Last September, Max Ginsburg invited me to paint in his Sunday Atelier at the Art Students League. I have not painted from life in decades. I could not wait to get back to painting alongside my friend and to be with the man who taught me how to paint. But I was naturally nervous, feeling like an adult who was moving back home to live with his parents, with all of the emotional baggage still intact!

The weekly painting sessions were grueling because we painted from 9am to 4pm with a 30-minute lunch break. I always paint standing up, feeling too nervous and fidgety to be confined to a stool and I always returned home physically exhausted and mentally drained.

I know that I am not the kid from the High School of Art and Design. 30 years is a long time, a lot has changed. The real test was to see how the adult “me” holds up as I paint under the watchful eye of my former painting teacher.