DUMBO

These are a new watercolor and a couple of better photos of two other paintings. The last painting was one of the first H did, but I put up an unfinished version of it. Here's the finished version.

H's teacher, Leonid Gervits, has given her great feedback. He said she is a very talented painter and invited her to study with him over Christmas in Seattle at a school where he will be a guest instructor. Be sure to check out his website. Talk about talented!

This is the 103-year-old man we met in the park with his wife who was also an artist. It's a watercolor H did in the apartment.

Nude Model 2

Nude Model 1

We had the greatest day yesterday! T and I did the park run, up to and around the reservoir. He enjoyed it. Then we met H back at the apartment and we took the train over to this cool Brooklyn neighborhood called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). We walked around and checked out some of the little shops, but mostly we just looked at the old buildings in the neighborhood. The neighborhood sits on the East River between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge and used to be a warehouse district until about 10 years ago when it slowly started being invaded by artists and young professionals. Today it is still very quiet and relatively uncommercialized.

This little shrine was sitting on a brick ledge on the outside of one of the buildings. I am assuming it's in memory of a little dog who was beloved.

This was some cool graffiti on a wall. Look at the hood of the car in the foreground!

This is part of the Manhattan Bridge (above).

I love this picture. It's the Manhattan Bridge with the Empire State Building showing through the bottom arch. (Not planned! I didn't realize this until I was looking at the pictures back in the apartment!)

This is underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

In reading about the neighborhood, we read about this pizza place called Grimaldi's. We headed straight for it since it was around 1:30 or 2:00 when we arrived. The line was outside the door, probably 50 people long. We decided to wait because when have we ever waited 30-40 minutes in a line of 50 people for pizza?! Well, it was worth the wait. The pizzas are cooked in a coal brick oven. The crust is thin and really crisp. T says he thinks it even had a little coal dust on it. We loved it!

I thought it was the best pizza ever but T had a hard time saying it was better than Johnny's. So let me say it: It was better than Johnny's. They had a great business plan too.

The take out line and eat in line were the same, so you wait either way.

Half a pizza costs the same as a whole pizza.

Cash only.

We visited with a couple who was waiting in front of us. They had come by the previous evening at dinner and the line was at least twice as long.

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Empire State Building and Manhattan Bridge in the background.

The two bridges

Lady Liberty as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge State Park

Brooklyn Bridge and part of Manhattan

One of the first businesses in DUMBO was Jacques Torres Chocolates. A couple of years ago they added an ice cream shop next door. We tried the coconut gelato and the mocha ice cream and T had the frozen hot chocolate. All were very rich, as you can imagine. After the pizza I couldn't eat but a couple of bites.

We then headed back to Manhattan and H went back to the apartment to paint. T and I headed to the movie The Girl Who Played with Fire. We had a great day, even though H wasn't too thrilled with the conclusion of The Bachelorette.