One recent morning I took a trip up to Washington Heights to meet Sam Adoquei and some of his other students at the Hispanic Society of America. Chances are you've never heard of the place. Most tourists and even native New Yorkers don't know about this secret treasure in uptown Manhattan. If you decide to go there, and I highly recommend that you do, you just might be the only one there besides the guards.

From the name of the museum you might expect it to be a community center for the numerous Dominicans that live in the neighborhood. But actually it is filled with art, books and historical objects from Spain, Portugal and Latin America--including a few paintings by master artists El Greco and Velazquez. 

On this visit our mission was to take a look at the highlight of the museum: their collection of exquisite light-filled paintings by Joaquín Sorolla (Spanish, 1863-1923). Here is my interpretation of a few of the fascinating things Sam told us as he led us through the galleries.

If you've never seen the paintings of  Sam Adoquei you are in for a special treat. Aside from being a fabulous and formidable artist he is also an excellent teacher, and this summer I decided to hone my skills by signing up for his Central Park landscape workshop. In his classes Sam generously shares not only his incredible knowledge of the "how to" of painting, but also the "whys  and wherefores," with many examples from art history and his own work. He gives his students a solid foundation with plenty of food for thought.

One morning he gave an inspiring talk about how landscape artists use color from three different perspectives:  expressionism, impressionism and realism. Here is my summary of what he told us, as best I can remember.