The Rubin Museum of Art

Wow, yesterday I went to the Rubin museum of art. It is on west 17th street and is dedicated to Himalayan art.
5 floors of Himalayan art.!!!!!!!!!!
We arrived just in time for the one hour guided tour. It was magnificent!
There was also a resident artist who we got to see 'in action' as he progressed along with the painting he has been working on for more than 4 months (and it was nowhere near finished!). It was particularly fasicnating because the painting was not being done with paints as we currently know them - i.e. oil based etc - the artist had pieces of rock which he would grind to powder and mix with water to create the pigments he needed. Gee...no wonder it's taking him so long :)

To do this kind of painting it must first be drawn out by pencil. We were informed that students of this subject - back in the day of about 2 millenia ago - had to master the pencil drawings first. They were not allowed to touch pigments until 9 YEARS after beginning their training.
I would have never survived!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to check it out yourself, either on line or in person. Here is the website:
http://www.rmanyc.org/


best,
Kasandra