![](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fa12a4c3743cddbd313e0f51b6ad6227ee164fb6/402_540_7042_4225/master/7042.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=3b8620cf2dc58b0bbb0d50c88a386f31)
‘Then a woman with a bullwhip walked into the lift’: my 17 years painting the demimonde of New York’s Chelsea hotel
Memorialised in song by former residents Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nico, New York’s Hotel Chelsea has housed an astonishing clientele of artists, writers and mavericks including Brendan Behan, Arthur C Clarke (who called it his “spiritual home”), Andy …