Susan Greenstein “Brooklyn Local”

440 Gallery

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For the second exhibition of our Fall 2021 season, 440 Gallery presents Brooklyn Local, the sixth solo show by watercolorist Susan Greenstein. As a love letter to her home town, Greenstein’s exhibition is made up of plein air paintings of the Brooklyn neighborhoods that she knows so well.

Greenstein says, “A common thread that runs through my art—past works and present ones—is my love for Brooklyn. As such, this collection of watercolors becomes a retrospective of my favorite neighborhoods that include Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, Gowanus, Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. While many of the views are easily recognizable, several places no longer exist or have changed greatly over the years. My paintings become a record of time and place in a very personal way.”

An accomplished watercolor painter, Greenstein enjoys living and working in an area that is rich with architectural styles from the late 19th century and early 20th century. She takes advantage of the opportunity to study and express how light falls upon these buildings. The contrast of ornate, decorative houses such as found in Park Slope, with simpler, industrial structures, as in the Gowanus area, becomes an interesting exploration of how styles and details are handled in each painting. Lush vegetation from gardens, window boxes and nearby parks becomes a focal point in many paintings, along with the powerful skylines that Susan observes with each Brooklyn landscape.

Greenstein can frequently be found painting on a Brooklyn street corner with her portable, nomadic studio setup. Plein air watercolor is the perfect medium to catch the light, gesture and immediacy of what Susan decides to paint; her painting technique is to forgo any preliminary drawing or sketching and delve right away into paint and brushes. She explains, “Once I figured out that I could go directly to paint on paper first, I never looked back. The thrill of working this way really fueled my passion for painting on site.” As Susan ponders the history of the neighborhood, or the story behind each building, she intimately becomes part of capturing a moment in time from the ever-evolving, always-surprising Brooklyn that she knows and loves so much.

Susan Greenstein is a graduate of Pratt Institute. She has exhibited extensively in Brooklyn and the greater New York area as well as the Delaware Fine Arts Museum.