Happy Easter & Happy Passover

This is a sketch of a plant that I bought for friends who are having us over for Passover dinner tonight. I know that tulips are traditionally for Easter but they also are celebrating that holiday tomorrow. I got these at the Bayport Flower House which is a local business. They are always gracious to my plein air group and always allow us to come and paint in their shop before Christmas. I've also gone there solo and sketched their flowers outdoors and have sketched their Christmas trees from my car. Their flowers are always beautiful so it is nice to support a local place.

Downtown Sayville

There was still some snow piles around when I found a spot in Sayville to sketch the view on Main Street. I lucked out and found a spot near a driveway so nobody parked directly in front of me. lol

Cold Spring View

Last weekend after the March for Our Lives I took a ride to what is probably the next town over from Huntington, Cold Spring Harbor. It is hilly as most of the towns up along the North Shore of Long Island often are. Here by me it is flat as a pancake. lol I found a spot where I could sit in my car and see a few of the houses going up the hill. Yes, the snow from the storm was hanging around.

The Snowstorm

Last week we had another nor'easter that brought us about 13 inches of snow. At times it was snowing a few inches every hour. Just about 10 minutes from me they had 19 inches. Luckily in our development we don't have to do any shoveling and our car is in the garage. So as soon as I think the roads were clear I headed out. First I did this house in Sayville. I was there just in time for enough sunshine to make nice shadows.

Then I decided to head over to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum...but on the way I saw this huge pile of plowed snow with kids having one heck of a good time on it. I couldn't resist stopping to do a sketch.

I did eventually get to the Arboretum and went for a short walk. I stopped to sketch some of the plants that were still partially buried under the snow. The sun was out so the snow started melting off the trees and bushes, so I'm glad I didn't wait any longer.

Harts Cove Bait & Tackle

I was out in East Moriches recently and passed this quirky bait and tackle shop....so of course I pulled over to sketch it. I loved all the things hanging on the building and piled next to it. I was painting from my car across the street in the only spot that had a really good view. The spot happened to be right next to someone's mailbox, so I was on the watch for a postal truck to come along to make a delivery. Luckily I didn't have to move for one.

Northport House

After sketching in Northport recently I decided to go back to the same area and find another house to sketch. I liked the stone wall in front of this one.

Roerich Museum and Travel Sketches

Last Saturday along with the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine the NYC Urban Sketchers also went to the Roerich Museum. Why two locations? Well the Roerich Museum was planned first but it doesn't open until 2 pm. I mentioned that it wasn't worth riding all the way into the city for just 2 hrs at the museum, so the morning location was added. Anyway the Roerich Museum is small but it contains more that 200 paintings by Nicholas Roerich and is located in a classic townhouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Most of the paintings are of the Himalayas. I took a quick look at the artwork before deciding what to sketch. I was more interested in being in the townhouse. It seemed like every room had a fireplace.

I also sketched my friend who was sketching another view across from me.

At the restaurant where we went later for our "show and tell" I sketched a few of the other sketchers before  people started presenting their work...and then my lunch came and I opted to eat instead of sketching more.

In addition to the Cathedral, the museum, and the restaurant I also sketched on the Long Island Railroad going to and from NYC. It was a busy day. Last Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and the train was filled with people going into the city for the parade or just to party. These girls were dressed in their finest Irish accessories.

Going home at the end of the day was quite different from the trip into the city. After a day of drinking and partying, many of the travelers were loud and rowdy. I picked the right group to sit near it seems, although they were a bit loud at least they weren't obnoxiously drunk.

All in all it was a good day...and a long one for sketching.

March for Our Lives

I'm going to jump ahead a week and post my sketches from today. I attended the March for Our Lives in Huntington today. There were marches and protests all over the country...in fact all over the world. It was amazing to see and hear the young people who organized this event. They were so eloquent and filled with passion. In addition to local students, our event included relatives of some of the students and the teacher that were killed in the Florida shooting. The stories were heartbreaking. I am hoping that these young people will have a positive effect and we will see some changes.

Here are a few of the local students working on their posters before the event started.

This was sketched as the event was getting underway. There were young people, children, families and all kinds of local people supporting these students and sharing their passion for change.

I seem to be getting more political as I get older...or more aware of the changes that are needed.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Last Saturday I met up with the NYC Urban Sketchers for the day. Uptown around 111 St and Amsterdam Ave is the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine. It is part of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Construction was started in 1854 but parts of the Cathedral seem to always be under construction. It spans several blocks and is beautiful inside and out.

One of the best things about painting or sketching in the Cathedral is the atmosphere. In addition to the beautiful columns, altars, and stained glass, on weekends there is are choirs who perform almost all day long. Most of the performances are done by choirs visiting from outside NYC, and they sing with such angelic voices.

I did one sketch looking toward the main altar while a group was performing. This was done across a double spread in a moleskein journal.

For this sketch I sat behind the altar facing the stained glass over the front door of the Cathedral. This choir was in gowns and tuxes. You will notice some splashes of ink on the bottom of the sketch. I went to put the cap on my brush pen and for some reason ink splattered all over the page and all over my sweater. I'm very thankful that the ink was water-soluble and actually came out of the sweater.

We sketched until about 2:00 and then left to go to our afternoon sketching location.

Snow Update and Napper Tandy's

The forecast was correct, although the snow didn't really get heavy until about 6 pm and then it was coming down at the rate of an inch or two an hour for a while. By morning it was gorgeous with heavy clusters of snow on everything. I went out with my yardstick and measured by my front patio where it was over 13 inches. There was more on the side of the building where my garage is located..maybe 15 inches.

Here is a photo I took last night when it was really snowing heavily.

A view of the snowstorm from my front door.

These photos were taken this morning.

My pots of chives waiting for spring to arrive.

The parking lot in our complex.

The cars parked in front of the two garages next to mine. They use their garages for storage. I use mine for my car.

Luckily the temperature hit 50 degrees today with a lot of sunshine, so a great deal of the snow is melted already. I went out early to paint a snow scene before the snow fell off all the trees. I'll post that in a few days.

Meanwhile last Friday I was in Bay Shore along Main Street and Napper Tandy's with it's rich, red front just screamed to be sketched. I'm sure on Saturday it was a whole lot more active for St. Patrick's Day.

Snowy Woods

Yes, we had another small snowstorm last week. Not a huge amount but a few inches that looked pretty on the ground between the trees. This was done at a local park using gouache which seems to be my "go to" for snow scenes lately.  Today we are expecting more snow...predictions say between 8-12 inches later today. That's a bit more than we need. lol I will give you an update tomorrow.

I had paintings at an exhibit about 2 1/2 hrs from me that were supposed to be picked up today. Luckily because of the forecast they allowed us to come up and pick them up a day early if we were free. I was picking up my work and the work of 5 other people, so my husband came up to Middletown with my yesterday to help carry the 10 paintings from the gallery to the car. Considering we hit rush hour traffic for part of the ride home, we were only in the car for 5 1/2 hours. It could have been much worse. 

Lettering Workshop

When my sketch group met last Wednesday we had one of the members do a lettering workshop with us. She uses a lot of lettering in the pages she does. We did some warmups and then did some objects attached to words, sketching objects that were near us. Yes, we did have a cherry pie as a treat to have with coffee.

We were told to bring a favorite quote with us and we worked writing it out in a combination of capital and lower case letters which we colored in. I was working on sketch paper which really doesn't take watercolors very well, but I thought the result was interesting. 

Boatyard

I like driving around and seeing what is down around the corner of places I've been. This was in Patchogue around the corner from a marina I've gone to several times. I peeked down this street and saw some rusty structures. I headed straight there. There was a bit of all kinds of stuff around, a washing machine, inflatable rubber boats usually found on a ferry and assorted other objects. Apparently it is an active business because vehicles kept coming in and out while I sat in my car sketching.

Northport House

Last week I took a ride to Northport. There are a lot of really interesting houses along the road that rises above the harbor. It was too cold to sit out and paint but I parked on the street and had a good view of the opposite side because there is only parking on one side of the street. The houses there are all built on the hillside. This house looked like a nice place to sit on the porch and watch the people go by.

At the Metropolitan Museum

Last weekend I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC with some of my sketching friends. I sketched some ancient Cypriot artwork. These were done with dry watercolor pencils.

After lunch I stood on one of the balconies overlooking the Great Hall to sketch the view.

Avalon Preserve in the Snow

I took a ride up to Avalon Preserve in Stony Brook. In the summer this area is fields of yellow flowers that are as tall as I am. At this time of year you can see the brown foliage and the snow from the recent snowstorm. This is in my toned gray Strathmore sketchbook and done in gouache.

Snowy View...Storm #1

We have had a few snowstorms, or nor'easters as they keep calling them. The first one brought us here on the south shore about 6 inches of snow and a lot of flooding because the storm arrival coincided with extremely high tides. The snow was heavy and wet and caused a lot of power outages because of the weight of the snow pulling down tree limbs and electric wires. My neighborhood was very lucky and didn't have any serious problems. 

This was painted from my car in the parking lot of a local park in Sayville. I used gouache and my gray toned Strathmore sketchbook.

Seamus

Seamus is often our model when my portrait group gets together. He is retired and is usually available...and he's a good model too. This was done with gouache.

Assorted Sketches

After our snowstorm last week I took a ride down near the Maritime Museum in Sayville. Due to the high tides with that nor'easter there was a lot of flooding. The water was almost even with the dock. I did stop by the golf course next to it. The flooding was up to the fencing.  I had to laugh that there were golfers out practicing their strokes...not much stops them.

Then last Sunday a friend and her husband asked me to be a "reviewer" for the First Lego League competition for ages 7-10 at Longwood HS. It was for the morning only and it was great to see the projects the teams created. After lunch my friend, Suzala and I went to the main gym to sketch the older participants during their robotics tournaments. It was colorful, noisy and fun! We sat in the bleachers to sketch.

The Rock

This was painted up at Sunken Meadow State Park in Smithton recently. It was the first time in a long time that I actually got out of the car and sat on my painting chair at an outdoor location. It has been too cold or windy even if it seemed mild enough. This day I was able to sit with no gloves or hat...wonderful. I ignored the bit of wind. Of course a day or two later we had a snowstorm. lol

This rock is surrounded by the hillside, the parking lot, and Sunken Meadow Creek which runs into the bay there. When Long Island had the horrible flooding from Hurricane Sandy it changed the way the land and the marsh areas were. This rock had been completely submerged for quite a while. I am glad it is back, although many of the birds that were always there no longer come to the rock. It is a pretty spot.

Buildings by the Dock

This was sketched along one of the canals in Islip.  I liked the little glimpse you could see between the buildings. Of course while I was sitting in my car sketching someone in a truck pulled in and parked right in front of me. He came over to see if I was waiting to see someone and I told him that I was sketching. "Am I in your way?" he asked. When I said yes he graciously moved his truck to the opposite side of the parking area. 

Snowy Woods

Here is another gouache snow painting done before the 30 Day challenge started. Who knew that we would have another big storm and that I would get the opportunity to paint the snow again so soon.

Double Dunes

I am trying to catch up with some paintings that missed getting posted before the 30 day challenge.

Both of these were painted along Dune Road in Hampton Bays from different parking lots.

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - Starbucks & Snow Painting

It snowed most of yesterday afternoon and then lightly in the evening. I think we had about 3 or 4 inches of very wet snow. We really lucked out because the ti-state area to the north and the west of us really got hit hard not just with the snow but the power outages that the snow caused. Here there are piles of snow from the plowing, but the roads and walkways are all clear. It helped that it was warm enough for a lot of the snow to melt. That helped clear the trees so there would be fewer downed branches and wires. That's what causes the most problems.

Today I went out ready to sketch and paint. I took along my Strathmore toned grey sketchbook and my gouache and did a painting down by the park. I was sitting in my car.

Then I drove over to the local Starbucks in Patchogue. I got a good table by the window facing the counter. I was there for a little over an hour sketching the customers I could see.  Here is the final page of sketches...and I reached 100!!!

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - Sketches from Panera

So far the nor'easter is bringing us mostly rain and sleet...enough to make a bit of a mess. Luckily it stopped doing any precipitation for my walking buddies and myself to get in 5 miles this morning. 

Since it was just drizzling here around 11:00 I headed out to Panera Bread in Bohemia to do some sketching for the 100 People Challenge. The problem with Panera Bread is that you mostly see the backs of the people on line, so I was searching for anyone who was turned slightly or facing me for some reason. I started with the woman on the top right, sketching her with my Elegant Writer pen, but I didn't like the way it was working in a small sketch. It muddies up the color. So then I switched to my Lamy Safari with the brown ink, which was also a problem because of the ink bleeding. My last choice was a waterproof Uniball gel pen. It has an extra-micro point which was a little delicate for the drawings. Once I added the watercolors I went back in with more ink. I did fill two pages in my sketchbook and have now completed 93 people!!! I debated if I should do 7 more people to finish, but I know me, if I did 7 I would force myself to complete the entire page, and I was getting bored with the location. I ended up leaving and will finish tomorrow. #OneWeek100People2018

As far as the storm, we are now having snow (big flakes) that are sticking everywhere, so we may end up with an accumulation yet.

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - Sketch Group & the DMV

This morning the South Bay Art Association Sketch Group met. I did a portrait of Dino, but then did a few quick sketches including Dino, Liz, and Sally. These are sketches $18-21.

#OneWeek100People2018

Next I headed to a spot I had gone for the last 100 people challenge, the Department of Motor Vehicles in Medford. It was so crowded that I ended up standing against the wall while I did this page of sketches #22-32. You can see other people were standing too. Maybe it was so crowded today because of the weather forecast for tomorrow.

I saw two people get up so I scurried over to take a seat. Sketches #33-48 were done from one of the benches. You would think with all the people that were around me someone would notice I was sketching...apparently not. lol

The weather forecast is for a snowstorm tomorrow so I'm not sure if I will be able get out to sketch people. That made me decide to stay a bit longer and keep sketching. The poor people sitting there were there for a long time and the people around me weren't changing quickly, so I moved to another seat to get a different view. I completed sketches #49-65 there. I'm more than halfway done!!!

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - At the Mall

The 100 People challenge started today and I made sure I went out to a location that would have people to sketch. I headed over to the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. I did this first page sitting in a very comfy chair right outside the Apple Store. With their wide-open glass doors I could easily see the customers and the store personnel. I sketched some of the people inside as well as several people that came and sat across from me who were waiting for the person they were with to finish shopping. One of the people at one of those little kiosks was also in my line of site...lucky him. lol

#OneWeek100People2018

Next I headed to the mall food court. During the week it is pretty easy to get a table and find people to sketch including the guy from the Japanese stall that gives out free samples of teriyaki chicken, which I did taste. Yes, the woman on the bottom did have blue-green hair. I'm glad I sketched her quickly because she didn't stay long. Instead she bagged up her food and left. I'll have to come up with a good location for tomorrow...a place with lines of people. I will need to do a lot since they are forecasting snow for Wednesday and I might not get out in that case.