Broken

I am hosting the current Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt. One of the items I have on the list is broken. I made sure to have eggs for breakfast, rinsed the shells, and put them on the side to sketch later. They were on the counter most of the day. Of course when I went to get them for the sketch they were gone. Jerry had cleaned up. Luckily they were at the very top of the trash bag, and I was able to rescue them. This was done on Strathmore toned paper with Neocolors. 

Star Magnolia #1

I took a ride to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum the other day thinking the tulips would be in bloom, but I saw white blossoms across the path and headed that way instead. The Star Magnolia tree was starting to bloom. I had my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook with me and I always have a tube of white gouache so I was all set. The shading on the blossoms was done with watercolors as was the branches. All of this was done with direct watercolor. I added a bit of blue background to help make the flowers stand out.

 

Snow!!!

I'm usually a few days behind in my posting, but I'm going to go out of order and post today's work. We had snow that started last night. It looked beautiful last night because the snow was sticking to everything.

Supposedly we had about 2 inches of snow in this area, but this morning it was already compressed because it had started to drizzle lightly. 

By 7:30 this morning I had the blinds open and I was sitting by the living room window painting. I knew that if I waited until I went out later most of the snow would be off the trees and the bushes. So I squeezed myself between the side of my end table and the arm of the couch and painted the view out the living room window. This was done in my Strathmore Toned Tan Sketchbook with watercolors and some white gouache.

I did go out around 11:00 and sketched by the woods down the street. The snow on most of the trees was gone by that time, but there was still snow on the ground. It was drizzling but I had a view out the side window of my mobile studio.

Now that I'm done with my sketches of the storm I hope the rain finished washing the snow and slush away and that it is warm enough overnight that nothing freezes.

 

Kilchurn Castle

On Saturday the virtual group of the NYC Urban Sketchers sketched "Castles and Countryside of Great Britain." We were offered a website filled with references to use for our sketches. This is #NUS (not an urban sketch since it was done from a reference, not from life).

This is Kilchurn Castle in Scotland. I did this in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook using ink, watercolor, and white gouache.

Stony Brook Harbor

 Stony Brook Harbor has some nice views. It was a windy day so I sat in my "mobile studio" to do this gouache painting This was done in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook.

Autumn Colors

 It seems like just overnight the leaves started changing color here. Of course we don't get the abundance of reds and oranges like they do in New England but every once in a while the sun lights up some of our colors to make them super bright. This tree scene was between two houses. Just because I've been saying I have to do something different I used gouache on this painting. Basically gouache is rather opaque and is used from darks to lights like oils. I am still working as if I were using watercolors and keep adding darks when I should be adding lighter tones.lol I was pretty happy with the way this turned out. It was painted in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook.

Window in Venice

 Due to Hurricane Ida Lefty Lucy was unable to model. She is in New Orleans and they had no power after the storm...and I don't know when her power will be restored. That left me with a free evening and a desire to sketch. I looked through some photos on my computer and selected this one of a window in Venice. I used watercolors, ink, and white colored pencil in my Strathmore Toned Tan Sketchbook.

Pink Has It

 As you can see, I am partial to these pink magnolias. This was done at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum last week. I used Strathmore toned tan paper for this. Soon the trees will have lost their blossoms. There is so much spring green around right now.

Over the Fence

 The flowering trees have really captured my attention this year. This was sketched in Sayville down by the beach. This fence was facing the parking lot at the beach. I used white gouache and watercolors for this and it was done on Strathmore tan toned paper.

Snowstorm

 Here are two more snow scenes I did while I couldn't post. This first one is the view outside my window. This time I sketched from the spare room...which funny enough has no spare room. The view is only slightly different from the living room. This was done on in my Strathmore tan toned sketchbook.

 

When I finally left the house I drove towards Oakdale. There is a little spot with a bit of the river running through it. There used to be more water but in the last year or two some of it was blocked and there is only a narrow rivulet. I was able to park along the side of the road in my mobile studio looking in through the entrance. From all the footsteps in the snow I know some fishermen and bird watchers had been there to check things out. I was comfortable just being in my car and sketching. This was done in my Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook.

Sayville Houses in the Snow

While the snow was still looking good I did a few more sketches in Sayville. I always look for houses that have shrubs that still have snow on them. The top sketch was done on Strathmore tan toned paper and the other was done in my Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.

Villa Gabrisa, Positano

 Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers went on a virtual trip to Positano and the towns of the Amalfi Coast in Italy. On our first big trip to Italy after I retired Positano was one of our stops. It was a fun town perched on the side of a cliff. Our hotel, Villa Gabrisa was up near the top of the town. We had a huge room with a big balcony overlooking the water. I found my photos from that trip but the one of the view from the balcony wasn't with them. I checked the hotel website and found a photo that looked almost exactly like the view we had. Since it was a small hotel this was probably taken from the next to ours.

As you can see the entire town is on the hillside, which means a lot of walking up and down streets that are steep and snake back and forth. Luckily I was in much better shape to handle the trips up and down to the water.  This was done with watercolors and white gouache on Strathmore tan toned paper.

Bannerman's Castle - sketch 1

This Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers had an event led by one of our members, Maricel  Evasco, who created a wonderful blog about our destination of Bannerman's Castle to provide us with links and information. The ruins of the castle, a medieval-like fortress is located on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River 50 miles from NYC. It was built at the turn of the century by a rich industrialist. It is in a beautiful setting surrounded by flowers and other natural scenery that gives it a very romantic feel.

It took me a long while to narrow down the reference photos I found to select a photo to use. I love crumbling, old buildings so this was a treat for me. Here is the first sketch I did using watercolors, ink, a water-soluble graphite pencil, and a white colored pencil in my Strathmore Toned Tan Sketchbook.

Blueberries and Jam

I didn't get to paint anything outside today and didn't feel like hunting for inspiration. I am doing the Wet Canvas Scavenger Hunt (#641...Yes, it has been going on for that long although I didn't participate at the very beginning.) So I looked at the list and found "favorite flavor" and saw my jar of jam sitting on the counter. To spice it up a bit I added a handful of fresh blueberries too. This was done in my Strathmore Toned Tan Sketchbook.

Carousel in Lucca

The destination for #VirtualSketch yesterday was Lucca, Italy. We did visit Lucca for the day on one of our trips to Italy. I promised Jerry we could go to Puccini's house and museum so he was willing to make the drive from where we were in Tuscany. Unfortunately when we got there we found a big sign on the door saying, "Closed for renovations!" We were really disappointed! I do remember the carousel so when I saw it last night I knew that was my sketch. I did this in a Strathmore toned tan sketchbook and the white is a white colored pencil.

Newport "Cottages"

I continued taking part in the virtual sketching event that the NYC Urban Sketchers were doing yesterday. After my seascape along Cliff Walk I looked around Newport, Rhode Island to find one of the "cottages" to sketch. I liked this one a lot. It isn't as stuffy-looking as some of the big ones. I did this in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook. This is the William G. Weld House on Bellevue Avenue. Again these are not "urban sketches" because they were done virtually.

The afternoon assignment was to do an interior view of one of the cottages. I didn't get around to that until today. This is one of the rooms in Hunter House.