Planting Fields Arboretum

A friend has been watching the trees here on Long Island and also at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx to see when the cherry trees would be at their peak. She checked the website for the NY Botanical Gardens (which are beautiful) and the admission price is now up to $39 per adult. We decided to skip that location and stay more local.

The forecast was for 80° on Wednesday so Susan contacted a few of the local artists that are all part of the NYC Urban Sketchers. We decided to head to the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay for the day. The trees were beautiful...full and amazing.

From the same area of the park I turned toward two more cherry trees with a bit of a building behind them. Here is subject #2.

One of our friends was in another area of the park and there were 6 women in traditional Korean outfits dancing near the cherry trees. She was lucky enough to be able to include them in her painting.

When we finished painting we sat and just enjoyed the rest of the day. It was a nice way to relax and catch up with each other before heading back to our respective homes.

Left to right: Myself, Susan, Suzala and Leslie under one of the beautiful trees.

Wobbly House

 Right now Sketchbook Revival is taking place on line. I've done it several times, and each day for a week there are three video lessons that can be done. I decided that I would watch the videos if they seemed like they would interest me or were different. Irene Ruby's workshop was "Wobbly Fantasy Houses" and was fun to do...a change from what I normally do, especially since it isn't from life. Maybe I'll get to watch a few more today or over the weekend. I'm really behind watching them...never mind actually doing the lesson. lol The lessons are only available for a limited time. 

Balloon Clown

 Last Sunday was Spring Fest in Sayville. It is a typical festival with booths with merchandise, food trucks, a petting pen, and assorted entertainment like face painting, music, and this balloon clown. She had a continuous line the entire time I was there. I stood fairly close to her and sketched in pencil. Then I moved behind her on the sidewalk and set up my stool so I could sit and add the watercolors and the background. When I was finished I stopped and showed it to her. She was amazed that I could sketch her and she hadn't even noticed. She loved it.

Spring at The Met Cloisters - Part 3

 I headed back upstairs to the first courtyard garden for my third sketch. There were so many sketchers from our group working there that a good part of the time was used for socializing rather than sketching. It is always fun to meet up with friends that I hadn't see in a while, like my friend Julie who hadn't joined the weekend group in over a year. She has been the caretaker for her mom and that weekend her sister was helping out instead of Julie. Another sketcher had moved back to Athens, Greece, but was in NYC to visit her son and daughter who live there. It was great to see her and hear how she had started the first official Urban Sketchers group in Greece. I would love to go there and join in with her group.

I sketched the courtyard again, but this time I didn't have a lot of time. To speed things up I sketched with ink as well as the colored pencils. These two guys were good models and sat there for quite a while.

Our show and tell was held in one of the interior galleries off the courtyard. Here is a photo of the group from the day.

The trip home wasn't as easy as getting there since there was no internet reception to get the GPS started for the return trip. It took a while for the reception to kick in and give me directions. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to make my way home the old fashioned way. lol

Spring at The Met Cloisters - Part 2

 Downstairs at The Met Cloisters there were two more enclosed gardens. One had no covered area and it was quite chilly and windy. The other garden was in the courtyard by the cafe. I found an unoccupied table in the cafe and sat there while I sketched the view out from the shaded portico of the cafe. It was semi open to the air so I kept my jacket on due to the chill from the wind. Several other sketchers were working in the cafe and some were working with wet media. The guards didn't bother anyone there...I guess since you could have food and drinks they didn't mind the wet media there. They did come over to several sketchers at the other courtyard garden upstairs and told they they could only use pencil. I liked the view looking through the arches into the garden. 

Spring at the Met Cloisters - Part 1

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at The Met Cloisters in the Bronx. The good thing about this venue is that I can easily drive there if I am going alone. The trip took about 1 1/2 hrs by car and it was easy to park. I've been there with the Urban Sketchers before, but not when the gardens were open. This was so great! Flowers and trees were in bloom and although there were a lot of people, I was able to find a good view for each sketch. Like most museums The Met Cloisters only allows dry media for sketching, so I brought along my new set of colored pencils. They worked well but didn't give me the richness of my watercolors. Not being use to pencils as a medium, I forgot to pack a pencil sharpener. Luckily there were friendly sketchers who helped me out. 

This was the main courtyard garden surrounded by Medieval arches and porticos. It was beautiful. I tucked myself into a corner in the sunshine and it was warm enough to take off my jacket while I was sketching. By the time I finished this sketch there must have been at least 30 people in the garden and people (mostly sketchers) sitting on the walls.

Bicycles at the Beach

 At the end of the Field 6 parking lot at Robert Moses Beach there is an area that always has bicycles locked up. I'm not sure who they belong to and quite often they are a very rusted collection of bikes. I was surprised to see that the ones locked there on my recent trip were in much better condition. I used artistic license and only sketched two of them, but there were actually about 7 of them. While I was sketching them a man came along and unlocked one and rode away. I don't know if you are allowed to bike ride across the bridge that gets to the beach so I'm not quite sure where he was headed. I know that with a permit you can drive into the Fire Island communities as well as the Fire Island Lighthouse. I wonder where he was going...