When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Woody Allen’s movie, “Annie Hall”.

I daydreamed about living in New York City. I wore my grandfather’s old ties and vests, like Diane Keaton’s character. My then-boyfriend and I would quote the movie one-liners at every opportunity (“I was thrown out of N.Y.U. my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics final, you know. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me.”)

I was so desperate to get to New York from my small Ontario city that I actively lobbied my high school teachers and classmates for NYC to be the destination of the senior school trip. Luckily one of the teachers on the trip committee was a big New York fan and had been several times. He backed me 100%, and at the end of a school year of furious fundraising, 30 of us were in a ratty school bus on the way to the Big Apple!

An amazing trip! I was in Annie-Hall-heaven! We did a bunch of typical tourist things, but I just loved walking around soaking in the city… wearing my tie and vest ensemble (lol). I dragged a group of friends to Carnegie Deli because I’d read Woody Allen frequently ate lunch there (unfortunately, not on that day). But at a lunch uptown, we ate across from Anne Meara and a teenaged Ben Stiller, who hailed his Mom a cab in roller skates!.

We stayed very near Central Park and walked through it one sunny day. For a girl from a place with postage-stamp-sized parks, this huge green space in the middle of a city was a revelation. And the lake with its boaters! (Which appeared in Woody’s next movie, “Manhattan”)

Even though I’ve been to New York many times since, it’s these memories I recalled when painting my next Mini Vacation piece, “Boating in Central Park”. The source for this piece comes from one of my son’s recent photos because I didn’t have a camera on that first trip all those years ago.

#63 – Boating in Central Park – sold

(Original sold but lots of others are available on my Etsy Shop, ArtWeWonderful)