Painting alfresco on the High Line NYC

Painting outdoors has always been a part of our lives. It might seem like part of a throw back to a Victorian lifestyle, but slowing down your mind and your eye to truly see and appreciate something is good for the soul. In the trunk of the cars we drove around in all of our childhood years, in Nova Scotia, there has always been a box of sketching materials and some paper, and an old folding stool. New York, it's more challenging, and frankly I do it very, very rarely. But on September 11th, a lovely opportunity came up for Max and I to do it together in a free Whitney Museum workshop (they usually cost $10.)

I love the Whitney family art workshops; exceedingly well organized by the easy-going, fun and creative staff at the Whitney, I try to get my son Max signed up for as many as possible. And he loves them too! Although, sometimes at 9:30 am on a Saturday, it's slow going to get him out of the door.
The instructors often allow the parents to participate and make art as well, and it's a lovely bonding thing to do with your child.

On September 11th, the Whitney co-organized a day-long drawing event on the High-line park on a sunny Saturday. I'd never been to the park, I heard it was great, it's been open a year---the perfect time to go.

As is the norm, the workshop was tied into a current exhibition at the Whitney; this one "Heat Waves in a Swamp": The Paintings of Charles Burchfield was one I'd been dying to see. Burchfield was famously known for his outdoor painting, in rural and cities. He was inspired by industrial buildings and the sounds of nature in semi-rural areas.

Max, and the other children listen intently to instructor, Lisa. 

Instructor Lisa shows a reproduction of a Burchfield painting, "Insect Chorus"(1917) to the group, while asking the children how they see examples of Burchfield "sounds" imagery in this piece.

Max found a quiet spot to draw something that inspired him (some plants and the window of an art auction house.) 

Lisa gives Max some instruction on colour blending watercolour pencil marks.

Max's drawing of sounds.

--Monica Forrestall