Gus Van Sant, filmmaker and painter, shows his watercolors in New York
(Artdaily.org)

Renowned filmmaker Gus Van Sant has worked in cinema for more than four decades, but has never set aside his parallel interest in painting, a passion of his youth. Nine recent canvases by the director known for films such as `Elephant,` `My Own Private Idaho` and `Good Will Hunting` are now on show at the Vito Schnabel gallery in Greenwich Village until November 1, Van Sant`s first solo exhibition in New York. These watercolors on linen measuring 6.5 feet (two meters) high are almost all untitled and find a main character of sorts in a sketch of a nude man, who appears to float amid a dreamlike landscape with blending colors, waves of cars and at times one of Los Angeles` most known monuments, Griffith Observatory. A resident of Los Angeles since the end of the 1970s, Vant Sant said he drew inspiration from `years of living