One more very nice stop before we moved on to what I'd really come up to see - we paid a visit to the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club -
Very nice to see it looking very much as it always has. There was a period of time when someone or someones in the Yonkers government was not the biggest fan of recreational use of the waterfront, but the people in charge now are embracing the river as an asset and the YPRC is held in good regard. Also nice to hear that they are back to teaching rolling at the Yonkers YMCA - that was such a sensible relationship and location, but something happened with a former manager there that sent them in search of a new venue. They were up at Sarah Lawrence College, which was a beautiful pool but harder to get to than the Yonkers Y. Nice to hear they're back in the place where rolling actually became FUN for me, after a long stretch of being a competent but somewhat fearful roller (due to a near-dislocation of a shoulder from a very bad roll early on in my rolling career).
Then it was on to the Hudson River Museum. The thing that FINALLY drew me up there last weekend, when I've been vaguely thinking this would be an interesting place to visit for years, was of course the Hudson River Explorers exhibition (click here for Times review of some of the preliminary works that Sebago's sailing co-chair Holly Sears had created in making those beautiful panels up at Tarrytown.
The panels were printed in layers -- Holly would do multiple paintings for each one, and then, as she explains it in the catalogue, "the original paintings were digitally reproduced, enlarged, combined, and then layered together to create the laminated art glass panels that were fabricated by Tom Patti Design".
When she was telling us a bit more about the process after the dinghy races last Sunday, she said that this was a really unusual way for her to work, she more ordinarily paints her subjects in context - in an environment of some sort - but in this case, the animals were all painted on their own, with the background added in later, and she found she liked the effect of the animals hanging in white space.
That's what was on display at the Hudson River Museum. Here was Hawks -
Here's a detail from Passengers
Passengers at Tarrytown.
What I think I really liked about the prints at the Hudson River Museum was the way they drew attention to the incredible detail that Holly put into every plant and animal. Another thing she told us last week that I wish I'd known to look for is that she actually worked in different scales for the subject paintings and the backgrounds - she said she tried one-eighth for the subjects at first but at that scale she couldn't get the detail she wanted to have showing when the works were enlarged, so she went to quarter-scale for those - but stuck with one-eighth for the backgrounds, so in some cases the texture of the paper actually shows in those misty distant vistas. I think you can see a hint of that in the final version of Hawks above, but I don't think my camera could probably really catch that like the eye could -- if one's eye were slightly more observant than mine, that is! Anyways - all absolutely beautiful and I'm glad I caught the exhibit.
Besides enjoying Hudson River Explorers, we also had a blast browsing the Red Grooms Bookstore. Check this out!
We were warmly welcomed to the Glenview Mansion and given a bit of a personal tour by a museum guard who knew everything about the place...
And the Hudson Riverama room was fascinating - I think any paddler would really enjoy it!
Final special treat of the day - on the way up to Tarrytown, Pat and Mark decided to stop and show me the Palisades landslide. Yikes. Good thing it happened at night while nobody was on the park's Shore Trail!
3 comments:
You can just catch a quick glimpse of that boat from the Thruway. Always a highlight of the otherwise boring ride to VT and back.
I still think it's really weird that they don't use the word "BOAT" in the brochure!
I thought maybe this was a full-scale mock-up he'd done as part of the preparation or something - this is the actual hull of Young America, though?
The actual hull, yes. That's why I think it's so cool that they retired it to a field by a pond in NY, rather than some millionaire buying it to entertain his or her dinner guests.
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