News - Gemma Di Grazia

gemmadigrazia

Soft Pastel & Oil Paintings | Native New Yorker | Color-Coordinated | gemma@gemmadigrazia.com | www.gemmadigrazia.com

I 🌳 NYC! I love walking under the cherry bloss

I 🌳 NYC!

I love walking under the cherry blossom trees bursting with color in Riverside Park! They are plentiful here thanks to Japan ❤️🇯🇵 Over 100 years ago, cherry trees were to be presented as a gift from the Committee of Japanese Residents of New York as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in 1909.

The 18-day event commemorated the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s steam-powered boat on the Hudson River and the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of river later named for him. However, the steamer that carried the original delivery of cherry trees from Japan was lost at sea! Thankfully, a new shipment of trees arrived in New York City in 1912 and were planted around Upper Manhattan, in Riverside Park and Central Park, including Sakura Park just East of General Grant’s Tomb. “Sakura” is Japanese for cherry tree.

Cherry trees typically live for about 60 years in areas like public parks, so the ones blooming today are nearly all replacements. But the spirit with which they were originally given is always alive, happy, and colorful! (Oil on stretched canvas, 22”x40” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings)

I 🌳 NYC! Riverside Park is a source of pride,

I 🌳 NYC!

Riverside Park is a source of pride, affection and beauty. I walk it’s paths, swing in it’s playgrounds, soak up sunshine laying in it’s grass, reflect in awe at it’s monuments, and gaze out across the majestic Hudson River at it’s shores. All this are steps from my apartment home.

After the Hudson River Railroad was built in 1846, a park was proposed for the undeveloped riverside precipice in 1865, the land for the original section of the park, 72nd Street to 125th Street, was acquired in 1872.

Frederick Law Olmsted prepared the conceptual plan for the new park and road, Riverside Drive. Subsequently, a series of designers set out to devise the new landscape, incorporating Olmsted’s idea of a park with a tree-lined drive curving around the valleys and rock outcroppings and overlooking the river. From 1875 to 1910, architects and horticulturalists such as Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons laid out the stretch of park between 72nd and 125th Streets according to the English gardening ideal, creating the appearance that the Park was an extension of the Hudson River Valley.

With the beginning of the City Beautiful Movement in the early twentieth century, the landscape evolved. The Park became home to monuments and sculptures exalting the city’s heroes, and its border was extended north to 155th Street. In the 2000’s, the park was extended south to 65th Street.

In 1980, the beauty of the original section from 72nd to 125th Street was officially recognized, when it was designated a scenic landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. (Source: Riverside Park Conservancy)

Ahhh 😊 Home sweet home ❤️ (2 details and the complete Oil on stretched canvas, 60”x40” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings, and a historical photo of Riverside Park circa. 1900)

I 🌳 NYC! My backyard for my whole life has bee

I 🌳 NYC!

My backyard for my whole life has been beautiful Riverside Park, NYC. Some Upper West Side natives say that “Riverside Park is for real New Yorkers” and while many would chose Central Park or another green space, the lack of tourists and access to the Hudson River certainly makes for a scenic and quiet sanctuary. ❤️ (Oil on stretched canvas, 22”x40” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings) #creativeuprising

I 🌳 NYC! It is thought that the Parks Departme

I 🌳 NYC! The 91st Street Garden, is in Riversi

I 🌳 NYC!

The 91st Street Garden, is in Riverside Park, NYC. Tended by The Garden People, this jewel bursts into color every Spring and lasts well into Autumn. This was also the final scene of “You’ve Got Mail” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks ❤️ (Oil on stretched canvas, 36”x48” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings) #creativeuprising

I 🌳 NYC! Can you find the two teeny people in

I 🌳 NYC!

Can you find the two teeny people in this painting? That’s how I feel stuck inside sitting on my couch watching movies these days 😂 But it’s also a metaphor for how I feel in my studio. Rowing slowly, gliding through the water. The oars like a brush through my paint. And as I look around I see paintings everywhere, waiting to be chosen from my mind’s eye, and preserved on canvas.
Be well until next time! We’re all in the same boat 🚣‍♂️ (Oil on stretched canvas, 38”x56” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings) #creativeuprising

I 🌳 NYC! The Lake played peek-a-boo between t

I 🌳 NYC!

The Lake played peek-a-boo between the branches in Central Park as we followed the meandering trail. Only the occasional passerby interrupted the peacefulness. The air was fresh, the birds sang, until we reached the Bow Bridge. Where we stopped at the crest of the gentle incline, to admire the gliding ducks.

See you next time... and stay safe! (Oil on stretched canvas, 35”x50” From my vault of Central Park and Riverside Park paintings) #creativeuprising

I 🌳 NYC! I remember following the path along t

I 🌳 NYC!

I remember following the path along the Lake in Central Park until I could see the water peeking under the tree branches. I could have been deep in a secluded upstate trail, but in reality, I was in the middle of 8 million people. In NYC, you can always find a little of everything, in the middle of it all. 🍎

See you next time... (Oil on stretched canvas, 35”x50” From my vault of Central Park and a Riverside Park paintings) #creativeuprising

I 🌳 NYC! Everyone’s going through such a tou

I 🌳 NYC!

Everyone’s going through such a tough time. I ❤️ NY more than ever!

For the next several days, I’ll be posting work from my vault of Central and Riverside Park tree paintings. I hope you’ll join me on a virtual Spring walk in Central Park and Riverside Park. And so, here’s the first post!

As Tom Hanks says to a sniffling Meg Ryan in “You’ve Got Mail,” “It’d be a shame to miss New York in the Spring.” Oil on stretched canvas, 35”x50”. #creativeuprising

This past Summer I converted my studio from a soft

This past Summer I converted my studio from a soft pastel workspace to an oil painting one. I put my huge assortment of soft pastel sticks away for a well-deserved rest, and took inventory of my long-dormant paint tubes and brushes. I still have ancient tubes of Shiva of my mother’s from her days at Cooper Union. Amazingly, they faired remarkably well over all these years, and to this day, are still some of my favorite tubes of paint! I missed the smells, the feeling of a brush in my hand, the flow of the paint, and the re-connection to my past. Artists aren’t defined by our medium or subject matter. We are ultimately defined by our distinct journeys and our bodies of work.
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#oilpaint #flowerart #flowerpainting #artstudio #gemmadigrazia #artcollector

"Arise" and shine! My oil painting "Arise" (8”x1

"Arise" and shine! My oil painting "Arise" (8”x10”) will be at Abend Gallery's 29th Annual Holiday Miniature Show in Denver. Nov. 2 - Dec. 7, 2019. Thank you @david.ethridge @didimenendez

My painting "Confetti" will be on display at the T

My painting "Confetti" will be on display at the Third Annual National Juried Exhibition at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art! Selected by artist, writer and podcaster of "Gently Does It," John Dalton (@johndaltonart). Hosted by David Hummer, Executive Director at @Wausau_MOCA, and organized by Didi Menendez of Poets Artists @poetsartists. And the excellent frame by Carlo Ferraris @allegheny_productions. Thank you all so much!

Opening recption October 10, 2019 from 6-8PM. Works will be on exhibit from Oct 8 – Dec 28, 2019 #wausaumuseumofcontemporaryart #33contempo2020

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