- Welcome back to "Eric En Plein Air."

I'm Eric, and today, we're at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York.

This gothic revival mansion is located on 67 acres right next to the Hudson River.

There's a lot of history to learn about and some beautiful areas to enjoy.

I can't wait to explore more.

Let's go paint.

(bright classical music) (gentle piano music) So, today, we're working with oil paint.

I really love oil paint.

It's a very free, versatile medium, and it's something that we can really work with texture for paint.

So, I'm using today a panel that has a canvas adhered to it.

And this panel, you'll see is toned gray.

It's kinda like a light middle tone gray.

And you may ask why.

The reason why is so that when I add white on top of the canvas, it will show up.

So, if you're working with subject matter that's lighter or darker, it's a good idea to tone a canvas.

This is a little different from watercolor, because with watercolor, we're working on white paper and we're only working with things that can get darker in value.

So, using a middle tone canvas, and then that way, we can do lighter values or darker values.

Remember, value just means light and dark.

So, our scene today is the front of Lyndhurst, this beautiful gothic revival mansion.

And I'm not going to put the whole structure in.

I'm just going to have a portion of the house that has a tower.

And then I'm going to add some trees on the right-hand side.

With oil painting, we also have a different set of brushes than watercolor.

I like to use hog's hair bristle brushes.

And these types of bristle brushes are very firm, but they allow you to put on a lot of paint and move it around.

So, I'm gonna get started by doing some drawing using paint, kind of thinned out paint to get the structure of the architecture.

And then, like always, we're gonna be thinking of big shapes and then work our way from kind of bigger shapes to smaller detail.

If you're working in watercolor or you're working in oil or acrylic or really any medium, you'll want to keep thinking of those big shapes and then moving to smaller shapes.

So, let's start with some drawing and see if we can get the placement right.

(brushes clacking) So, I'm using a little bit of odorless mineral spirits.

With oil paint, we thin the paint out with odorless mineral spirits, turpenoid, turpentine, anything that can create a thin paint.

(brush rustling) So, I'll use just a little bit of, (brush rustling) you can really use any color to create this color mixture, but I'm mixing ultramarine blue with some burnt sienna.

And what that does is it creates a nice kind of middle, not too bright, not too dark, color paint that we can do some sketching with.

So, I'll sketch in some shapes here.

And remember, you can always move things around.

So, if I put in a mark and it's not quite right, you can always just wipe it out and restart it.

(gentle piano music continues) I'm looking at the top of this tower and I want to try to get the full tower in the frame on my canvas.

Take your time with the drawing, don't rush it.

The drawing is sort of the backbone of the painting.

(gentle piano music continues) There's some nice blue sky peeking through, so we'll get a touch of blue sky with some clouds.

(gentle piano music continues) (brush rustling) So, you'll see I just had to make this tower a little bit wider, so I'm gonna use a cotton rag.

I like to hold a cotton rag while I'm painting and just kind of wipe it out to adjust the shape.

So, right next to the house is a taller tree and then some other foliage on the right-hand side that I will also wanna include.

(gentle piano music continues) Okay.

So, I feel pretty good about the drawing right now.

I feel like the proportions are accurate.

If I need to change it a little bit, I can still do that, but I'm going to start adding paint and then start building this painting, start to get the big shapes and then start to work on the detail.

So, I'll take my bigger brush.

This is a bigger bristle brush.

All of these brushes are bristle brushes.

And I'm going to start by doing the sky.

And this is where it really comes in handy to have a toned canvas, because if you're working on a white canvas, the tone of the white sky or the lighter sky won't show up as well.

So, I'm going to put in this sky and it will really show up because of the contrast with the value I have right now.

Now's a good time to take a break and learn more about the history of this really fascinating mansion.

- The thing I love to tell people most about Lyndhurst is it's a place that has to be experienced.

It has a collection of more than 10,000 objects of art and connoisseurship, but our landscape and our grounds are part of our living collection.

- Mm.

- And we steward 67 acres with Eugena's help, and there's just a tremendous amount for people to see, and every visit is always different.

We try to steward the history and bring it into the present, so we use our own history and the history of the families that lived at Lyndhurst as jumping off points for contemporary conversations.

- Mm.

- So, we talk a lot about women's advocacy, entrepreneurialship, things of that nature that are not necessarily discussed.

So, for example, we'll do a fashion exhibit, and we'll use the clothing to talk about the women and the owners, and how they became unbound and experienced more freedoms than maybe other women of the time.

- Using fashion as sort of like a way to have that conversation.

- Yes, the very clothing that the ladies wore who actually lived here.

So, I mean, clothes is pretty, but it's also something that's accessible.

- Yes.

- And we perceive ourselves as sort of an entry-level cultural institution, so people who might not wanna go all the way into the city but wanna learn about Bouguereau or paintings or the Gilded Age or different things can come here hopefully without feeling intimidated.

- Lyndhurst has had a long, rich landscape history from going from just a natural, you know, forest to pasture land and farmland, to gilded pleasure park to the museum that you see today.

And it goes through several different phases of landscape design, including what we're about to see, which is known as the picturesque.

When the mansion was designed by A. J. Davis, this gothic revival style was thought to best be suited by the picturesque landscape design, which was really sort of a celebration of, you know, the natural beauty of landscapes, kind of working with what you have, particularly- - Very natural.

- With a rugged quality.

You know, if you stop and take in, there were, you know, panoramic views of the Hudson River.

You see rocky outcrops, specimen trees.

So, this is all sort of framed.

- Prior to this, when the property was settled and evolving, trees that bore fruit or nuts or had a purpose were good for furniture.

Trees weren't really planted for beauty's sake until about the middle of the 19th century.

- Really?

Wow.

Because that's usually how we think of it as kind of, like, ornamental and, you know- - Right.

- Something just pretty and, you know.

- No, it was incredibly practical.

There wasn't a reason.

It was all about resources.

- So, that sky.

Although it looks pretty light, it's actually a gray.

And I'm not going to want to put down just pure white, so I'm going to tone it down with some gray.

There's also some nice blue that's peeking through that I'll put in also.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music) That looks pretty good.

I'm going to add more paint.

One of the best tips for painting with oil, be generous with your paint.

If you don't have enough paint, your painting will look kind of weak and it won't look like it's covered efficiently.

So, use plenty of paint when you're painting.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) And one of the things that's enjoyable about oil paint is the creaminess of the paint, the texture, and the thickness of the paint.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) And I have a little spot where the blue of the sky is peeking in, so I'll add that momentarily once I put some of this white down, or light gray I should say.

And I'm basically just using the shape of the sky to carve out the shape of the building, so you can kind of think of it like you're sculpting the shape of the building using the paint in the sky.

Remember to preserve your drawing as best you can because that drawing is going to give you the proportions that you need for your painting.

(gentle piano music continues) (brush rustling) And I'm still using this larger size brush because it really helps me cover the canvas as well as I can.

So, before that blue sky shifts, I'm going to switch to a different brush and I'm going to put in that blue while I see it.

One of the best sky colors, which I'm using right now, is cobalt blue.

It really captures the feeling of any type of blue sky.

(gentle piano music continues) And that blue kinda creeps in and just goes over to the side of the house.

(brush rustling) Whenever you're working with something architectural, try to make the shapes as straight and accurate as you can.

So, the house, if you're just looking at a stone building like this, it's a beautiful mansion, but you might be tempted to just say, "Oh, it's just gray."

But what I would encourage you to say is to try to find the color within the gray.

So, there are touches of yellow, there are touches of blue.

Try to find that.

It's not very strong, but it's a part of the stone that will help make it feel more alive.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) So, I'm also always thinking about value, just the light and dark that is in the scene.

So, the stone work is darker than the sky, and the sky will be kind of our light backdrop behind the painting.

Let's learn more about Lyndhurst and everything that goes on here.

- People were pulling in, you know, all of these rare and exotic plants, and it was sort of the way the men of the time showcased their refinements.

So, libraries were the big thing earlier.

And then it was, "Who could get into the Amazon jungle and find the greatest specimen of X, Y, Z?"

- The rarest flower or... - He had an incredible collection of, you know, palms, orchids, all these plants from around the world.

And something that we're dealing with today as we look to decide what to put back in the landscape might be something that was all the rage at this time is now on the invasive species list.

- Yes.

- Or it can't survive this climate anymore.

- Yeah.

- So, those are some of the decisions that we have to make.

- We have the pleasure of stewarding this place for future generations.

It's a national historic landmark because of its architectural, cultural, and landscape significance to the entire country, not just to this part of the country.

I mean, what's here is a microcosm for what was happening all over the country.

- Mm.

- And so, what survives informs that, and then as Eugena is bringing us into the contemporary conversation, it's just a really exciting time to be here.

There's a series of outdoor seating rooms that the family installs over time, so George Merritt- - Wow.

- Was the second owner of the estate and he basically, from 1862 to '64, he doubles the estate in size and adds all these outbuildings, including the sidewalk and the circulation paths that we're standing on, and then creates these little rooms.

So, over here, we have a little bench that's based on historic picture, 'cause again, we're so lucky to have this documentation.

- Yeah.

- So, this was one little room.

And then over here leading that overlooks our future farm garden was the bench we like to call the courting bench.

- [Eric] So, how does this work?

- [Krystyn] So, you were the gentleman, and you set up- - Just sat above?

- You set- - Can I put my feet here?

- Yeah, yeah, you'd step up.

- Wow, okay.

- 'Cause I couldn't navigate that in my skirt.

Come on, Eugena.

And so, we'd have a nice proper and dignified conversation.

- Yeah, I'd love that.

- But look at the view.

At its peak, the estate was 426 acres, so there was a whole working farm on the other side of the street.

- Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Across the (indistinct).

- And they had the ability to buy canned goods, so it's really kind of fascinating to delve into food and food service, what they were making here, who they were serving it to when they had access to all the best possible food.

- Wow.

The historical accuracy is always something also that's very interesting because you almost have to be like an archeologist.

I guess it's really like archeology, right?

Like- - I always call it urban archeology.

- Urban archeology, yeah.

- I loved Nancy Drew as a kid.

I wanna a sleuth, I wanna know, I wanna look, and yeah.

- Yeah.

Well, it's interesting, yeah.

(Eugena speaking faintly) - Yeah.

- Like what's under these vines?

- Yeah.

- Helen Gould built a tree house for her nieces circa 1905.

- Yes.

- Wow.

- And it was built around a weeping European birch.

And we were not able to return that to the landscape for various reasons, including, I mean, just climate change being a big part of it.

- Our zone changed.

- It's been very hot.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And stressed.

- Everything's different.

- [Eugena] But we did have to figure out where exactly the tree house was located.

- Yes.

- And Krystyn had an intern who- - We have these wonderful students that come to us through the French Heritage Society, and this lovely young lady came for the summer and she was game, and so we sort of cited and we knew from the maps where things were, and she started digging.

She found the holes in the posts and, like, where things were.

- Wow.

- It was post in the ground.

But as we get to the edge of the step, you'll see that the original paint drip was there, and this was actually hiding in the landscape 'cause the grade had gotten built up.

- Amazing.

- So, we- - The land does give you this clear, so we knew.

- Yeah, so it gave us the secret, so here it is.

This is the original step and pie-shaped piece from 1905 of the sidewalk.

- Wow.

- And these are the paint drip's going up.

- So that's now our story.

- So, this was all hidden in the landscape, and so then we cited this and twisted it, and we had to make accommodations for modern code.

And so, well, it's not quite as it was historically because the tree sheltered it.

- Sure.

- This was a different direction that our director decided to take with all of us in mind is, instead of the historic plants that we see all around us, this was this stunning opportunity to talk about contemporary climate change and bring us into the modern discussion.

- Absolutely.

- [Krystyn] So, all the plant material that you see here, there's 13 different types, and 11 of them are all from the 19th century.

- When Helen was here, there was, you know, this enormous birch.

- Another nice view.

- And you really felt like you were in a tree house.

And she also interestingly used it for her outdoor office, right?

Just for kids.

- This great article where she's interviewing her secretaries.

- Wow!

(brush rustling) So, I'm just working to fill up the structure of the house to try to get it covered so that way, we can build the detail over top of it.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music) And I'm thinning my paint out a little bit.

I'm using a little bit of medium, which is an oil to thin the paint out and create a little bit more of a texture that I can brush on to make it look a little bit more like stone.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) This foundation paint is really the first layer that sets up all of our details and all the fun things that I'm going to be painting.

Okay, at this point, I'm going to switch to a little bit of a smaller brush, and that way, it'll allow me to get some of the smaller details of the painting.

Once you have the foundation set, move on and start to thinking about how you can create more of a detailed painting, more texture and variety in the painting.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) Remember, if you're working with a building or something that has a real shape, that's defined, you're also going to be thinking about perspective.

So, perspective means creating the illusion of three dimensionality on the canvas or whatever surface you're working on.

And you can study a lot about perspective, and it's really more of a scientific pursuit.

It's really a math to be able to understand perspective.

And the more you look at something, the more detail you will see.

So, as I look at this building, I will see more things, and then that will allow me to paint other details and things that maybe initially I didn't even recognize.

(gentle piano music continues) So, when I'm painting, another thing that I'm thinking about is carving out the shape, so almost as if this were a block that I'm carving out by painting.

(gentle piano music continues) So, I'm still building up the structure of this house, but at this stage, I'm going to add in the foliage on the right-hand side just so that I can get a better sense of the overall composition.

(gentle piano music continues) So, I'm putting in these trees on the right-hand side, and as long as I get the general impression of it, I can always go back and add more detail, just like the way we paint the house.

(brush rustling) (gentle piano music continues) Okay, now that I put in some of the foliage on the right-hand side, I'm going to add some more details to the structure of the house.

(gentle piano music continues) I'm always aware of the fact that the painting needs to be a full picture before we can add those nice details to it.

(gentle piano music continues) And as I go along, I'm going to be a little bit more accurate, a little bit more careful with my brushstrokes because each brushstroke I do now is a little bit more specific.

(gentle piano music continues) For myself when I'm painting, one of the things I enjoy about a painting is just creating a record of a time and a place, almost like a photograph, but it has more of a sense of feeling to it.

(gentle piano music continues) Now I can put in some more of those really fun details, some of these windows.

(brush rustling) This building really has almost like a cathedral aspect to it where it feels almost like something you would find, being gothic revival, it gives you that feeling of gothic architecture you'd find in Europe.

Now some sun is really coming in and illuminating the top tower, so I wanna try to capture that while it's there.

Now's a good time to take a peek inside this beautiful mansion and check out their wonderful collection of art.

- We're here at the house, and so let me tell you a little bit about it.

It was built 1838 to 1842 for a guy named William Paulding who is a local Tarrytown boy, two-term mayor from New York City.

He builds the house intending to retire here, but instead gives it to his son who's of marriageable age.

- [Eric] Okay.

- [Krystyn] That comes to pass, the boy marries, eventually sells the house.

Second owner comes along, a guy named George Merritt.

Makes his money by cushioning a railroad spring, doubles the house in size of the footprint that we see.

And he adds the Grand Picture Gallery, which we'll see in a moment, and really defines the footprint of the property for the Goulds who later purchased it in 1880.

- [Eric] Okay.

- [Krystyn] And then it's owned by Jay Gould, his daughter Helen, and the last Gould child was Anna, Duchess of Talleyrand, and she's the one who left the house in memory of her parents to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

- Oh, okay.

- So, we are maintained as a non-profit museum and open year round.

Let's go inside.

So, this is our Grand Picture Gallery, the Bouguereaus you love so much.

- Bouguereau, yeah.

- But this was the painting I was telling you about before, "The Broken Vase."

It's one of my favorites.

During this time in the mid-19th century, women were usually shown as being, you know, allegorical Madonnas, vestal virgins.

- Madonna over there.

- Never as they actually were, so think of this as like the People magazine cover.

These were the all current dresses of the day.

And I mean, the way they capture the iridescence, but the moment that speaks to me is, she's like, "I'm in so much trouble."

- Yeah.

- "I got the lookout."

"Don't worry, I'm cleaning it up."

Like it's a very- - It's a real moment.

- For people.

- Yeah.

- And then on the other side, below the vespers, you have two women sharing confidences.

The last picture's in the room are these windows that frame the landscape.

- Wow.

- They're the last paintings.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- And these are windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Very similar to the style of John La Farge- - Wow.

- Because the confetti glass and the chunky jewels are very much a hallmark of John La Farge-stained glass style.

- Okay, so I've built in some of the details of the house, almost thinking of it architecturally like I were building these details.

So, the shapes and the structure of the house is something that you can refine and continue to work on.

As long as I get a sense of the place and what I'm doing, then to me, that's a successful painting.

There's always little details and things you could continue to put on.

And I always try to stop in a place that I'm satisfied.

I'll get a little bit more of the texture of the stone, and then I think that'll be it for today.

(gentle piano music) I'll add a little bit to the foliage on the right, the sky that's peaking through the tree branches, and I think that's a good place to stop.

- We're always trying to be of value to our community and to our neighbors, so we're constantly piloting new programs, new offerings, lectures, book signings, different types of tours, posted weekends where you can actually roam on your own, which I love for the gentleman 'cause it's not a hostage situation.

You can leave when you want.

- Right.

- So, the best way to find out about Lyndhurst and what's going on is to follow us on Facebook or go to our website, lyndhurst.org, because information's dynamically changing on the reg.

- I hope you enjoyed today's visit to Lyndhurst here in Tarrytown, New York.

This entire area of New York is rich in history, and I feel like Lyndhurst really embodies this.

If you're in the area, come visit, bring a sketchbook, take a tour, and enjoy this history for yourself.

I'm Eric, and I'll see you next time "En Plein Air."

(bright classical music) - [Announcer] Visit us online at ericenpleinair.com to learn more about our program, workshops with Eric, or to purchase original works of art and prints featured in this series.

Thank you!

(bright classical music fading)