Molly Weinberg. Grayce Howe Photos.
It was almost 2 o’clock on Monday when Educational Center for the Arts and Wilbur Cross High School junior Molly Weinberg finished constructing the base of her canvas. She gathered her paint, pulled up a chair underneath a nearby tree, and relaxed with her materials in the shade away from the hot sun.
Then, with the guidance of her instructor, Weinberg traced the shadows of the leaves on the tree above her, using the weather as her resource and taking advantage of the springtime sun.
Monday afternoon, Weinberg was among a handful of students soaking in the sun during a plein air landscape painting class, taught by ECA’s Zach Keeting. This month, it’s just one of the ways Audubon Street is springing back into bloom as the temperatures warm up in New Haven.
“On rainy days we talk about art history a lot,” said Keeting, who has been teaching at ECA for 18 years. “I’ve shown them paintings of the landscape that painters a long time ago made inside … when the Impressionists in the 19th-century [made] breakthroughs, and tubes of paint and such happened, painters started going outside and the art changed … the light starts to sparkle in a new way.”
Keeting added that he believes painting outside is an important part of his students’ ability to recognize outdoor light and experiment with their styles.
As students moved outside Monday, several found comfort under the shade of nearby trees as they adjusted to the warm springtime weather. Using acrylic paint and canvas, they spent time working with different perspectives of landscape art, each taking their own spin on the task.
“Zach’s class exhibits a wide variety of perspective based painting styles,” Weinberg said. “As it gets warmer, we are able to sit outside with our easels and we have the ability to paint the beautiful blossoming trees on Audubon as well as what we see around us,”
Keeting, whose favorite springtime activity is painting outside with his students, pointed to what an asset Audubon Street is for young people interested in the arts, especially as the weather warms up and people spend more time outdoors.
With a nod to the number of arts facilities located on Audubon—Neighborhood Music School, Creative Arts Workshop, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, ECA—Keeting appreciates the amount of arts education Audubon Street provides. He said that he sees a lot of young people experimenting in the arts, which he finds healthy.
Chesed Chap and Ana Rodriges.
ECA students weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the sunshine as spring blossomed on Audubon Monday afternoon. Rising Yale University seniors Chesed Chap and Ana Rodrigues met for lunch at Haven Hot Chicken and enjoyed their meal at one of the many tables designated for outdoor seating on Audubon.
When asked about their favorite things about New Haven—especially in the spring—the two both mentioned their adoration for how green it gets, and the assortment of outdoor activities the city offers. Rodrigues, who hails from Massachusetts, pointed to the Cherry Blossom Festival, noting that even though New Haven is very much a busy city, there are many beautiful environmental sights.
“I’m just glad I’m in New Haven and I’m glad there’s such a vibrant arts scene, it’s amazing,” said Chap, who is originally from Arizona. Chap said that going to college in a town like New Haven has given her the opportunity to find a community beyond Yale, and that the arts provide an outlet for that as well.
Chap and Rodrigues added that it’s exciting to see things like the farmer’s market and events such as the Forgotten Flea expand dramatically in the warmer months.
Zooming in on Audubon Street specifically, the two praised the area for its convenient “hotspots,” such as Koffee?, Haven Hot Chicken, and the second-hand vintage shop MiniPNG.
All are fairly pedestrian-friendly: Haven Hot Chicken has-to-go packaging that makes it easy to take a meal outdoors, Mini leaves a rack of handpicked items outside the shop on nice days to welcome customers strolling by, and Koffee? has an entire row of seating, including a terrasse it introduced in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chap and Rodriges both appreciate the close proximity Audubon is to them and thoroughly enjoy walking around New Haven in the warmer months, especially brisk ganders down the street.
Back on the other side of Audubon, Keeting’s landscape painting students continued their outdoor painting endeavors, all working on independent projects as a slight wind embraced their workspace. Birds chirped, cherry blossom petals flew off trees, and the first moments of springtime swept around the arts district.
Grayce Howe is the Arts Paper's 2024 New Haven Academy intern. The New Haven Academy internship is a program for NHA juniors that pairs them with a professional in a field that is interesting to them. From now through May 24, look out for her byline!