Great Hill in Fall

I am very fortunate to have a view of Central Park from my living room window. The trees in the park are turning shades of yellow, orange and the occasional red. From a distance, it looks like a colorful quilt of warmly textured patterns. This piece of the Great Hill section is an attempt to capture that scene.

Autumn Lovers

I was inspired to create this piece after my sister announced her engagement. They are planning a fall wedding. The warm tones of fall seem the perfect backdrop for a celebration of partnership, love and commitment. It's also a romantic scene to envision a couple standing beneath a colorful tree with swirling leaves falling around them.

Red Leaf

I really enjoy the shape of oak leaves! In these pieces, I tried to abstract on the shape of the leaf by cutting out one red leaf and pasting it against a fall sky blue background and then using the negative image to create an impression of the leaf. These leaves have a very organic shape which is accentuated by using only two colors.

Autumn Leaves

Walking through the city, you become aware of fall's arrival as you hear leaves of all different shapes and sizes crunching beneath your feet. Here is a collage of some of the colorful leaves I have seen in my jaunts around the city over the past week!

Autumn in Morningside Heights

The other evening, I walked down Morningside Drive and stopped to appreciate the view of Morningside Park with Central Harlem in the background. There is a great lookout near 116th St. which is elevated over the park and affords a sweeping view of Harlem and Morningside Park. Some of the leaves were starting to turn on the trees. This is my interpretation of the scene.

Pear

When pears come into season, you know that fall is truly here! Pears have such an elegant, artistic shape. In this piece, I used bold colors and simple shapes to capture their elegance.

Apple

One of the things that I like best about fall is that apples are in season! Throughout the city, farmers' markets sell bountiful shiny mackintosh, rustic cortland's, and speckled gala apples. One of my favorites is the pale green ginger gold. It's a visual feast to see all the apples in wooden crates with their varying sizes, colors and textures. I created this cut-out with color aid paper.

Green NYC at Night in Autumn

I was inspired to create this piece after spending some time in Central Park on Sunday and envisioning colorful autumn leaves with their organic shapes against the linear skyscrapers of New York City. I used gouache paint to create the inky night sky, black construction paper to create the cityscape and gouache-painted paper to create the moon and trees. I really enjoyed cutting out the oak leaves, trying to make each shape unique, and figuring out the best way to position them in the composition.

Autumn Trees

This weekend, when I biked in Central Park I noticed a few sycamore and oak trees clustered together. The leaves were beginning to turn and they looked striking against the bright, blue sky. I tried to capture that color in this piece. The sky is a wash of watercolor and the trees are cut out with gouache-painted paper.

Half Moon

Last Sunday evening around 9pm, I opened our blinds and was captivated by a perfect half moon hanging above the apartment buildings across the street. The sky was very dark, as it was a cloudy night, which made the moon shine appear even more brilliant. To create this piece, I used color-aid paper for the buildings, gouache-painted paper for the moon and windows and black construction paper for the sky. It was a striking city scene!

Reservoir in Fall

This collage portrays the Reservoir in Central Park in early fall. The branch of an oak tree spans the composition. I like to think of New York City as a landscape that changes with the seasons and reflects the surrounding colors and vibes from nature and people! In this piece, the bright skyscrapers mirror the warm tones of the oak leaves and trees surrounding the reservoir.

Announcing ... 2010 Calendars!

I am pleased to announce that I will be creating calendars for 2010 with vibrant scenes of New York City in all four seasons! I hope that my designs will encourage you to enjoy the color and creative energy that surrounds you! Calendars will be available soon, so if you are interested in learning more, please sign up on the "subscribe via email" or "subscribe to receive updates" forms located on the right column of my blog.

Even on a dreary, rainy day, the city still comes alive with color! Colorful, bold umbrellas create a mosaic of colors on the sidewalks of Manhattan. I created the collage above with recycled and color-aid paper. The sky is watercolor.