Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters

Last week I was invited to go to the Medieval Fair at Fort Tryon Park. I never went to a medieval fair, so I was curious and excited. A lot of people in costumes and lyre music, not to mention that it was at Fort Tryon Park, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful parks in NY.
The park is in Washington Heights and has an incredible view of the Hudson, and the GW Bridge. The park is also important because inside of it is the Cloisters museum.
The Cloisters museum is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was built in the 1930's. The building is enormous and it's made up of several French abbey churches and monasteries all from the gothic period. These buildings were literally taken apart brick by brick and shipped over to NY and put back together. It's incredible that we have this in New York.
 I posted a painting I did from my last visit here. This time I painted it from outside the Cloisters, in the park.

-R

Lyndhurst Mansion

Over the weekend I visited some amazing places in NY. The Hudson Valley is full of beautiful mansions and properties. I got to visit the home of FDR, the Vanderbilt's mansion, Boscobel, Lyndhurst and a few others. I will post some photos of these places soon.

One of my favorite places was the Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown, NY. It is a beautiful gothic-revival mansion started in 1838. It was designed by the famous Alexander Jackson Davis, who designed many other impressive private homes in NY.

It was somewhat daunting to paint this place, since gothic architecture is so ornate, but I attempted to paint it anyway.


I walked over to the east side of the building and set up on the foot of a hill and tried again. I like the second painting a little better,but I'll post it next time.

-R