Wildlife Center

 Yesterday I took a ride to visit my sister, Mickey in NJ. It was a fairly nice day so we headed over to the James A. McFaul Wildlife Center in Wycoff, NJ to sketch and to take a walk. It was nice to be able to enjoy an outdoor art day together.

Mickey took a photo of me sketching. It was nice to have a table to spread out on.

Waldwick Erie Interlocking Tower

I spent the day in New Jersey with my sister, Mickey, today. I think the last time we got together was at my nephew's wedding back in October...so we celebrated Christmas today and then went out sketching.
I had checked the internet for a historical building there that I've always wanted to see and sketch, but instead I found a spot right in her town that looked interesting. So we went to the Waldwick Erie Interlocking Tower instead which was built in 1886. The tower is like a traffic control tower which monitored the train movements on the tracks below and gave the operators a commanding view of the train yard. At its height, the yard operated 24 hours a day and handled 100 trains a day. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. We decided it was too windy and cool to sit outside so we sketched from my mobile studio.

Inktober 2018 - Day 26 & "Art Camp"

I was in NJ yesterday and today visiting one of my sisters. Due to our schedules we haven't been able to get together in a long time, so I'm glad we were able to work out two days to visit and create art. Today I sketched the view from her living room window for my Day 26 sketch for Inktober 2018.

#inktober, #inktober2018

Yesterday we went to Abma's Farm in Wycoff, NJ to sketch as part of our "art days" or "art camp." The owner of the farm gave us permission to sketch in the greenhouse that contained the greatest gourds and pumpkins! She kept coming in to see what we were doing and asked if she could take a photo of each of us and post it on their FB page. She posted it with the heading "Art Comes to Abma's Farm!" Here are the photos she took when we were working on our first sketches.

This is the view I was sketching...the "Baby Bumps." They were so ugly that they were beautiful!

I also sketched the goosenecks and Turkish Turbins...all on one page.

Art camp continued today. In addition to the Inktober sketch I did we worked on alcohol ink tiles. My sister hasn't done too many of them and is learning the technique. She wasn't really happy with this one when she finished it but I liked the abstract design a lot.

 

I am doing several arts & craft fairs for the holidays, so I worked on a few alcohol ink tiles that were winter scenes. Hopefully they will sell well.

Then we went off to buy some art supplies to finish up our day before I returned home.

Sketching Party

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met for our holiday party. It was held in the penthouse party room in the building of one of our members. The room was on the 8th floor with floor to ceiling windows and an unobstructed view of downtown Manhattan from Jersey City, NJ. Yeah!!! We had about 60 people show up...most of them sketchers or spouses, but a few guests too. Our chapter has a group that meets on weekends as well as a group that meets during the week, so it was nice to meet some of the people who don't join us on weekends. We also did an art swap where everyone brought a wrapped sketch. Of course everyone brought their sketch materials and either sketched the view or the other sketchers at the party. It is hard to keep sketchers from sketching. lol

This was the view we had. The party began at 3 so we did have enough time to do a daylight sketch.

I've always wanted to do a nocturne of the city...so when it got dark this was my chance. I used gouache for this small, fairly quick sketch.

One of my friends brought along his mom who he takes care of. She is in a wheelchair and a bit unaware of what is going on, but she was a good sport about posing for us. I think she enjoyed the attention. I did a quick sketch of Mary Jane before she and Andrew went home. It came out looking so much like her! I was really pleased with it.

I stopped sketching for a while so that I could socialize too. It is hard to sketch and talk to anyone except the people sketching next to you. lol We had good food, conversation, music and a bit of dancing. Here is a group photo that was taken at the end of the night. I think some of the sketchers were missing by then. Many of these people have become a good part of my sketching family.

You'll notice someone in the middle with a big sheet of sketching paper. Those pages were passed out to all of us. Everyone was asked to do one or two sketches either using a single page or the double page that is going to be made into an accordion book. I did a sketch later of some of the sketchers sitting at the tables, but forgot to take a photo of it before handing it in so you can't get to see that one. #nycurbansketchers #momentsketchers

I know this was a lot of work for the party committee, but they did an outstanding job! Everyone seemed to have a good time, even if some of them nearly froze getting there. The temperature yesterday was in the teens and very windy with lots of snow on the ground from our storm the other day. A group of us from Long Island carpooled so it wasn't too bad traveling.

Lunch Anyone?

While I was in Jersey City on Saturday I found this hot dog vendor at the entrance to the park. It wasn't too nice of a day, so business was fairly slow. Luckily before I sketched in the background some customers showed up. I resisted having one of the dogs...I brought along my salad for lunch.

Skyline Views from Jersey City

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers headed across the river to Jersey City to sketch the views back to Manhattan. It was a mostly overcast day, and the park along the river was fairly empty. I was attracted to this scene first with the pigeon sitting on the railing...of course he was gone in a few seconds but I sketched him quickly. The skyline isn't easy to do. I get lost in the buildings.

Presby Iris Garden

Yesterday my sister and I went to the Presby Iris Garden in Montclair, NY.

There were so many varieties of irises!!!

I did small sketches that are about 3 1/2 x 7.

I painted my sister, Mickey who was also painting.

I tried getting a few of the different varieties.

Here are a few photos from our day.

EDM  - May 20 - my wallet

Wave Hill

My friend and I went to Wave Hill in the Bronx last Saturday. It is a 28 acre public garden overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades across the river in New Jersey. Just inside the entrance you can see this great pergola. It is on a hill and if you look you can see the Palisades just below the back edge of the pergola.

I wanted to also sketch the view from down below looking up at the pergola. There was a doorway underneath but I'm not sure what it led to...storage maybe. While I was painting this a whole herd of people started heading down the hill in my direction. Of course they blocked my view of the bottom of the scene for a while. It turned out that a falconer was going to do a demonstration where he released a young falcon and it was going to fly off and then return to him. It took a bit longer than he expected because there was a bald eagle flying in the area and he wouldn't come close to the eagle.

My final sketch for the day was of part of one of the buildings. The cafe and several conference rooms are inside the building.

Wildlife Center View

Last Friday I went to visit my sister in New Jersey. We did some shopping for art supplies for an upcoming collage workshop we are taking and then we headed over to the Wildlife Center in Wycoff. I had hoped we could sit out and do a sketch but it was much too cold. Luckily they have an environmental center with big windows that overlooks the pond which was partly frozen and covered with a little snow. The geese were out searching for food.

Landscape ATCs

I've mentioned before that I'm participating in an ATC (2.5 x 3.5) landscape exchange on Wet Canvas. 

Here are a few more that have been received.

This is "Beach View III" which was sent to Margarite in Washington.

This one is "Beach View IV" done for Nancy in New Jersey.

Next is "Ireland I" for Sue in Queensland, Australia.

Here is "Marsh View I" for Val in South Australia.