There is a memorial at Smith Point Park to TWA Flight 800 that exploded and crashed into the ocean near Smith Point Beach in 1996. It is a beautiful memorial with wonderful plants and flowers. I've sketched there many times and did so recently. These beautiful irises were clustered together near one of the walls. The dunes and the ocean are beyond this area.
Memorial Day and beach season are nearly upon us and the bridges to both beaches that I tend to go to are being repaired. I was able to sketch the bridge that connects Smith Point Beach to the mainland from the parking lot. I loved that I was able to see the big, yellow crane next to the bridge. They have been narrowing down the traffic to one lane open, so traffic is halted either going or coming there. Since this is the only car access to the beach as well as the campground there, it is really important that the bridge is repaired and stays open. I hope the finish the work soon.
I would love to sketch the work being done at the Robert Moses Bridge, but there is no place that I can see where I can legally park and see the work being done.
The dunes along Smith Point Beach are always a good subject, especially with the Ranger Station included. It has a great view and often they offer lessons to the public about things related to Fire Island and the seashore.
For the last day of summer I drove over to the beach at Smith Point. I love seeing the ocean and waves peeking through the dunes.
I visited Smith Point Beach the other day and brought along my iPad. I'm trying to use Procreate a little to get more familiar with it. When I don't use it for a while I forget what I've learned. lol
We've had some windy weather, but I've escaped to the beach on a few sunny days. This day at Smith Point Beach the waves were a bit rough and the water was up quite high. I stayed up by the pavillion and sat on a bench to enjoy the day.
Now that it isn't freezing cold or raining I've been down by a few of the beaches. This is Smith Point Park. A lot of the dunes were destroyed by the recent wild storms and flooding that we had. Hopefully they will do some work to add some sand for protection of the beach.
Last week we had quite a few really hot days...and of course the pool was closed. I went to the beach where there was a nice breeze and stayed in the shade of my own umbrella while I sketched a few that were on the beach. This was at Smith Point Beach.
I love looking at cloud formations. These were over the park ranger's station at Smith Point Beach.
Spring had already arrived and I hadn't made it down to the beach yet, so I headed over to Smith Point Beach to do a small painting/sketch. The dunes were calling. The new sketchbook for the sketchbook project I'm doing is an Arteza brand. The paper is pretty nice and I like the square format.
I guess you can tell how much I love the beach. There is always something to sketch or paint. This was done at Smith Point Beach.
When I was at Smith Point Beach sketching the other day a surfer happened to walk into my sketch.
Surf's up, everyone!
If you want to drive to Fire Island your choices are limited. One way is to take the bridge from Smith Point across the Great South Bay to Smith Point Beach. It is one lane in each direction and does open at certain times for large boats with masts to pass through. You can also drive to Robert Moses State Park on the western end of Fire Island, but to get to any of the beach communities you have to take a ferry since there are no cars allowed other than at the two beaches mentioned.
I am always drawn to the beach and love sketching the dunes. This was done looking toward the Park Ranger Station at Smith Point Beach.
Give me a sunny day and a few hours and I will usually try to head over to the ocean or the bay. The bay is mere minutes from me, but I really do prefer the ocean with its dunes and waves. One of the scavenger hunt items on crebativespark.art was "dune" so how could I resist doing this over at Smith Point Beach?
When I don't post my sketches in order of how they were done I tend to have a few that slip through the cracks. This was done a while back for a scavenger hunt item, but some how it never made it to the blog. Yes, it was a cold and windy day. These people were bundled up and I was safe and warm in my mobile studio in the parking area of Smith Point Beach.
I headed over to Smith Point Beach in Shirley and sketched the grasses and shrubs along the bayside looking toward the Smith Point Bridge. I am still playing with my twig and Chinese ink.
Luckily the weather on Saturday was beautiful and sunny, so I was able to head to the beach at Smith Point State Park. Although there are no lifeguards on duty any more there are quite a few people that continue to come to the beach like it is still summer, and some of them do go swimming. This group gathered under several umbrellas and seemed to have a great time together.
My hip surgery sort of kept me away from the ocean beaches all summer, If I went to the beach it was somewhere that I wouldn't have to worry about walking through sand to get where I was going, like the local bay beaches.The other day I decided to head over to the ocean at Smith Point Beach in Shirley. Due to the rough water and the high tide the water was nearly up to the dunes, so I stayed up by the pavilion which is nearly even with the top of the dunes. I sat in my chair and painted the view in a small Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal that is 3.5 x 5 inches.
Good weather made me sneak in a few hours at the beach again. I'm so lucky that Smith Point is close enough even if I don't have a lot of time to stay there.
