decorations and beautiful lights and gorgeous town homes. I’m having an I LOVE LIVING HERE moment. A woman with her two beautiful perfect children is ahead of me and I’m thinking to myself  ’I could definitely raise Alex in the city in an amazing brownstone in the village…look at this lovely little family walking home on this beautiful night. How perfect!’

One of the children is an adorable little 3 year old blondie with a navy swing coat, white cable tights, and mary janes. She begins to hang back a little and turns around to face me. Before I can say “hello and how are you?” she gives me a dirty look and proceeds to give Alex’s carriage a swift kick of her tiny leg with all of her might! Then another kick! I had to laugh. Suddenly I remember what this great city can do….sometimes it feels perfect… and then it makes sure to kick you right back into reality!!

Wouldn’t you love to see a Tom Binns necklace under your Christmas tree??

UPDATE: My husband must read my blog…..some fab earrings were under the tree

I miss the days of just sketching with paints and working out these fun little (sometimes big) patterns. Luckily I was able to do this for a couple of hours this week. Sometimes the things that are just painted quickly turn out to be what I like the best. Some results of that here. 

Have you seen Annie Leibovitz’s Pilgrimage? She travelled around the U.S. and took pictures of places that mean something to her (not her usual celebrity portraits, which are gorgeous of course, but the subjects in Pilgrimage are infinitely more interesting). There’s a photo of Georgia O’Keefe’s pastels. They’re worn down and used and the photo really tells a story.

So I started looking for vintage paint boxes on ebay, just to see if I could find anything interesting. There are so many! The top one is antique French with watercolor blocks of pigment, and the bottom one is just a kid’s paint box with the paints labeled. I like it because even though it is for children, they use color names like ‘Nile Green’ and ‘Vermillion’.

I would love to travel around like Annie Leibovitz and just paint Matisse’s paint box, or Picasso’s studio. It would make a great book don’t you think?