Art Display:
          Upon entering the Art Lab at Snug Harbor, there were many unique paintings filling the halls that surrounded us. Ranging from sculptures, cartoon paintings, to paper collages made by kids, I was amused by the diverse selections they had on display. What particularly struck me was how community-oriented these paintings were; they were mainly completed by Staten Island artists, and even depicted famous Staten Island “monuments”, such as the Ferry. Additionally, because these paintings were being sold, I noticed that a lot of them were emphasizing beauty, rather than a deeper meaning. This was probably because, as commonly noted by John Berger in “Ways of Seeing”, people love to hang art that is beautiful, shows their possessions, or can be used as decoration.

 

 

 

 

Oil Painting Class:
          After looking at the many pieces arranged, I walked into a room where I could participate in a live oil-painting class. I was excited to try oil painting for the first time, especially right after our discussion of oil paintings in Seminar! This was a really nice experience considering we had not paid anything and basically got a free art class and supplies, truly being an affordable access to art. Also, there were a lot of other Macaulay kids here too, so it was fun to complete this class together. I was assigned two pumpkins to paint— one white and one orange.
         First, I started off with a “sketch” in blue oil paint. Initially, I found it difficult to create the original sketch, especially because of the enormous brush I had to work with. However, after some trial and error and patience, I was slowly able to get a sketch, to the best of my talent, of what best replicated the pumpkins that laid before me. After the sketch, I was given a multitude of colors of oil paint to start layering the sketch into completion. This was my favorite part. Mixing the colors to mirror those of the real pumpkins and constantly transferring my sight into my hands was a fun process. I have never copied a real life object onto a painting, and surprisingly it was less difficult than I had thought it would be.
———Although my pumpkins are not fully realistic to the real ones, I am still content with the final product. Also, I enjoyed seeing everyone else’s final products. Everyone used a different technique, and it was fascinating how the interpretation of the same object can be depicted differently on their final canvas. After finishing the oil painting, we were able to take them home. It impressed me that it takes a week to fully dry, but now seeing it after the drying process, I can appreciate that you can see the layers of oil paint, further giving it dimension.

 

 

 

Conclusion:
          My time spent at the Snug Harbor Art Lab was my favorite Seminar trip so far. Instead of just looking at the art, which unfortunately can be boring at times to my wandering mind,  I was also able to interact with it and be an artist for a day. After the Art Lab, I further spent the day at the Botanical Gardens and had a fun time looking at nature’s art as well.