Pool Day

Things have been a bit busy here for me. I have been trying to pack for a trip. I am leaving for the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Porto, Portugal tomorrow. I am going a few days early and meeting up with the rest of my tribe who are all arriving at different times and on different days. There are sketchers coming from all over the world and there will be somewhere between 600 and 800 sketchers there. I will try my best to post while I am away. Hopefully I will remember how I did it when I was in Australia. I will be in Porto for 10 days and then traveling up to Riga, Latvia to meet family and attend my nephew's wedding there.

After packing last night and most of this morning I needed a break so I headed over to the pool in my development. I did a small sketch of some of the people in the pool.

Yesterday I went for a pedicure and sketched the people across from while I waited.

At the Beach

It was another beach day and I sat with my back to the water so I could paint these people with the umbrella up by the dunes at Smith Point Beach.

Sayville Firehouse

I have been wanting to sketch a firetruck for a while, but every time I pass by the local firehouses the doors to the bays are closed and you can't see the trucks. When I passed the Sayville firehouse the other day two of the firetrucks were outside because they were repaving in front of the bays, so the trucks were parked in the parking lot. I was painting this from the parking lot of the supermarket across the street so I didn't have a very close view and it was hard to tell what some things were. I figured it was as close as I was going to get for now.

Flo's in Blue Point

Tonight the Patchogue Sketch Club had our beginning of the summer sketch night at Flo's Luncheonette in Blue Point. Flo's has become so popular they have a second permanent location in Patchogue. This one in Blue Point is seasonal and I'm sure we will return for our end of the season sketch of it. This year they spiffed things up and got new navy blue umbrellas instead of the yellow ones. From an artistic standpoint I liked the yellow ones better. It livened up the scene more.

Alcohol Ink Tiles

Believe it or not, I didn't get any sketching done today. We spent yesterday and today visiting good friends out in East Hampton. We were too busy talking and having a good time for me to even attempt to pull out my sketchbook. Before we left on Monday to meet them I did complete a few new alcohol ink tiles so I could have them dry by the time we got back. Here are the newest ones.

Mermaid with Starfish

Blue Hills

Wave Cresting

Red Sky Beyond the Dunes

Roosevelt Island - Part 2

At the northern tip of Roosevelt Island is the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse. It was built by the convicts from the penitentiary and was made of local stone. It was designed by the same person who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, James Renwick, Jr. and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

We had lunch along Main Street and sat near a church. When I finished eating I sketch the view from our spot to the water.

Finally we sat on the eastern side of the island and sketch the Ravenswood Generating Station across the river in Queens. Due to the chimney I needed to do this across a double page spread.

Roosevelt Island - Part I

Today the NYC Urban Sketchers joined Richard Alomar and a group of Landscape Architects sketching Roosevelt Island. We met near the subway and then Richard told us a bit about the history of Roosevelt Island. Like most parts of NYC it originally belonged to the Native Americans, then the British took control, later selling it to the Dutch. The island had a smallpox hospital, a penitentiary, and an insane asylum at times through its history. For a long time it wasn't a place you would want to visit, but over the years many of the buildings were abandoned. The island, like all NYC real estate was eventually renovated. Roosevelt Island is now home to lovely apartments. It is still rather isolated and connected to Manhattan by subway or tram. It is also connected to the borough of Queens by a bridge.

We started walking and went to an area that had a great view of the river and the Roosevelt Island Bridge. We were told to walk with one sketchbook and one drawing tool. We were given about 25 minutes and were supposed to do 3 sketches...one toward the bridge, one looking up north along the river and one directly ahead. I don't sketch quick enough to do 3 sketches so I used my Lamy pen to sketch the view of the bridge. There was no time to add color.

Our next stop was about midway along the western side of Roosevelt Island looking across the river to Manhattan. Rather than just doing the view of the city I included some of the sketchers sitting on the shaded bench in front of me. This was done directly in watercolor.

More to come...

Beach Dunes

Our heat wave is finally over and we had a cool, breezy day today. It felt so nice. I did go to the beach for a while and sat on a picnic table to get this view of a bit of the ocean through the dunes. This was done at Smith Point Beach.

Just a question for those of you who have seen the tiles I posted. I usually sign them on the back of the tile but I am wondering if I should sign them on the front. A friend who has done some signs them on the front. What do you think?

Grrrrr!!!!!!!!!! Live and Learn!

I hate when I spent a lot of time working on something and it gets ruined. I painted several tiles recently with alcohol inks. Due to the high humidity during our heat wave it took extra long for the ink to dry. I let them dry as long as I usually do but when I turned them over to apply tape to the back of each tile some of the ink stuck to my table. So I put those tiles off to the side to redo the affected areas. I mixed the Envirotex to coat the ones that weren't affected and poured it. They have been "drying" for several days. I just left them alone but today I looked at them and noticed the black marker seems to have seeped into the coating from the sides of the tiles. It didn't happen everywhere on the tile, but shows slightly. Grrrr!!!! I have another batch waiting for me to pour the coating and I will have to make sure they are set to dry somewhere where the AC is on while they are drying.

Here are the sad results. I had twin seahorses and a starfish. I also did a turtle but that one the marker seeped into a lot of it!

This one was the best of them but I can notice it slightly along the edges.

This one it shows on the top left and right side.

This one it seeped in a lot along the bottom.

I just wanted you to see these so that you know some projects just don't work out the way you plan. Things happen!!!

I also tried something I haven't done in a long time which is carving a stamp. One of my art groups has a week-long paintout called "Paint the Great South Bay" or PGSB2018. I've taken part several times. The canvases or papers the artists use are stamped each year with a specially designed stamp to prove that the artwork was completed during that week. This year they are having a contest for a design to be used. I carved several but each one wasn't quite what I wanted. This was the best of the ones I did so it is what I submitted. It needed to be a 2 inch square.

Beach Day

It has been so hot lately that I haven't been to the beach in quite a while. Usually I am there several times a week during the summer. I was missing it! Today the forecast was for slightly less heat (but it didn't feel much like it), so I headed to Robert Moses Beach early. There was a bit of a breeze but a lot of sun, so I put up my umbrella and relaxed. The couple right near me made a perfect subject to sketch. 

Artists on the Lane

Today the South Bay Art Association held our annual show, Artists on the Lane in Bellport. It is a nice show and there were about 60 vendors. I helped with organizing and manning our table. Since I was there all day I did have time to do a sketch of the activity.

Sayville View

We had another hot day today so I headed out early before it was too bad. My plein air was supposed to meet at a lavender field out east and it is one of my favorite places to paint. However the thought of being out there in the field with no shade convinced me to stay local. I headed into Sayville and found a view to sketch. The purple and blue hydrangeas were calling me. I still needed to have the AC on in the car to sketch. The rest of my day was spent at the pool. 

Sketching Again - Starbucks

Here in NY we are having a heat wave. It has been in the low to mid 90s for the past few days...not conducive to sitting outside and sketching. I had a meeting this morning and was planning to go to the pool and sit in the shade to keep cool in the afternoon, but I wanted to sketch something. There is a Starbucks nearby in Patchogue near where my meeting took place where it is possible to back into a space and sit in your car with a view of the store. There is no parking in front of it so you can get a good view. I kept the car running and the AC on while I sketched and painted this because it was just too hot. It was nice to be able to use my Lamy pen again.

Van Cortland Park & "It Takes A Village" Exhibit

After 30 days of direct watercolor I took a break today and didn't even take out my watercolors. I did work on some alcohol ink tiles this morning and then went to the pool for a few hours.

I still have a few sketches that I never posted from before my trip to Australia. Back in April the NYC Urban Sketchers met in the Bronx at Van Cortland Park. I started with a sketch of part of the Van Cortland House Museum.

My next sketch was done down by the wetlands by the lake. A lady and her little boy posed with some ducks for us.

At lunch we shared our sketches and of course did some sketching of each other.

This afternoon was the Patchogue Sketch Club's reception for our exhibit called "It Takes A Village." All the sketches are of the village of Patchogue and are hanging in Roast Coffee & Tea Company in the heart of the village. We have sketched there many times so it was nice to be invited to exhibit our work. Here are a few photos from the reception.

Rosanne O'Reilly

Rosi Berry

Me

LuAnn Thompson

Jenn, Rosanne, Gina, Me, Rosi, LuAnn

Jennifer Mesticky

Gina Lento who organizes our group outings.