New York Botanical Gardens - Part 1

 Last weekend my friend, Susan and I decided to go to the New York Botanical Gardens. We are sharing a "senior dual membership" and as long as you visit twice, you come out ahead. The NYC Urban Sketchers were going to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens but from experience we know that gets much too crowded on weekends when the cherry trees are in bloom. The gardens in the Bronx are much larger so the crowds are spread out much more.

Another friend of ours who we haven't seen in a long time (probably before Covid) was going to be there in the morning because her son takes a nature class there on Saturdays. Elaine dropped him off for the class, and we all sketched by the Conservatory until she had to pick him up. It was great to catch up with her after such a long time.

Elaine and Isaac left about noon and Susan and I hopped on the tram to go to paint the cherry trees at the top of daffodil hill. The sign there says there are 1 million tulips planted on the hill. I haven't counted them but from my estimates the sign must be right. Here is a photo of just part of daffodil hill. Now imagine that view in multiple directions!

I sat at the bottom of the hill and painted the view above.

As you can see I was concentrating more on the trees than the daffs...and I didn't stop.

I will post more tomorrow.

Printmaking

It seems like my art groups are getting me involved in printmaking. Last week the South Bay Art Association did gelli prints at our monthly meeting. I haven't done any in a long time so it was fun to play around with them. Luckily I brought my own brayer and some supplies, because the brayers they supplied were soft foam and didn't work well. Some of the members had done gelli prints before but the members who hadn't tried it before were a little lost. There was really no instruction, so I tried to help the members near me who looked lost. It wasn't a really conducive atmosphere to do prints because of the crowd, but we had fun talking and seeing some of the results people got.

Here are the three prints I made.  

Here I am with my creations.

Then last night the Patchogue Sketch Club also did prints. We will be doing some sort of print making for a few weeks. We used styrofoam as a print plate this time, carving into it with a ballpoint pen. People got some interesting designs and most of the prints came out pretty nice. Here is my print and the ghost print. I had to remember that the lettering has to be carved backwards so it will print the right way.

Sayville Beach Commission

 Back in March I was contacted by a young couple who bought a few of my watercolors at The Catbird Seat in Sayville. They loved my work and asked me to do a commission of Sayville Beach. I asked them what view they wanted and suggested that if they were going to be in the area that they send me a photo of the view they wanted. So they did, and explained that this view was where he had proposed to her. They also sent me a photo of the proposal. They wanted the painting to look like summer, and gave me the freedom to move things around or add things to make the painting look better. But they did want the remnants of the docks that were in the water. Of course it couldn't be done on location, but I did my best and met with them last week to give them the painting. They were thrilled! I think this is the 6th painting of mine that they have now, because they bought another one of mine that they had seen online.

Here is their engagement photo at the beach.

Planting Fields Arboretum - Day 2

When I woke up on Tuesday and saw that we had another beautiful day, I called Suzala and told her I would meet her at the Arboretum. I knew I couldn't go on Wednesday, so it was best to get there while I could. This time I painted the view into the walled garden. Again the cherry trees were just amazing!

For my second painting I did a smaller one (5x7) up near the manor house. There is a small pond down some big stone steps, and the falling blossoms from the tree collected in there.

I left the gardens about 3:30 but Suzala kept on painting. She also went back on Wednesday, but the cold and the dampness cut the day short for her.

Planting Fields Arboretum - Day 1

My friend, Suzala wanted to go painting last Monday because it was supposed to be such a wonderful day weather-wise. She suggested going back to Camusett Park, but I thought that was too far. I get caught in too much traffic heading east after 3:00 so I prefer to be closer. I suggested going to the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. I told her there should be cherry trees in bloom and buildings too. It was spectacular! I painted this cherry tree with the greenhouse behind it. In addition to my regular watercolors I used watercolor crayons to give this a little more texture.

I moved on to another part of the park after finishing the first painting. This section is a huge open field with several cherry trees at the top. There were so many people who came just to take photos with the cherry trees. There was a bride and groom, several ladies in gowns, and other people dressed nicely and wearing big hats like the woman in this painting.

I finished painting around 3:15 and by the time I left the park I got stuck in traffic heading east. That is a problem I encounter a lot. I didn't get home until nearly 5:30. That's rush hour on Long Island.

Suzala said she was free the next day until about 5 when her first art student arrives and was planning on going back to paint again. I told her I didn't think I was planning to go back to the Arboretum but if I changed my mind I would let her know.

 

City Trip

Last Sunday I made a solo trip into the city. The American Watercolor Society Show was going on at the Salmagundi Club, and it is one of my favorite exhibits. Since I was going in by train I did a sketch on the LIRR going in. This lady had such bright red hair (dyed).

I went in to the city on the 8:20 train which arrived in Penn Station around 9:40. The exhibit didn't open until 1:00, but I had a plan to sketch before it opened. I took the subway down to 14th Street and walked over to Union Square. There was a beautiful cherry tree in bloom right by one of the subway entrances in the park, so I sat myself down on a bench and started painting.

Then I meandered around Union Square for a little while. There are always vendors selling something, and they were also having some Earth Day events and exhibits. I sat at a table and sketched looking uptown. I included some of the people conversing, some vendors, and a bit of the exhibit booths from the Earth Day celebration. I lasted there until about 2:00 and had just packed up my materials when it started to rain lightly. I ducked into Whole Foods and grabbed a snack (fruit) and waited for the rain to stop.

The AWS show was great! There is always some amazing work...and a few pieces that make me shake my head. I really enjoy seeing paintings by people I know from workshops I've taken, or from following them online. I was a nice ending to my day in the city. By the time I got home it was around 6:30...definitely a full day.

Cherry Blossoms and Forsythia

 When the first cherry blossoms started appearing I would pull over and sketch them, like these blossoms and the yellow forsythia in Oakdale.