Shanghai You Garden

Last Saturday I met my friend, Suzala for a day of art. First we went to the Nassau County of Art for an exhibit on "The Guilded Age." There were paintings, clothing, furniture and assorted artwork from that era. It was a nice exhibit and suprisingly found out that the museum had some paintings by John Singer Sargeant and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Then we had to decide where to sketch on a cold afternoon. It was sunny but much too windy to sit outside. Suzala suggested going to 99 Ranch Market in Westbury, an Asian market I hadn't been to before. They have a food court so we headed there to sketch people, but when I saw all the food stalls I knew I wanted to sketch those instead of people sitting at tables. It was crowded but there was one row of tables that were along a wall and faced the front of the stalls. Suzala stood at one end and I stood at the other and waited until it looked like someone was getting up to leave. We lucked out and got a table right in front of the stall that had the hanging Peking ducks. We placed an order for our food and started sketching immediately. At times the stall had a BIG line that obscured everything, but eventually it got smaller. Each time it got smaller I sketched a little more of the scene. I sketched directly in ink because I knew it would take less time. When our food was ready and I saw the steamer basket I knew I had to sketch our soup dumplings before they disappeared. I did that, then ate and finished the dumpling sketch. Finally I was able to finish the sketch of Shanghai You Garden and add the color. It was a feast for the eyes and the stomach.