Watercolorist Frederick Brosen’s painting process involves a bicycle. He typically starts cycling at dawn in his native New York, searching for picture-worthy deserted streets. After finding one, he sketches the scene, takes photographs, and later revises his original draft.

A reward for these early morning efforts is his latest exhibit showcasing the rural side of New York, rather than his typical cityscapes. Held at the Museum of the City of New York this spring, “Four Seasons of Central Park” featured a quartet of watercolors depicting iconic to lesser-known scenes in the 843-acre park in Manhattan.

“The artist builds the images up using layer upon layer of watercolor to make, in his own words, ‘a subjective and interpretive sense of each specific place,’” read a sign at the exhibit, explaining how Brosen puts brush to canvas.

I came across an article in an art magazine highlighting Brosen's four-painting exhibit. Despite its small size, as a photographer who loves taking photos in Central Park and is energized by the visual arts, I was motivated to travel to the city from Long Island (in a car, not a bike) to see it. The watercolors displayed on one wall next to the museum's lobby were as follows:

Spring

“Spring” is a painting of the Burnett Memorial Fountain in Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. Bessie Potter Vonnoh in 1936 created and completed the fountain that is dedicated to Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote the classic 1911 children’s novel The Secret Garden. The fountain features the novel’s naturing-loving characters Mary and Dickon. “[The painting] wordlessly captures a part of the Park dedicated to the renewing power of stories and storytelling,” reads the brochure from the exhibit.

Summer

The subject of “Summer” is the Belvedere Castle at twilight. The gothic-style castle is the tallest building in the park and provides views of Turtle Pond, formerly a reservoir connected to the Croton Water system that originally supplied fresh water to New York City in 1842.

Belvedere Castle was an addition to the original plan for the park. Calvert Vaux, the landscape architect who designed Central Park with Frederick Law Olmstead, created the castle with his assistant Jacob Wrey Mould in 1867. It was constructed with Manhattan schist in subsequent years.

“The twilit moment Brosen has captured is luminous with the brief long light of a summer evening in the Park…” the exhibit’s brochure reads.

Fall

“Fall” highlights the Angel of the Waters statue, the centerpiece of Bethesda Fountain at the heart of the park. The fountain commemorates the Croton Water system, and the statue was created by sculptor Emma Stebbins, the first female artist to receive a major public works commission in New York City.

“Brosen has somehow managed to paint not only the angel, but the sound of quietly rushing water and nearly still mid-park fall air as well,” read the exhibit sign.

Winter
The snow-crowned Glen Span Arch is the subject of “Winter.” It is one of the park’s original 27 ornamental bridges and arches designed by Vaux and Olmsted between 1859 and 1866. The arch marked the westernmost edge of the park's Ravine, one of the many waterways Vaux created for the park.

Winter “shows a stunningly cold, indeed shivering vantage of the exquisite Glen Span Arch following a snowstorm,” read the sign accompanying this painting.

Aftermath

After visiting Brosen's exhibit, I left the museum and walked across the street to Conservatory Garden in Central Park. I took photos of the Burnett Fountain, once again marrying my passions for art, photography, and the park–a combination of interests I’ve come to call my “love triangle.” This time, however, it came with an unusual twist: what inspired me was the park represented in art.

Visit Brosen’s website at www.frederickbrosen.com and Instagram @frederick_brosen and Facebook.