Sandy's Garden Center

The other day I took a ride over to Sandy's Garden Center in Farmingville.
They had their trees and wreaths ready along with an inflatable snowman.

San Anselmo Sketches Part III

Here is the final group of San Anselmo sketches done for the "Somewhere to Sketch" blog that I am doing with a group of artists (see link under "My Other Blogs").

One of the woman participating had lived in San Anselmo as a child and many of us sketched her childhood home. Here is my version.

Margaret's House on Bolinas

Bonlinas Avenue House with Canopy

(This really reminded me of a beach cottage here on Long Island or up in Cape Cod.)

164 Meadowcroft Dr.

(Love the Spanish influence)

Skateboarder on Talmalpis Ave.

Building with Artwork

Edo Grill

Decorating the Tree

Last Friday I was driving through Sayville and noticed that they were putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it in anticipation of the parade and lighting of the tree that was taking place on Saturday. It was really cold out so I was lucky to get a parking spot with a view so I could work from my "mobile studio." This is about 5 x 7 and was done in my Stillman & Birn Alpha Sketchbook.

Maria

Last Tuesday night I went to the Wet Paints Studio Group sketch night in Sayville. Twice a month they have a model pose for the artists that show up. Maria was our model. The model poses for 20 minutes and then takes a 10 minute break. That is repeated 3 times. Some people do 3 different sketches, but since she is in the same pose I continued working on the same painting. This is 5 x 7.

Autumn Corner

Somehow I missed posting this when I did it. Right now there are just bare tree branches in this spot in Bellport...I'm pretty sure every leaf is off these trees now.

This is 5 x 7.

San Anselmo Sketches Part II

I had better post some of these sketches since the "Somewhere to Sketch" group has already arrived in Dublin, our next location.

The view along Sacramento Avenue

Montgomery Chapel

Taco Janes on Tamalpis Avenue

Barn along Madrona Avenue

Pavillion Antiques

Bay Area Chorus

Last Sunday my friend and I went to hear the Bay Area Chorus and their "Fall Festival of Song" at the United Methodist Church in Patchogue. The last few times we went we sat up in the balcony to sketch, but this time Susan got there early and sat right in the front row downstairs.

I was able to get a few sketches done. I used a Stillman & Birn Zeta Series sketchbook that was 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. I like the weight of the paper, but the surface is slick and will take some experimenting on my part to figure out how best to use watercolors on it. I began with pencil sketches (You can still see them.) The Zeta did a lovely job of taking ink. I guess it is more like hot pressed paper which I don't regularly use.

I started with a sketch of the director of the chorus, Martha Canpanile.

And then moved on to sketch one of the members of the chorus and a few of the musicians who were sitting right near us.