{"id":803634,"date":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803634\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:32:12","slug":"photoshop-pencils-and-patience-anne-finkelstein-turns-nyc-snapshots-into-hypnotic-works-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803634\/","title":{"rendered":"Photoshop, pencils, and patience: Anne Finkelstein turns NYC snapshots into hypnotic works of art"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Anne Finkelstein\u2019s paintings look like she put a lot of work went into them, it\u2019s because she did. The artist<\/a>, an adjunct professor at both the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and the Parsons School of Design, is happy to explain what goes into her visually arresting work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walk around the city taking pictures of things that strike me because of color, pattern, light and shadow,\u201d she says. After that, the images are worked on in Photoshop, combined to make elaborate digital collages that become the reference images for her paintings.<\/p>\n

And although those digital collages can stand alone as art, they are just the beginning.\n<\/p>\n

Finkelstein then makes a print that is the size of the projected work and lays that down on the chosen medium \u2013 sometimes canvas but frequently aluminum \u2014 with a piece of Saral (think carbon paper) between the print and the painting surface. She then carefully goes over every inch, tracing each line with a pencil, which leaves an impression on the painting surface. Then, finally, she goes to work painting.<\/p>\n

But, she says, \u201cit\u2019s not hard work \u2014 it\u2019s what I love to do. Sometimes there are parts that I can\u2019t figure out, and it takes me a while to figure them out. But I keep going until I do. And sometimes you make the wrong decisions and you have to go back and redo it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnneAnne Finkelstein working on an idea for a new paintingPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Anne Finkelstein putting finishing touches on \u201cEllipsis\u201dPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Tools of the tradePhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Studio ViewPhoto by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

The most difficult part of her work, she admits, is finding the time to do it. In addition to her teaching duties, she is a graphic designer who works with \u201cmuseums and galleries and individual artists.\u201d That work does have an influence on her personal work, as her paintings have the compositional discipline of a graphic designer.<\/p>\n

And teaching the basics to a new set of students every fall tends to remind her about the \u201creally fundamental things like two-dimensional design and color theory and composition.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Luckily, she\u2019s a morning person who has no trouble coming to her studio at 5 a.m.: \u201cI come up here sometimes and I\u2019ll work for, you know, three or four hours, and then go back home for breakfast\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finding inspiration is never an issue, as it is all around her.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that as a native New Yorker, New York City is my subject,\u201d she muses. \u201cThere\u2019s so much going on in the street. When my husband (painter James Acevedo) and I are walking down the street, we\u2019re both constantly taking pictures. But when you look at the pictures, it\u2019s like we\u2019re in two different places, because he\u2019s focusing on figures and I\u2019m focusing on structure. So my joke is that when people say, \u2018Where are the figures in your paintings?\u2019 I point to his paintings and say, they\u2019re over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finkelstein\u2019s beautifully painted images are not just the result of her point of view but also of her attention to detail, with an approach that seems like something it is not.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not photo-realism,\u201d she points out, adding, \u201ceven though when you look at it small on a phone, it sometimes looks like that more than it really is. I think that\u2019s because you don\u2019t see the surface\u2019s physicality. Hopefully, when you see them in person, they look like paintings, even though I\u2019m not really showing the brush strokes. But hopefully you can actually see that this is made by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Anne Finkelstein comparing her digital reference image woith the completed painting, titled \u201cXfinity\u201dPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"While on vacation in Cape Cod, Finkelstein produced a new piece of art every dayPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Anne Finkelstein transferring her guidelines from digital image to canvasPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Anne Finkelstein with her painting \u201cGreen Lift\u201dPhoto by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

Her approach tends towards quality over quantity.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t produce huge numbers of paintings in here, you know, a piece can certainly take a few months,\u201d she notes. \u201cI know when a piece is finished when the things that are bothering me about it are less loud in my head than my idea for the next piece. So basically, at some point, I abandon it. It\u2019s extremely rare that I feel like, ta da! it\u2019s done, you know?\u00a0 I do mess with them for a long time. I consider this painting to be finished now, but if you looked at it a month before it was finished, probably the average person would think it looks exactly the same. And the additional work can be just tuning up the color, changing some little detail. It\u2019s actually extremely obsessive \u2013 kind of a fanatical attention to nuance. And that\u2019s my favorite part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finkelstein\u2019s approach can be visually confusing, but of course, there is a reason for that.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons that I use multiple images is basically derived from cubism,\u201d she explains. \u201cThe idea that when you\u2019re looking at an object,\u00a0 you\u2019re probably not just looking at it from one viewpoint. So if you\u2019re steady in one place or you\u2019re moving, you kind of construct a three-dimensional reality out of these multiple images, and they also represent different moments in time. That\u2019s part of what\u2019s behind it. And also the fact that when you\u2019re looking at something, you retain a memory of what it looks like from other angles. So it\u2019s a representation of how we construct our visual experience in our heads. I\u2019m kind of making that visual. So in that sense, it\u2019s like a picture of the inside of my head. Painting is my way of taking ownership of what I see and communicating to others. It\u2019s my obsession and passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of Anne Finkelstein\u2019s paintings will be in a new juried group show opening at the Ki Smith Gallery on Saturday, Aug. 8\u00a0 Details and RSVP link are here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.kismithgallery.com\/event-details\/critics-choice-opening-reception<\/a><\/p>\n

You can explore more work on her website\u00a0annefinkelstein.com,<\/a> and on Instagram\u00a0@annefinkelstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n