Uncle Giuseppi's

 Around Thanksgiving we had a new market open in Holbrook. Uncle Giuseppi's Market is an upscale Italian shopping experience. They have pretty much anything Italian I can think of. There is a fresh seafood counter, a butcher, fresh pasta and sauce, a huge deli, a gelato stand, coffee & expresso, a pizza stand, fresh soups, etc. The last time I had been there I decided it might make a good location for an indoor sketch day. There is a seating area at the front of the store with tables and a microwave if you need one. I headed there, grabbed a decaf coffee, and sat at a table looking at the checkout aisles. Of course there was something to separate the checkout from the seating area, but I ignored the plants and the lovely Italian ceramic bowls and plates for sale on the shelves. It turned out to be a good spot for sketching and I was able to catch some shoppers, the cashier in front of me, and the backdrop of areas of the store. I showed the sketch to the cashier and she was thrilled that I sketched her. She called over another woman who had been sneaking looks at the sketch while I was doing it. They had me show it to the store manager who was impressed. 

Snow and Tree Sketch

The trees down by Sayville Beach are a bit crooked due to years of the weather events down there as well as the normal wind. I like how they are misshapened. 

Sketching at Sotheby's

The NYC Urban Sketchers recently met at Sotheby's on Madison Ave and 75th Street. This was the weekend group's first visit to their new location which was the old Whitney Museum. When we arrived we found out that only the second floor was open for sketching. Installations were being done on the third and fourth floors. The area that was open wasn't very large, but it had some interesting art. Luckily it was a fairly warm day (50°) so some of the sketchers headed outside to sketch the neighborhood...otherwise it would have been wall-to-wall sketchers.

I began with a sketch of my friend, Anna who was sketching the blue bust of Venus. As I finished sketching Anna more sketchers arrived, so my sketch expanded to include them too. On a pedestal near me on the right was a sculpture of ropes made of wool by Olga de Amaral called "Eslabon en Torsion." 

More and more sketchers came along. At the end of the day at show-and-tell there were 43 sketchers. Like I said, it would have been very crowded there if we were all inside. I moved my stool and was facing Marc Chagall's "Femme Centaure et Ane Vert Sur Fond Rouge." Of course there were a number of sketchers between the painting and my seat, so I included them.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Islip Beach & Frozen Bay

 I have a hard time resisting heading down to the beach. I ventured over to Islip Town Beach. There were a few other people around and I think they had been feeding the birds and that's the reason they were hanging around. There were lots of snow piles and part of the Great South Bay is still frozen there.

The docks still have ice around parts of them at the bay marinas and parks. I like the look of the water and the frozen areas.

Snowy Oakdale

 My challenge was to find different scenes that still have snow. This was down near a restaurant in Oakdale.

Snowy Scene Outside

I've sketched this view many times from my living room. It doesn't change much from snowstorm to snowstorm, but it is the only view I have on this side of the building. I used my Strathmore Tan Toned Sketchbook for this. In fact it is the last sketch in that notebook. We had about another inch of snow on top of what we already had, but the snow has started melting because it was a lot warmer..even though we were still having light snow. The snow on the railing was melting and slid off before I finished the painting.

Assorted Indoor Sketches

 I did a few sketches for Creative Spark recently.

A moka pot and almond biscotti.

A kitchen view.

Fruit, an egg, and a jar with water-soluble ink.