Merry Go Round

In Merry Go Round, Bisbee captures Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park, framed by two other New York icons — the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Painted in oil on canvas, the composition sparkles with nostalgic charm and contemporary energy. A swirl of blues, golds, and gentle violets infuses the piece with movement and light, echoing the joy of the carousel itself.

The vantage point, taken from a subway ride, lends the painting a fleeting, almost cinematic quality — a moment glimpsed in passing yet lingering in memory. Bisbee’s careful balance of fine architectural detail and looser atmospheric brushwork lets the landmarks breathe within the scene, without overpowering the central carousel’s playful elegance.

Artist statement: I used the technique wet-on-wet for this painting. Often, mixing things on the canvas sometimes turns muddy and I wanted to avoid that result. I let it dry before adding more layers to this oil painting of Jane’s Carousel located in Brooklyn Bridge Park. My reference photo was taken from the subway train on the way to Manhattan. I’ll bet everyone on the subway assumed I was a tourist, not knowing that I was an artist grabbing reference photos to paint in my studio.