In the beginning...my first month's blog posts, Feburary 2009!

I did not really know what I wanted to be doing with my blog posts so much early on..

I  got feedback right away from these first months' posts...people said I was just showing pictures and not writing enough about them. I thought I was writing plenty!! 

For instance---

I have a Facebook friend (who I also knew in high school MANY years ago)--she is a sometime photographer, but takes these really FANTASTIC photos-- the problem is, she never says where they were taken or what she was doing there ( in particular, she had country and city photos where people immediately posted: Where was this taken? But she never answered!

So here is the first month of Midtown Blogger....Februrary 2009  

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Pennsylvania Moon (watercolor)

No, this is not Midtown Manhattan...thought I'd break things up here with a painting I did based on a childhood trip through Pennsylvania.

The Grandeur of  Grand Central Terminal

I have been through GCT a great many times in my life, and have always been impressed by its ambitious design-- a throwback to the days when railroads were in their heyday.

Its beautiful Beaux Arts architecture would have met who knows what fate if a lot of influential people ( like Jackie Kennedy) hadn't become interested in its restoration and preservation.

I like historic buildings, subdivisions, areas and neighborhoods a great deal-- there were a good number of them to be found in Chicago when I was growing up, but I was mostly unaware of them because it wasn't fashionable in those days. Most people simply wanted to get out of the city to the suburbs-- the reverse migration didn't seem to start until the 1980's.

You can use Google in all kinds of ways to research historic buildings and districts all over the United States-- places like Harmony, Indiana, for instance, one of a number of Shaker communities. New York City, of course, is full of landmarks. 

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Sunrise over Triboro ( now RFK) Bridge

This image was taken from the window of my apartment in the residence where I used to live on 96th street....

Will be adding some new photos and comments from Midtown soon.

"Le Joli Fevrier":

Most people don't think of New York as being very much fun in February.

When I lived on 96th Street, we had an Art Group at the residence led by a very talented artist, Ann Quintano, and we put on several exhibits.

I had one collection of photographs I called " Le Joli Fevrier" ( inspired tongue in cheek by the Chris Marker documentary, " Le Joli Mai,"--which was about France when it was having troubles in Algeria) about NYC in February...lots of nice images if you want to get out with a camera.

I think we had all of about 50 people visit the exhibit...sold practically nothing ( prices were cheap, too)-- 

This is typical of kind of photo I displayed-- it is the East River from the Esplanade looking towards Wards Island.