Art and travel are both my life’s work and my passion. Always travelling with a camera and a sketch book in hand, seeking inspiration, exploring the geography, art, architecture and history of a place. Choosing a destination, reading about the history and culture, and novels. Discovering a place I have never been before. Seeing a work of art I have only previously viewed in a book is both exhilarating and inspiring.

This will be the first in a series about some places I have explored over the past many decades, and the art that resulted from those journeys.

NEW YORK CITY

For about a decade in the early 2000’s we went to New York City each year, once early in the spring and again late in the fall. I had visited New York City often as a child, attending family celebrations with my mother’s extended family. These later visits, with my wife, initially involved meeting friends and staying in hotels. For several years we often enjoyed the privilege of staying with friends in their Manhattan loft, where the view over the rooftops of water towers, and to the north the Empire State building and the Chrysler building are especially inspiring at dusk, and night.

We became familiar with lower Manhattan, taking the metro in all directions and walking miles each day. A favourite walk was back and forth across the Brooklyn Bridge, often every day. And later the High Line, and through Central Park in all directions as we explored the city. Visiting galleries, always MOMA and the MET and the Guggenheim, and Neue Galerie, and the Jewish Museum, the Frick and so many others.

Refreshments taken at Bemelmans Bar, the Four Seasons bar in the Seagram Building, the Grand Central Oyster Bar or in any of the many lovely hotel bars. In the spring the ginkgo trees were at their most spectacular, and in November the ice was ready for skating at the rink at Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park and Central Park.

During those years I created many New York City paintings, for several exhibitions at the Roberts Gallery. Much of the work has sold over the years, but I do have a small selection of works still available.