Astoria Park - Part i

The destination for the NYC Urban Sketchers this past weekend was Astoria Park. We've sketched there a few times before. At this park there are views of two bridges, lots of fun activities, and great water views. On Sunday it was the end of Ramadan and there was some sort of service in the park in the morning, so there were a lot of Muslim families enjoying the day. Rather than sketch the whole RFK Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge) I did a small section looking under it with a Muslim woman who was watching her kids playing on the grass nearby.

Just in case you're curious, here is a sketch I did in Oct 2013 almost in the same spot.

And another sketch done of the entire bridge last year.

More Beach Sketches

The beach is such a great place to sketch people. I have to remember to put a watercolor sketchbook in my beach bag. This paper won't take watercolor well.

Beach View

I met friends for foot massages and lunch the other day...again back in Nassau County. By the time we finished it was the beginning of rush hour, so rather than sit in traffic I headed over to Ocean Parkway which runs along a barrier island that is connected to the mainland by bridges. It is a beautiful drive with several beaches along the way. I stopped at one to get a sketch done while I was passing through. This was done on a different watercolor paper than I usually use. This was done on Fluid paper which I found to be a little smoother than what I'm used to.

Dead End View & Lady Luck

On Monday I had a doctor's appointment about an hour from me, just routine. Most times when I head west from where I live I stop at an art store since Dick Blick is in that direction. The store I went to was new (at least to me) and sort of out of the way. They had some good art materials and fair prices so I ended up spending money when I really didn't need anything. lol Then I headed to the doctor's office only to find out that they had called and left a message that the doctor wasn't going to be in that day. I didn't see the message until later. So I headed in the direction of home with a little extra time on my hands. I stopped in East Rockaway which is near where I used to live. There are a lot of streets that abut canals there. I found this spot but it was super windy out and I didn't think it was a good idea to sit outside, so I sketched and painted from the car.

I was parked next to a house that was under reconstruction. While I was sitting there something blew off the scaffolding in the strong wind and landed in front of my car. I ignored it and thought for a minute about moving my car away from the construction, but it would have changed my view...so I stayed put. About 20 minutes later a car came down the street from the dead end side. The driver stopped next to me and said, "Don't move your car." He got out and picked up a big piece of lumber with quite a few nails sticking straight up through the board. I probably would have punctured one or more of my tires. Lady Luck was smiling on me!

Train Sketches

When I went into the city to sketch at Grant's Tomb I took the Long Island Railroad. I did get to sketch someone each way.

Grant's Tomb - Part II

Once it started raining on Saturday, we weren't going anywhere. Luckily the portico was covering us unless you ventured too close to the edges. Here is a link to what we were facing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLg6W7HJB_U&feature=youtu.be

I was looking down the portico toward the other sketchers when I painted this.

And then looking straight ahead for this one.

We usually go to a bar or restaurant to share our sketches around 3:00 pm. Wouldn't you know it...just around quarter to 3 the rain stopped. It was perfect timing for our walk to the restaurant.

Grant's Tomb Part I

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at Grant's Tomb in the city. The weather forecast said a chance of showers but from the way the reports have been wrong lately I took my rain jacket just to be safe. I had just finished this piece when it started to spritz. I figured I would pack up my stuff and head for the sheltered portico on the front of the building. I made it just in time. Two of the other sketchers just put up their umbrellas to finish.

My friend, Mark Leibowitz took this photo of me sketching there which he posted on our NYC Urban Sketching Facebook page with these words.

"When we first got to Grant’s Tomb before the rain started I was sitting next to Joan sketching the building from the same view. The building must have had at least two dozen flags hanging from every possible surface. 

I made the decision to paint the building without the flags. I just left them out completely. Joan included every single one of them. As she wrote in her post on the 17th, “I think I did my quota of flags for a while.” 

Later when we scrambled up the stairs to get out of the rain I took this shot to honor Joan, - the sketching queen of American Flags."