Yesterday I didn't feel like taking the train(s) to meet the NYC sketchers in Brooklyn. It just sounded like it involved too much energy. Instead I decided to head out to the North Fork of Long Island, a place I love to sketch. Usually when I go out there I gravitate to the same kind of spots all the time...the farmer's markets. So I came up with a sketching plan that was semi-successful.
Before I left home I made a concertina (accordion style) sketchbook from a sheet of paper from a Winsor Newton watercolor pad. I cut it into strips that were 6 inches high and marked off and folded pages that were 6 inches long. Then I glued 2 strips together giving me a length that was 8 pages long.
My plan was to start right at the corner where the "North Fork" begins which is where Rt 105 and Rt 25 intersect outside of Riverhead. Cruising along Rt 25 my plan was to drive about 1 mile and pull over to sketch whatever the view was. My first stop was at 1.2 miles on my odometer where I had a view of the Woodside Orchard store in Jamesport. It sells pies and cider and things like that. I parked across the street and sketched that view.
#momentsketchers
When I finished that sketch I drove another 1.2 miles and found myself right near Jamesport Vineyard. I drove into the parking lot, sat my mobile studio near one of the buses there for a tour, and sketched the vines and building. All the grapes have been harvested and the leaves on the vines are turning autumn colors.
Next driving through Jamesport I came across this field of cabbages growing with such great green colors that I had to stop the car. I had driven a little over a mile to this spot. I must admit I had painted from that location before but I don't know if there had been cabbages growing or something else at the time.
Now this was where the "drive a mile" fell apart. I had to find a restroom and I was starving! So mileage went out the window and I drove to find lunch. That took a while and I didn't want to go any farther east, so I turned around and headed west stopping at the first place that called to me. That was the Cutchogue Diner.
By this time it was already 4:30 and I decided to buy a few veggies at the farmers' market and head home. I do plan on going back out there and finishing the pages in the sketchbook I made. Hopefully I will get to do the rest soon.
