Icy Pond at Timber Point

 The pond at Timber Point, a golf course in Great River was partly frozen due to our very low temperatures for the last few days. This was painted in gouache.

Gouache Grasses and Snow

 I did another gouache painting...and lazy me I didn't change the gouache on my pallette. I worked with what I had down by the Bayport Dock. There are remnants of a concrete wall or fence there and I thought there was a nice contrast between the concrete and the soft grasses.

Snow Scene in Gouache

I haven't done a painting in gouache for a long time. When you don't use gouache for a while it dries up and gets really crumbly. I should have just thrown out what I had and started over but I was ready to go out when I decided what I was doing. I sprayed the paints a lot before I left the house so they would soften a bit, but I still had problems with tiny crumbled bits in the paint. Regardless I liked the way this came out. There was a pile of cut tree trunks and the snow on them made a nice design. Painted in Brookhaven. 

Usk Sketchmas Day 22 - Glowing Street Lights

 Glowing street lights can easily be found at this time of year for the day 22 prompt. I grabbed my Stillman & Birn Nova Trio to get a black page to work on. When it got dark I rushed into town to sketch the lights there but in my rush I didn't check my battery operated light that I was planning to use. Of course the batteries were dead! I had to use my interior lights and sketch while my car was still running which I don't really like to do. I used gouache, watercolors, and a white gel pen to sketch the scene. I should have brought along a white colored pencil but forgot so I added a little bit of it when I got home. I don't do nocturnal sketching very often. 

Inktober 2022 - Day 31 - Lakeview Cemetery

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Today is the final day of Inktober 2022. I went to do my Inktober sketch at the Lakeview Cemetery in Patchogue. It is an old, historic cemetery where I've sketched a few times. I walked over to the area that looked like it had some old headstones. I know a clean-up campaign has been going on there so some of the older headstones seem a lot cleaner than I remember them to be. I started out just sketching in my grey toned Strathmore sketchbook using Noodler's Lexington Grey ink with my Lamy pen. I used some white colored pencil to lighten the headstones in some areas. The scene still needed more to differentiate the items in the scene, so I pulled out my gouache since I know that should cover better than watercolors. That helped and I am pretty happy with the result.

Gouache Workshop

 As I mentioned yesterday I took a gouache workshop this past weekend that was offered by the NYC Urban Sketchers. It was given by Maru Godes from Madrid and held near the model boat pond in Central Park. Originally a workshop was offered in the morning only but there were enough people interested so that she agreed to host an afternoon workshop too. That's the workshop I took. 

Maru paints in very bright, sometimes unusual colors.  She began the workshop having us use the gouache with assorted amounts of water to see how it covers the paper each way. Then we used assorted materials like colored pencils, graphite, and neocolors to texturize the dry gouache. Our next assignment was to use non-local colors and a dry material in a similar color combined together. Here I used gouache and colored pencil.

For the next sketch I used non-local color, some colored pencil, and neocolors. You can see that I was able to add the texture in a similar shade of colored pencil or neocolor. Lighter colors show well on top of darker gouache.

Our last piece was a larger painting combining gouache, the texture techniques, and the additional materials we had with us. In front of us was the model boat pond and a man making giant bubbles. At first I felt my painting was too similar to just watercolor, so I worked on it more. Maru kept telling us to "use less water."

Here it is when I stopped at first...very watercolor-like.

Then I used the gouache darker and thicker in areas. You can see some of the texture from the colored pencil and the neocolors I added. I stayed true to the local color.

 

One of the problems I had with the workshop was not anticipating that it would be very hard to sit on my painting chair and be able to juggle all the materials I needed. I should have sat so that I could reach the materials on the ground or brought a small table. It didn't work so well in my lap. I kept dropping things and couldn't reach a lot of what I wanted to use.

Maru is a really good teacher and I definitely enjoyed the class. 

Yellow Tulips

On Easter my niece gave us some lovely yellow peony tulips. The petals actually look like they belong to a peony. They are a little droopy, but I like that and they made a nice composition. This was done on Strathmore tan toned paper with 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.

Under the Sea - Part 1

 Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers's Virtual theme was "Endless Wonders Under the Sea." We were provided with a wonderful web page designed by one of the members with links to all kinds of videos and photos of things under the sea. I decided to use a page from a sketchbook I had received from two good friends. It is a Stillman & Birn Nova Trio and contains toned papers in three colors: tan, black, and gray. I knew the black world be a fun background for some of the sea creatures I saw in the photos, like this blanket octopus. I used gouache instead of watercolors since it is opaque enough to cover the black. I really like the way this came out.

Fresh Snow

Luckily the snowstorm wasn't as bad as predicted right here. Our temperatures were a little warmer down on the south shore of Long Island, and the snow changed to rain and sleet for a while through the night before changing back to snow. We got a few inches but it was wet and messy. I didn't need to go out at all so I stayed home and sketched the view out the living room window. This was done with watercolors and white gouache in my toned tan Strathmore sketchbook. 

Inktober 2018 - Day 8

Today the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest Regatta took place. Down along the river behind the shopping area is the town dock and that is where all the pumpkin races are held. I don't know who hollows out the pumpkins...or how, but somehow they are turned into pumpkin boats that do actually float. Some are very tippy but that adds to the fun and the challenge of the race. There are solo paddle races, two-person relay paddle races, and motored pumpkin races. People get to the dock really early so they can get a good spot to view the race. My concern is always to find a new spot to sketch the event from. 

This year I was able to get pretty close to the dock so I started sketching as the contestants started arriving. There was a guy dressed as a Viking and one dressed as a Gnome who were there long before their races were starting...in other words perfect models who would be there for a while.

I used the original ink sketch for my Day 8 Inktober  sketch.

Here are a few photos from some of the races. There were several boats that capsized and had to be brought back to the dock to be bailed out for the next race. 

Once I took a photo of the sketch above I decided it needed some color, so I finished it with my watercolors.

Yesterday after I finished the Inktober sketch I posted, I headed over to the gift shop that is near the lighthouse. I sat near the edge of the cliff where it overlooks some of the rocks. In my younger days I would have climbed down on the rocks either by the gift shop or by the lighthouse itself, but I know nowadays I would have some difficulty getting down to the rocks and back up so I did it the easy way. Instead of using my watercolors I did what is probably about a 5 x 7 gouache painting.

Snowy Woods

Yes, we had another small snowstorm last week. Not a huge amount but a few inches that looked pretty on the ground between the trees. This was done at a local park using gouache which seems to be my "go to" for snow scenes lately.  Today we are expecting more snow...predictions say between 8-12 inches later today. That's a bit more than we need. lol I will give you an update tomorrow.

I had paintings at an exhibit about 2 1/2 hrs from me that were supposed to be picked up today. Luckily because of the forecast they allowed us to come up and pick them up a day early if we were free. I was picking up my work and the work of 5 other people, so my husband came up to Middletown with my yesterday to help carry the 10 paintings from the gallery to the car. Considering we hit rush hour traffic for part of the ride home, we were only in the car for 5 1/2 hours. It could have been much worse. 

Avalon Preserve in the Snow

I took a ride up to Avalon Preserve in Stony Brook. In the summer this area is fields of yellow flowers that are as tall as I am. At this time of year you can see the brown foliage and the snow from the recent snowstorm. This is in my toned gray Strathmore sketchbook and done in gouache.

Snowy View...Storm #1

We have had a few snowstorms, or nor'easters as they keep calling them. The first one brought us here on the south shore about 6 inches of snow and a lot of flooding because the storm arrival coincided with extremely high tides. The snow was heavy and wet and caused a lot of power outages because of the weight of the snow pulling down tree limbs and electric wires. My neighborhood was very lucky and didn't have any serious problems. 

This was painted from my car in the parking lot of a local park in Sayville. I used gouache and my gray toned Strathmore sketchbook.

Seamus

Seamus is often our model when my portrait group gets together. He is retired and is usually available...and he's a good model too. This was done with gouache.

Snowy Woods

Here is another gouache snow painting done before the 30 Day challenge started. Who knew that we would have another big storm and that I would get the opportunity to paint the snow again so soon.

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - Starbucks & Snow Painting

It snowed most of yesterday afternoon and then lightly in the evening. I think we had about 3 or 4 inches of very wet snow. We really lucked out because the ti-state area to the north and the west of us really got hit hard not just with the snow but the power outages that the snow caused. Here there are piles of snow from the plowing, but the roads and walkways are all clear. It helped that it was warm enough for a lot of the snow to melt. That helped clear the trees so there would be fewer downed branches and wires. That's what causes the most problems.

Today I went out ready to sketch and paint. I took along my Strathmore toned grey sketchbook and my gouache and did a painting down by the park. I was sitting in my car.

Then I drove over to the local Starbucks in Patchogue. I got a good table by the window facing the counter. I was there for a little over an hour sketching the customers I could see.  Here is the final page of sketches...and I reached 100!!!

30 Day Challenge - Day 29 - Indian Island

Well February sort of messed up the numbering for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge since the month is over. My gouache challenge will continue today and tomorrow to meet my quota of 30 paintings. This was done at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead. The park has campsites and views along a beach along the Peconic River. I sat in my car facing the river to paint this.

Check out the other paintings being done during the challenge. They are here and are worth a look.

30 Day Challenge - Day 28 - Dunes

I can't resist painting near the beach. It was a nice day to be by the water, but still too cold to sit outside my car and paint. My Day 28 gouache painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge was done along Dune Road in Hampton Bays. 

You still have time to check out some of the great work that has been painted for the 30 Day Challenge. Take a look here.