Spring Break in New York City

My husband and I went to NYC for Spring Break. The kids are off doing their own thing so it was just the two of us. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where really we needed about a week to see everything, but we did the best we could. They have recently refurbished and reopened part of the American Wing and the photos above are from the American Collection.

This is a painting painted in the round, yes, the painting goes 360 degrees around. (Though they had to make the room oval to accomodate doors on either end.) This panoramic view of Versailles was painted in 1820 by John Vanderlyn. In the early 1800’s, not many people traveled so artists would travel to far away places, then recreate the place on canvas for people to view. People might pay 10 cents to come and see a painting like this and experience a little bit of the gardens at Versailles. We thought it was fascinating!

Seeing some of the gorgeous Rembrandts again has reminded me how beautifully Rembrandt painted. Usually I make a bee line for the Impressionists at a musuem, but this time I was stopped in my tracks by some of the Rembrandts. I took a lot of these close up photos.

Besides visiting the Met, we visted the Neue Galerie and saw Austrian and German art. They had an impressive collection of Gustav Klimts. So unique. I highly recommend that museum. We also visited the Frick, which is where a huge self portrait by Rembrandt overwhelmed the room/gallery and really made me take notice of Rembrandts this trip. Plus, the Frick museum, which used to be a residence right on Central Park, is wonderful to look at too.

We went to the “Top of the Rock”, the 69th floor observation deck at Rockefeller Plaza, for a view of the city. We saw Tina Fey filming in the plaza afterwards. We walked. A lot. I wanted to spend some time in Central Park and we sure did that. More walking. We had a drink in a beautiful lounge on the 35 floor of a hotel one night, we sat right next to floor-to-ceiling windows and the view was spectactular. We also ate a lot of Italian food.

On our last day in NYC, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place. We saw the parade last year so we knew what we were getting into. Last year the parade lasted 7 hours. This time we watched for an hour, then it was time to get lunch and head to the airport.

I’ve read that when the artist Wolf Kahn teaches a workshop, he has his students draw a parade using only colors to represent the people in the parade, not actual shapes. When I saw all these brightly clad people lined up watching the parade, I couldn’t help but think of how I would represent them with color. To be precise, I believe Wolf Kahn tells his students to use color to represent the actual parade, not the people watching the parade.

Here is one shot from the parade. This is what you get for 6-7 hours if you stay for the whole thing.

New York City is a great place to visit, but I don’t think Iccould ever live there. Too many people, too many horns, too much construction, just too much of everything! I’m so glad to be back in our quiet peaceful home.

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