Love This! "Walkin' New York"

I will always look back on my time in NYC as some of the most exciting, exhilarating, adventurous, and stimulating years of my life. I love everything about the city--the packed streets, the in-your-face advertisements, the grit, the old buildings, the entertainment, the hustle and bustle, the art, the food, the parks, the individuality--and I still miss living there all of the time. As many before me have said, in numerous ways, there's just no place like NYC. Truly. 

So obviously, my love for this special city led me to the work of today's featured artist, Denis Peterson. His "Walkin' NY" series is literally just that: Paintings of everyday scenes that you would come across when walking around Manhattan. I think that's why I love it--he's just captured something so basic about the experience of living and working in NYC, while also showing the insane amount of visual stimulation and busyness (and yes, often ugliness) that covers the landscape there.

The viewpoint of these paintings dwarfs the importance of the figures in the works; The people are not his main subject matter, and instead, the buildings, advertisements, and neon signs come into the foreground. In a way, this is very much like NYC, where the city has a larger-than-life persona, and the people, when viewed as a whole, are just bees buzzing around the hive, getting caught up in the energy of the experience. 

I think I could go on and on about NYC and about these incredibly-detailed paintings, so before I do so, lets take a look at some of Peterson's work. These paintings are done in acrylic, guache, or a combination of both, and yes, they're obviously crazy hyperrealistic...

Can you believe that Peterson created these images with a brush and paint? OMG, ya'll! That's some serious talent and patience.

If you want to see more work by Peterson, you can check out his website, DenisPeterson.com.

To NYC, I miss you, and to all of my readers in the city, please tell her that I said 'hello' and don't forget to bask in her fabulous energy today...!

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