Outside the Sayville Bean

 A stop at the Sayville Bean was a good spot to find some people to sketch early in the morning during our heat wave. It was early enough for the heat to be tolerable.

Scavenger Hunt Sketches

 I had gone out early to get lobsters for 4th of July dinner (a tradition our family had for my mom's birthday which is the 4th of July). I hadn't had breakfast and I had left Jerry sleeping so on the way back home after picking up the lobsters I stopped at Mc Donald's to pick up Sausage and Egg Mc Muffins. One of the prompts for the current Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt was "yummy" so I thought this fit. 

yummy

shoes

fruit and a bowl

Lavender By the Bay

 Somehow this didn't get photographed and posted earlier. My plein air group, PALS was scheduled to sketch at Lavender By the Bay in Manorville. When I got there it had started to drizzle. On ly myself and only 2 other members actually came to paint due to the weather.It is a huge lavender field and I didn't want to get stuck out there if it really started to rain hard, which it ended up doing. There is a covered pavilion but you still would have to get there and back. Instead I pulled up near the fence, sat in my mobile studio, and painted the view.

This week the English lavender will be in bloom so the group is scheduled to return there on Tuesday.

From the Maritime Museum Grounds

The other evening the Patchogue Sketch Club met at the Maritime Museum in West Sayville. Rather than focus on the water like I usually do I did a direct watercolor of the view out the entryway to the grounds looking toward the house across the street. 

Near Home

 Before the craziness of the 4th of July took hold I sketched the street scene in Sayville. This was done as a direct watercolor with no pencil lines.

We had a number of really hot days going into this weekend, so I made sure I had a lot of time to relax in the pool at our complex or time to sit in the shade. This was done on my iPad with Procreate.

Kalers Pond Barn

 Right after I got home from Maine my plein air group went to Kalers Pond in Center Moriches to paint. There is a rustic brown barn there that was a good subject to paint.

Boothbay Harbor

On our last full day in Maine, the three of us took a ride to Boothbay Harbor. We walked around in and out of some of the shops. Neither of them planned on sketching so I left them shopping and went down where the harbor boats take people out on cruises. I sat on a bench and sketched the colorful ticket booth in front of me.

A man came over to see what I was doing and started telling me that his 12 year old loves to draw and is very good, but she has no confidence in what she creates and is very shy and also autistic. He asked if he could bring her over to see what I was doing. By the time I finished the painting they hadn’t come over so I packed up my stuff and went over to meet my sisters. The family happened to see me there and came over so I got to show her this painting. She was really sweet and told me she has been doing a lot of Procreate art lately, so I asked her if she had any of her work on her phone. She didn’t but I gave her my card and asked her to send me something that she did. We all had a nice chat about sketching and painting and I stressed how important it is to keep practicing. I hope she got a little encouragement and continues to make art. I love encounters with young budding artists.

Again I took some photos during my morning walk in Damariscotta.