Beach Road

I like sketching streets with all the wires and views to the distance. This was done from a park down by Sayville Beach by Foster Ave and River Road. Most of the houses here ended up being raised up after Hurricane Sandy.

The Rock

This was painted up at Sunken Meadow State Park in Smithton recently. It was the first time in a long time that I actually got out of the car and sat on my painting chair at an outdoor location. It has been too cold or windy even if it seemed mild enough. This day I was able to sit with no gloves or hat...wonderful. I ignored the bit of wind. Of course a day or two later we had a snowstorm. lol

This rock is surrounded by the hillside, the parking lot, and Sunken Meadow Creek which runs into the bay there. When Long Island had the horrible flooding from Hurricane Sandy it changed the way the land and the marsh areas were. This rock had been completely submerged for quite a while. I am glad it is back, although many of the birds that were always there no longer come to the rock. It is a pretty spot.

Frozen Bay

This happens to be the last sketch that I did for 2017. I had heard that the Great South Bay was frozen over, so on Sunday I headed over to Bellport to check it out. It was a slight exaggeration. Down in Bellport there were huge sections that were frozen but some areas of moving water. It may be due to the breech in the barrier island that has grown since Hurricane Sandy opened it up. It may eventually freeze which is fun to see because that's when the iceboats come out and race across the ice. Instead I settled for sketching the snow, beach grasses and sections of the frozen bay.

Fire Island Lighthouse

A friend told me on Wednesday morning that it was National Lighthouse Day, and her husband wanted to know if I was going to paint a lighthouse. I didn't know about National Lighthouse Day but I did have this urge to paint one when I got up in the morning. So even though the weather wasn't too nice I headed over to Robert Moses State Park, home of the Fire Island Lighthouse. 

Since Hurricane Sandy last year the beach in front of the lighthouse is undergoing restoration and I was glad to see they have been piling up large amounts of sand to form dunes for protection. A lot of the foliage is gone but it is still a lovely spot to paint. I sat along the sand road that goes from the parking lot to the lighthouse (there used to be a boardwalk that was lost in the storm) and spoke to many of the people who passed by on their way to visit it. It is a spot I'm sure I will return to many more times.

Fire Island Lighthouse

Last week I headed over to Robert Moses State Park for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. They replaced the roadway that had been washed away, but a great deal of the dunes are gone. Now instead of just seeing the top of the lighthouse you can see the entire thing from the beach, so I sat in my comfy  beach chair and painted.

Reflections on 2012 and Happy New Year

Reflections on 2012

 

As 2012 comes to an end I must say it has been an interesting year with some highs and lows for all of us. My thanks to family and friends for your support, love, and encouragement.

 

On a personal note my family is doing well. We celebrated 3 weddings this year in various places in and out of the country. I was lucky enough to attend all three and I happily welcome Flor, Emily, and Rachel to our family.

 

Several blogging friends came to the area this year. Ai Nukoolkit visited NYC from Thailand and I got to spend 2 days sketching with her in Manhattan. Lin Frye was here for a workshop, and after several years of being internet friends we got to meet. Hurricane Sandy make it necessary for her to stay on Long Island a bit longer than she wanted, so we were able to spend some extra time together.

 

I participated in several shows and have my work in the Fiedler Gallery in Greenport. I sold some paintings at shows and as commissions, so I am grateful for that.

 

The art groups that I belong to met this year on a regular basis. It is always fun to go out and sketch and paint on location with both the PALS Plein Air group and the Patchogue Sketch Club. I also met with the SBAA Portrait Group. My thanks to Jeanne Salucci, Gina Lento, and Don Stonebridge for coordinating things so well for the groups.

 

My thanks to my partner in crime, Susan Toplitz, who researched so many Long Island locations for us to paint together this year. It is always fun to have company! She and I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers where we met some wonderful artists. I met another blogging friend, Carol King, this year as we met with the NYC Urban Sketchers to do a Worldwide Sketchcrawl in Brooklyn.

 

Last but definitely not least, my thanks to my husband, Jerry, for his support and understanding of the love of art that I need to express. He has the same love for his music. Jerry puts up with a lot from me and I appreciate it.

 

There are many friends who are still not fully recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. I thank God that Jerry and I weren't affected, but my thoughts are with those who lost so much and are still struggling to get their lives back to normal.

 

I have MANY, MANY things to be thankful to God for this year, and if you are reading this you are among the things I am thankful for too. I appreciate your visits, comments, and support this past year. I wish all of you health, happiness, love, and creativity in the coming year.

 

 Happy New Year!!! Wishing you all the best in 2013!

 

 

 This painting was done for the Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas from a photo supplied by "pjartwc". My thanks to Jan for the reference.



The other day I headed down to the dock in West Sayville to sketch. This was an area that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy and parts of it were ruined. They seem to be working on replacing some of the pilings and boards. This is about 4 x 5.



Smith Point Beach

I finally took a ride down to the beach that I go to most often in the summer to see what it was like after the hurricane. As you can see in my sketch, a great deal of the sand is eroded under the concrete walkways. The previous storms had eroded a lot of sand even up to the wall. But now it is eroded past the wall and around the side, breaking up some of the concret path itself. In front of the food pavillion was a big staircase leading to the beach. Only a few pilings are still standing ...none of the staircases or railings. The beach is much shorter too. To the right of what you see here were dunes that were about 15-20 feet high. They are totally gone. The water had come over the dunes into the bbq area and wiped away everything.

The surfers yesterday were having a great time. I think the floor of the ocean in front of the beach has probably changed and is producing different waves. I don't know if that is good for them or not, but they were out there checking it out yesterday.

 

On another note I am pleased to announce that my work will be hanging in a few places next month.

First is our annual PALS Plein Air Show on Dec. 8th and 9th.

Here is an invite in case you are in the area.

My work will also be going into the Fiedler Gallery on Main Street in Greenport, NY. Rich Fiedler has his work in the gallery downstairs and rents wall space to artists upstairs in the building. Two friends of mine have been sharing a section of one of the walls with other artists they knew. The other artists are dropping out and I will be sharing the wall with Jeanne Salucci and Chris Taylor starting December 1. I will post some photos once we have the new arrangement hung at the gallery.

Wish me luck!

Curbside Pickup

All along the streets here on Long Island you see piles of tree branches and assorted things that were left behind or damaged by Hurricane Sandy...like this huge tree. I guess they will need some kind of crane to pick up the pieces of this tree. This is about 4 x 6.



The Tree

I went over to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale on Sunday to sketch. They have so many amazing trees and I was concerned that they might have lost a lot during the hurricane. There were some large trees that were destroyed but things could have been a lot worse.

 

So I picked one that looked healthy and strong to paint. This is 5 x 7.



Blue Point Avenue View

Yesterday I took a ride down to the end of Blue Point Avenue in Blue Point. There is a small park with a gazebo and fishing area that we've sat under when we go there to paint. The gazebo is still standing but if you look from there back to the main road most of the houses have lost docks, parts of the outside of their homes, and a great deal of the contents of the homes themselves. By one house the water was up to the back steps even now. The water levels seem to be much higher than they were before Hurricane Sandy arrived, maybe because so much of the land by the water was washed away. It is heartbreaking to see, but the residents of the area are busy cleaning everything out and repairing what they can.



Stumped

Before I sketched down by the dock in Bellport yesterday I joined my PALS plein air group at a little park in Brookhaven. What had once been a shady park with beautiful trees over the stream and bridge is now going to be a very sunny location since several of the big trees had to be cut down. That's what I decide to paint...one of the stumps from one of those big trees. All the cut trunk pieces and branches were piled over for pickup on the other side of the park.  I was really happy with the way this came out. I posted it on WetCanvas yesterday and someone contacted me and wants to buy it as something to remember the hurricane by. This is about 5 x 6.



The Dock in Sayville

Yesterday I headed over to the water in Sayville where I often paint. Much of the debris and sand have already been cleared away, and on the few streets I drove through the buildings were still standing. Who knows what they are like on the inside though. While I was there I sketched a dock from the parking lot of a spot appropriately named "Land's End."



LIPA Crew

This morning I decided I needed to sketch something that represents the situation here on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy. The LIPA management (Long Island Power Association) was very much unprepared for the devestation we received, but the crews have been working night and day to repair the lines that are still down in many areas. My thanks to the local crews as well as the crews who have left their homes in other parts of the country and Canada to help us out.



Finally Back

Hurricane Sandy sent me a bit off course for the last few days. Long Island was severely affected by the storm, but luckily my immediate area had no flooding or damage. We did lose power for a day and still don't have cable service. But we are so lucky compared to many here who lost their homes or suffered damage, or are still without power and heat in their home. My thoughts are with them all. The face of Long Island has changed dramatically in some spots.

 

Right before the storm arrived I did get to finally meet an internet friend for the first time. Lin Frye (Her work is under the links on the right, if you want to see her wonderful work.) was up visiting family and taking a watercolor class with Jean Haines on Long Island. She gave me a call and we went to a demo that her instructor was doing in Dix Hills. It was so much fun to meet Lin after many years of following each other on WetCanvas and our blogs. Unfortunately or fortunately Lin got stuck here as the storm roared through and spent several extra days at her sister's house waiting to get a flight back home to North Carolina. I'm still not sure if she left as scheduled today. The good thing was that I got to go over an visit her again while she was here, which I wouldn't have been able to do if she left as originally scheduled. It is always fun to meet people I've followed. Thanks Lin for sharing all your art information and allowing me to share some of your time!

 

"Longwood Estate" was painted before the storm when I went out with my plein air group. The storm has knocked down a great number of trees here on Long Island, so I am afraid that the next time I visit this spot it may be changed.

 

Have a wonderful day!