Welcome to the Painting Vacation with Peter webpage, an open invitation to art lovers who would like to spend some vacation time in a studio focused, daily intense painting session with a painter with over three decades of studio experience. I built this place in 2024, and it’s an ideal setting for concentrated studio time. The proximity to New York City (less than 2 hours by car), the beautiful natural surrounds, and a building dedicated to art. Visitors can enjoy the luxury private three bedroom apartment with plenty of space for extra guests, and then work with me in my studio on their own drawings and paintings in space and on materials I provide. I can have up to three artists per stay, and with each having a guest up to six total occupants at a time in the apartment. Each artist will have their own ample personal painting wall space in my larger studio area, and we will work together on whatever we want to paint. I’m happy to give any level of instruction, or just share observations, approaches to painting, concepts about painting, and offer assistance in any way. All artists are different, with different aspirations and intentions with their work, and so I’d seek to accommodate as much as possible. I invite you to scroll down and read some of my ideas with the studio time, also a description of the property and area we are in, and a pricing schedule for any length of stay.
Thank you, Peter Maslow
Statement:
I’ve spent many years in my studio working on so many series of paintings, so much time trying to figure out what I am trying to accomplish, trying to find ways to make things work in my paintings, so many paths I’ve traveled in pursuit of painting. I remember some landmark moments in my studio career that really helped me make leaps in understanding what I was doing. For instance, most of my paintings deal with urban architectural environments, and when I traveled and sketched and then brought that to my studio to paint, I realized I was deconstructing architectural forms and recreating them in a more crystalized form and using these forms in my paintings as representations of what I had seen, experienced, photographed and drawn. And once these forms that I created as non-literal representations were put onto canvas, now they became painting forms, tools of expression. Now I had something both concrete and yet free of its mortal coil to use in painting exploration. I do mean all of this quite straight, not really in any poetic sense. This is how I create forms to use as tools in building my pictures.
I invite you to join me in my studio and share the painting experience. It is not a one way thing, either. Everyone brings something of their own to the table, or to the easel. I may learn as much from you as you from me. I may learn because of some realization I experience in our process together. There is no way to predict the exchange. A painter in their studio is arguably the epitome of the experiencing of Western Civilization, the elevation of the individual based entirely on the merit of the work of their own creation. I have never ceased learning about painting.
Over the years I have done a number of Artist Residencies abroad and in New York, and these experiences still speak to my work randomly across time and space. I offer you a similar expansive experience here with me. As my external studio experiences have continued to influence me, you may gain not only an initial insight from our time together but also a continued re-experiencing of it over time.
Studio Sessions will focus on many things, much of which will be determined when we begin working with each other. Here are some introductory ideas:
1 - How to begin a painting. How to take sketched concepts to a larger scale.
2 - Working out scale, perspective, picture narrative, composition in charcoal.
3 - How to go from charcoal preliminary sketching into painting. Even though painting is an intuitive process, there are concrete ways of beginning filling the painting with forms and initial composition managing small and large movements.
4 - Considering the relative values in a painting and making selections of deduction or addition.
5 - Understanding the tensions that exist in painting and considering ways to soften or enhance them.
6 - How and why to make choices in the process of painting, considering the conflict between what the artist set out to do and what the painting demands.
7 - Paintings are just a series of proposed visual solutions to manufactured problems. It is important to find challenging problems in the picture to try and solve in ways that both close them and leave them open.
8 - How does a painter deal with a potential viewer? What sort of dialogue is this? How do solutions in a painting refer back to the artist or forward to the viewer?
9 - Understanding the difference between painting space and viewing space and how this can affect choices in the painting.
10 - How to identify patterns in your own painting, and in your approaches to painting. How to develop your own visual vocabulary.
11 - “Killing your darlings” and why this is so critical for growth in painting.
My studio these days:
What I offer:
I offer during your Stay to spend 4 hours minimum working together in my studio each day for 3 days (and 12 hours) total. You are welcome to continue to work on your own in my studio without my direct participation for up to 8 hours per day. (Also, I do not stare at a clock and count minutes, so these offered times are just guidelines). However, I also suggest spending time exploring and enjoying the areas around Eldred, New York where I am located. This is a very scenic part of America, and much of the country’s history occurred between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers of New York. I think you’ll easily find a nice balance between exploring outside and painting in the studio. Each season has many and different things to offer in terms of sights and activities.
In figuring out a pricing schedule I have to combine the offer of shared studio time, use of the studio space, and also the offer to stay in the rental apartment space during your Stay. I also offer the pricing based on occupancy, and I could host up to 3 artists at a time in my studio, with a total of 6 guests in the apartment at one time. So artists are welcome to bring guests and friends. Wall space in the Studio is limited to 3 artists, but guests and friends are welcome to come and go in the studio as they wish during Studio Sessions.
I am offering a 3 day minimum stay (12 hours of studio time), with 3 nights/days in the apartment. However, you can do longer stays if you wish. Anything longer you are welcome to message me, but I think 3 days with 12 total hours of studio time is enough to make excellent progress through the shared experience of painting. Pricing includes all taxes and fees. Guests have the free use of the property, including use of the Fire Pit and the front porch and Grill.
For the Studio Sessions I will provide large pieces of (heavy) watercolor paper mounted on the wall, with the use of acrylic paints, brushes, charcoal, etc. I suggest visitors use acrylic paint because it dries quickly and allows for making many changes to the painting during our time together. Also the paintings on paper will dry enough to be loosely rolled up or stacked when artists take them with them at the end of their Stay. Artists are welcome to bring any supplies of their own if they wish, just let me know what you plan to use so I can facilitate. Also, if necessary, arrangements can be made to store for a while or ship the finished paintings to you after your Stay.
PRICING SCHEDULE:
Studio Sessions are officially 12 hours over 3 days. For the 3 days of studio time, 3 days/nights stay in the apartment is included.
One Artist and guest (2 total): 3 studio days and 3 apartment nights/days: $1,950
Two Artists and two guests (4 total): 3 studio days and 3 apartment nights/days: $2,950
Three Artists and three guests (6 total): 3 studio days and 3 apartment nights/days: $3,950
Payments can be made by check or with Venmo (for International visitors, other payment arrangements can be made). Reservations can be made up to 3 months in advance, with a 30% Deposit due at the time of the Reservation. This Deposit is fully refundable up to 30 Days in advance of the Reservation, but is not refundable within 30 Days of the Reservation. Full payment of the final 70% is due within 7 Days of the Reservation. I will be as fair as I am able, of course, because things come up, plans change, etc, but I need to protect myself from lost revenue as reasonably as I can (however, I don’t want to take payment from you if you don’t end up coming here).
Here is the link to my Airbnb Listing - Please select and copy the highlighted URL below and paste it into your web browser to go to the airbnb listing with 24 Five Star Reviews:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1142721728136641579?adults=6&search_mode=regular_search&check_in=2025-05-07&check_out=2025-05-12&children=0&infants=0&pets=0&source_impression_id=p3_1746570997_P31iy1udMx7qDX2D&previous_page_section_name=1000&federated_search_id=c8bf3462-df0c-499a-9016-390267a2a550
Below are photographs of some of my studios over the years, mostly across New York City (and Europe). I managed to maintain my studio practice without much money by renting spaces in bad neighborhoods in different parts of New York City before they gentrified: Left to Right below: Downtown Brooklyn (1), Chelsea, Manhattan (2,3), Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic (4), Red Hook, Brooklyn (5),18,19,20, Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15), Cochecton, NY (8,16,17). I had studios before cell phones were invented, so I do not have many pictures of some of my earlier studios.
Below are pictures of my property, building and apartment:
