A Queens-born artist is finding a way to combine her love for music and painting in a solo show in Manhattan.

"My father was a jazz pianist and a painter, my mother played mandolin, so she would be strumming ‘Come Back to Sorrento’ in the afternoon; and at night I would hear my father improvising on ‘Moonlight in Vermont,’” Mia Berman said.

Berman said growing up in Bayside, her home was always filled with music and art — and she was no stranger to it. She’d regularly join in with her recorder, and learned to paint and sketch from her father.

What You Need To Know

  • Mia Berman is an artist who sketches musicians at Jazz clubs in New York City. Three dozen of her sketches are on display at Tavern on Jane in the West Village through Sept. 13

  • Berman's parents were musicians, and her father also taught her how to paint and sketch

  • Berman was raised in Queens, but has lived in the West Village for four decades

Now, she combines those two loves in her first solo art show at Tavern on Jane in the West Village.

"I love to sit at the bar, and just sketch live, and my goal is really to capture the mood, the expression, the moment, the faces, the gestures, maybe the pulse of the place, the fragrance of the room, just to capture the movement in a still picture, which is a challenge," Berman said. 

The show features a collection of three dozen sketches Berman made at Jazz clubs around New York City, all while watching and listening to the musicians on stage.

She said the sketches, made with pen and pencil on various types of papers, are a tribute to jazz musicians like her father, plus the city's jazz clubs — a number of which have closed over the past few years.

It's nothing new for Tavern on Jane to show the work of local artists, according to owner Michael Stewart. He said they started showcasing work around 15 years ago, and many of his friends and customers are artists from the neighborhood.

"It's really nice for them to have a place for them to come to be known and have their work shown, and when it's in the neighborhood which they are a part of. It brings in a lot of their friends and it's great also for the artist, so it's really cool," said Stewart, who has owned the popular neighborhood spot for 28 years.

Berman's sketches will be on display there through Sept. 13.