Spring Blossoms

The other day I decided to so a page of some of the beautiful blooms that are coming up right now. I used a grey page in my toned Stillman & Birn sketchbook doing just a small snippet of what I saw in various local places.

Dream Vacation Sketches

The NYC Urban Sketchers met today and sketched our "dream vacation" spot. For a location this morning I decided to "travel" some place I haven't been yet, but that has always fascinated me. 
I am now quite jet lagged after traveling all the way to Bali, Indonesia, a place I've dreamed about visiting, but the distance always stopped me before. 
Thanks to Google images I visited Ulum Danu Temple.

While doing my virtual vacation in Bali, Indonesia I also sketched one of the old stone statues. I used a Google royalty free image to sketch this.

In the afternoon, Mark added an additional challenge to the event. We selected another "dream vacation" spot, but this time we had the addition of a time machine to take us to that location at some time in the past or some time in the future. I immediately knew I wanted to go back in time to Monet's Garden and paint with Claude. So my story is that I ran into Claude Monet in Giverny, and he invited me back to his home to sketch with him. 

I used a photo of Monet which I changed a bit and one of my sketches that I had done at Monet's Garden in the past as a reference for the garden.

Making Chowder

Like many artists who are practicing social distancing, I decided to sketch something around my home today. I decided to make some soup...New England Clam Chowder to be specific. Before I started cooking it, I got all the ingredients together for a sketch of them. 

My sketches for this weekend will also meet the theme for Moment Sketchers which takes place on the first weekend of the month. This month Candace Rardon gave us a theme of "Moments From Home."

#momentsketchers #uskathome

Pandemic Life

I hope all of you are coping with the restrictions from the pandemic. It seems like there is something new we need to prepare for every day. Listening to the news yesterday it seemed that it wouldn't be long before those of us on the outer edge of NYC would be wearing masks when we went outside. Of course you can't buy them anywhere right now. So I looked at some of the patterns to make them and decided I should be able to do it and be prepared. 

My sewing machine has been giving me problems for years, and I end up more frustrated than anything if I try to use it. My friend, Susan, gave me some advice a long while ago about the way the needle was facing but of course I never bothered to see if what she said would work. So I decided instead to hand sew the mask. I didn't want to go out to a store to buy the material (and increase my chance of exposure) so I checked to see what I already had that I could use. Luckily I found a pillow case that has no matching sheets, and I used that for the material...not fancy but it did the job. I gathered all my supplies and cut and sewed for about 2 hours this morning...and I had success. Of course I could never mass produce these but it will suffice for now. Here is a sketch after I finished sewing.

And here's a sketch of me wearing my creation. Several friends told me I should paint a design on it, but I'm not sure what I will do.

Magnolia Blossoms

Since the Bayard Cutting Arboretum is barely a 10 minute drive from me it is easy enough to stop there if the weather is good. Also social distancing there is not a problem. The magnolia trees are starting to blossom there, so I took my chair and sat down for a while to sketch some of the emerging blossoms. 

Costumed in Quarantine

A fellow NYC sketcher told me about a sketch event that was publicized on Facebook. Last night the entertaining Lefty Lucy held an event where she modeled live on YouTube. It was a socially distancing event called "Costumed in Quarantine." The poses ranged from 2 minutes to 20 minutes. 

These are the 2 to 5 minute poses that she started with.

These were the 5 minute and 10 minute sketches.

This was my favorite sketch which was a 20 minute sketch. There was another 20 minute sketch but I missed it.

 

Flowers in a Vase

Back about two weeks ago I bought some flowers at Trader Joe's. I painted them at the time. Well the purple flowers didn't last for too long, but the pink ones are still going strong. I pulled them out and put them into a smaller vase and am still enjoying them.