Featured Artist Ellen Honigstock

New York City artist Ellen Honigstock captures the sights of her hometown with a curious and humorous eye. See more of her work by visiting her website.

 

 

I’m a recovering architect, but I’m far less interested in buildings than in their surrounding landscapes. My bright ink, watercolor and gouache paintings have a distinctly Brooklyn vibe, even though I do venture out to Queens and Manhattan occasionally.

 

 

Whether I’m looking up through the trees, or down the subway tracks, my city never fails to dazzle me with its complex and colorful beauty.

 

 

To some, the changing colors of the leaves might be an obvious focal point for a painting. But when I looked closer, the asphalt of the Diner Parking Lot contained a muted, but vast range of colors that challenged me to capture light and color that changed over the course of a few minutes.

 

 

Admittedly, the visual contrast between the bright trees and the deep car shadows inspired me, as well as the array of angles created by the guardrail, handrail and striping. But really, why did this guy need to take up two spots? In another parking lot, even though it’s litter, I felt for this Little Cup, just waiting to be run over or blown away.

 

 

I have been commuting on the F line for decades. In Subway Fractal, Good Morning F Train, and Bright Day at Smith & 9th, the sunshine on the trestle at this above ground subway stop creates colorful and irresistible shadow play.

 

 

I spent much of my early career working on structural restoration projects (which means replacing or reinforcing rusted out structural steel to avoid collapse.) The rust stains on the painted steel structure are an indication of normal wear and tear.

 

 

Conversely, Infrastructure that Scares the Crap out of Me illustrates the edge of the decaying BQE just under the Promenade. Whenever I drive under it, I say a little prayer that it won’t collapse in the next five minutes. Then, when I notice the band aids and the engineers’ markings, I say another one that they won’t shut it down to fix it.

 

 

Brooklyn is a city of trees. Four Trees started out as little color studies prior to a long walk in Green-Wood Cemetery. I wanted to test out the range of greens I could make with my limited collection of blue and yellow gouaches. But it was a beautiful Autumn day and four little tree portraits emerged.

 

 

All prints are 11” x 14”, printed on high-quality Hahnemühle German etching paper that has a slightly rough texture, similar to cold press watercolor paper. The matte surface texture adds a subtle dimensional effect and depth to the images which gives them the feel of more substantial pieces of artwork.

 

Ellen Honigstock invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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