A Painter in Chinatown
One evening on Mott Street, a painter at an easel, and a panel finished before the light went.
On a September evening in Chinatown, with the light going and the sidewalk still busy, a painter set up a small easel at the corner and went to work. The subject was in front of him: the restaurant sign, the fire escapes, the crossing. He painted what was there.
Plein air is the oldest discipline in painting and the least forgiving. There is no photograph to work from and no second visit; the light that made the subject worth painting will be gone in an hour. What is left on the panel is a record of attention: how long he looked, and at what.
Masterpiece is a Krafft Studios series on the work that makes a master: artists, craftsmen and chefs, and the things they make by hand.
