Happy Easter & Sketches from the Central Park Area

Happy Easter to those who are celebrating. 

Yesterday I sketched with the NYC Urban Sketchers.  Our destination was Salon 94 on 89th Street near Central Park. There was a bit of a mixup, and we were told we couldn't sketch in the gallery, although some of the sketchers weren't noticed and managed to sketch for a while. Since the weather seemed promising most of the sketchers headed up to 5th Ave and Central Park. Many of us sat outside of the park to sketch, some sketchers went into the park, and some sketchers went into the Metropolitan Museum. The view that the group I stayed with was 89th St and the Guggenheim Museum on 5th Avenue. I couldn't decide what I wanted to sketch, so I did some small sketches of what was in front of  me.

I started with a sketch of the Guggenheim on the left and then the streetlight, signs, and birds right in front of us. Then I sketched looking down 89th Street with the buildings, cars, and foliage that I could see.

My final sketch on the page was of some of the other sketchers sketching while sitting in front of the wall enclosing Central Park. I had a bit of lunch and then headed into Central Park. I didn't go far. The cherry blossoms had started to bloom so I sat in a spot where I was out of traffic but could see the blossoms. That is the painting I posted at the top of this page. 

At 3:00 we had our "show and tell." It was interesting to see what everyone had painted since so many of us had wandered to different locations. The Guggenheim Museum was a popular subject, but there were some other good locations and some sketches that had be done in Salon 94. People started to leave but a group of about 8 of us decided to go back into Central Park and do one more sketch. The spot we picked included a blooming cherry tree with the Guggenheim Museum behind it.