Sailing Class

  Several times a week there is a sailing class for kids in Bellport. All the kids show up and start getting their small sailboats ready to go out for a lesson. I was there early so that I sketch out the scene before they moved off. I also took a few photos to use as references. While they were out on the water and out of sight I worked on the sky and the surrounding objects in the area. This was done during the SBAA plein air event.

Main Street Bellport

 I am participating in a plein air paint out sponsored by the South Bay Art Organization. Artists can paint in Bellport, Brookhaven, or East Patchogue. Then each artist selects one of their paintings to be on display and for sale at Bellport Day which is this Saturday. Since most of the people who come to the festival are actually residents of Bellport, or people who are there for the summer I tried to do scenes that will connect with them like this one of Main Street. I got a lot of positive feedback from people walking around the town on Friday.

You can see a bit of how it began here.

Goodbye 2023...Hello 2024

 My apologies...I the draft of this post was never sent yesterday so here it is a little late.

2023 was a fun year! Here are a few special happenings for me in 2023.

I once again participated in some challenges hosted by different artists that I follow or that were new to me. 

Birgit Koopson had a 30 Day Gel Printing Challenge. I had a gel plate but hadn't used it much so I followed Birgit's prompts and demos...and even a few of her full-length videos. Here are a few of the pages I did. I hope to be doing more in 2014.

Mark Holmes and Liz Steel challenged artists all over the world to join their "One Week 100 People" Challenge. Of course I couldn't resist. I try to do this challenge every year.

Another challenge was the 30x30 Direct Watercolor Challenge...no pencil lines first!

Then there were the things I was able to return to like sketching at the Museum of Natural History. 

I hadn't been there since 2015!

I took part in some fun events locally.

For the South Bay Art Association"s Plein Air Paintout I painted along Main Street in Bellport among other locations. My painting won 1st prize at our ehibition at Bellport Day in July.

I took part in the Long Island Maritime Museum's "Art From the Wreckage" auction and sale. The paintings were done on shingles that had come off the boathouse in one of our storms. They had a similar sale a few years ago and raised quite a bit of money for the museum.

So far two of my pieces sold.

One of the best things I did this this year was I traveled out of the country with Jerry and returned to Venice. I sketched every day. It wasn't an easy trip to take with his handicap but we did it!

This year I challenged myself to work on my iPad with Procreate. Again I watched a lot of videos and have had some success. It takes a lot of time to make the tools work the way you want. I will continue working with Procreate in 2024.

I hope you year held some special memories. My thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement in 2023. It makes what I do extra special. I appreciate your visiting my blog and leaving your comments.

Wishing you a wonderful, joyful, happy and healthy 2024!