Farm Stand

On Monday I decided to take a ride out east. Along the north fork of Long Island there are many farm stands. This is one of my favorites....there is always something colorful to sketch. 

I think it is too early for their sunflowers to be in bloom...I wonder where these came from?

Beach Umbrellas

The colorful beach umbrellas always give a nice contrast to the water at the beach.

Mavis

Last week I joined the WetPaints Studio Group for their sketch night.

Mavis, the niece of one of the members, posed for us.

Fire Island Lighthouse

After doing the small sketch that I posted yesterday, I went back another day to do a painting of the Fire Island Lighthouse. This is the section of boardwalk that was rebuilt because it had been ruined. Luckily a lot of the vegetation in the center of the island has rebounded after the cleanup.

Beach Trip

I love that I am so close to the beach and can go so often. These sketches were done at Robert Moses State Park which is on Fire Island and is the home of the Fire Island Lighthouse. As you can see in the sketch there are few grasses in the dunes there. A lot of the grasses were completely destroyed when Hurricane Sandy hit. A large section of the boardwalk and dunes going to the lighthouse were ruined. They have put up some fencing to hopefully help the sand to reform dunes there. It just seems strange to see it from that perspective with out the protective beach grasses. I was sitting close to the water so a big part of the lighthouse was hidden by the sand dunes and the foliage that is near the lighthouse.

I try to also keep a regular sketchbook and pencil in my beach bag just to do sketches of people.

A baby with a pacifier was very tempting to sketch.

44th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Saturday was the 44th Worldwide Sketchcrawl. The NYC Urban Sketchers picked Hoboken, NJ as our sketching location. It is right across the river from Manhattan.

On my way to Hoboken this morning I managed to do a bit of sketching on the LIRR since the ride is a little over an hour. The high backed seats really make it hard to get good views of people...unlike the subway where everyone is facing you head on. Mostly I get side views of people.

Our day in Hoboken was great, and we had a pretty good turnout. Here are a few photos from over by Piers A & C of everyone working.

My first sketch was of the historic Hoboken Ferry Terminal.

And then I did the Vietnam Memorial by the splashing fountains.

At Pier C I sketched the view toward the island park. That is one of my fellow sketchers standing at the railing and sketching the view too. I rarely stand when I sketch...I bring along my own painting chair.

My mind must have been on food since I sketched a cafe next. LOL I guess others were feeling the same way because we headed to lunch soon after.

Before we headed off for lunch everyone shared their work from the morning. It was great seeing everyone's work and meeting the newcomers!

Then it was off to lunch. There was a bit of sketching done at the table. 

Even food and drink doesn't stop some of the sketchers.

I did sketches of a few people and the sketches sort of resemble them.

Luckily we moved on to sketching buildings which I am much more successful with. LOL

These were done down at the corner of First Street & Garden Street. There was a possible sketch in every direction from the corner I sat on. I only had time to do two of them.

Around 4:30 we went back to the terminal and shared our sketchbooks again.

We had an amazing array of great sketches. This is just a part of what was created today.

A few sketchers had already left for the day but we did a few group photos before leaving.

Richard was taking the photos so he is missing from them. You can see how they restored the interior of the waiting room in the terminal, so Richard included that too.

I think everyone had a great time...even the newcomers that joined us.

It was a sad day for us because Jimmy (in the center top row) was sketching with us for the last time.

He is returning home to Paris to live. I guess we will all be visiting him there!

Stormy Seas

I don't work from photos very often, but over at Paper, Paint, Pencils, & Pens we are doing buildings around the world. This was done from a photo I took in Georgetown, SC when I was down there in March for a workshop. We took one day after the workshop to go out and sketch...and take photos too. This is about 4 x 6.