Upturned Boats

With all the rain and snow we've had this winter I guess there is a good reason for these boats to be turned over. This is a fun, old fashioned marina in East Moriches.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

When I was in Port Jefferson on Sunday I stopped at Kilwins, a shop that sells chocolate and ice cream. Their products are delicious and eye catching too. I wasn't buying expensive chocolates but I did have a small scoop of their ice cream. There is a branch of Kilwins in Patchogue and I have sketched inside. While I was talking to the young people who worked at this one I asked if I could take a few photos for sketches/paintings. The chocolate covered strawberries caught my eye and I took a photo of the plate of them.

I focused in on one of them for a little painting.

Snowy End

Yesterday we had a bit of snow followed by about an inch of slushy precipitation. There were just little bits of it left around this morning so I decided to see if I could find a local spot where I could sketch it. This was the best spot I could find in Sayville, down a dead end street by the Great South Bay where the snow had been plowed up against the guardrail. lol 

Bailey

The woman who works on me at physical therapy knows that I am an artist and loves to look at my artwork and sketches when I come in. One day she asked if I sketch pets. I was truthful and said that pets are not my specialty but I have done them with some success. She wanted me to do a small painting of her dog, Bailey. There were those famous words, "I have a good photo of her" and she sent it to me. Yes, it was a nice photo, but it was very hard to see any of the structure of Bailey's head because everything was black. lol I did my best with it and have been tweaking it for a while. I think I have to stop. I may do a quick, more sketchy version of Bailey and see if that makes me happier. Who knows...she may love this version.

Sandspit Marina...Return Visit

Back in December I went down to sketch at Sandpit Marina in Patchogue where they are doing some kind of improvements to the rock jetty. HERE is my sketch done back then. A friend asked me the other day if I had been down there recently. She heard that the other day they had machinery out on the jetty and that eventually they will be adding a small lighthouse at the end of the jetty. I decided to go investigate and see if there was anything going on there that was sketch worthy. The rocks they had been digging out of the water were now boulders that were sitting in the parking lot. Nothing was happening out on the jetty yet, but there were a lot of pilings all over the area. I focused on that today. I will have to keep checking to see what else they do.

Main Street Port Jeff

I'm still not feeling energetic but I wanted to get out and sketch a town. I headed up to Port Jeff which is north of me along the Long Island Sound. I like views like this where you are looking down a street. Some day I am going to find a spot to sit where I am uphill looking down toward the town and the water is above the tree line. I haven't lucked out to find a parking space like that. This was done from my mobile studio.

Short Beach

I've been fighting what I guess is a cold the last few days and haven't had much energy. Yesterday I actually stayed home all day, reading on the couch and napping. I guess that helped because today I'm feeling quite a bit better. You know me, I couldn't let another day pass without getting out to sketch. I took a ride up to Short Beach in Smithtown. I've sketched there many times and it always looks different. I tried to make this look textural. I was using a Bee Paper Aquabee Sketchbook which accepts watercolor but I was concerned that it wouldn't take as much punishment as regular watercolor paper. So I was surprised that it withstood quite a bit of scratching. I'm happy with the way this came out.