Grand Central People

Behind the Painting

There’s a place in New York you can paint in any weather, any day of the year, at almost any time of the day.

I stopped by Grand Central Terminal for the first time in 2024. I stood at a ledge above the Main Concourse to see it all from above.

I like to return to the places I’ve painted not to see how they’ve changed, but to see how I’ve changed.

Yesterday I was drawn to the people, dark shapes moving across a bright field.

I tried to paint from muscle memory, flicks of wrist and dabs of paint, the occasional flash of color.

People hurrying, standing, gathering in groups. Floodgates opening from the Metro North. Movement across the open hall. Then calm. The same pattern, repeating again.