Canalside

This was sketched along on of the canals in Blue Point. I've sketched the boat barn before and it seems to have become even more rickety.  That roof is really starting to sag.

Portrait Night

The Patchogue Sketch Club met tonight to do portrait sketches. We did similar to what the NYC Urban Sketchers did, taking turns posing for 10 minutes. By the time we started and then discussed a few things we only had time for 4 portraits. Since I posed I only finished three. Here are the ones I did.

Mark

Regina

Tina

Clown Amaryllis

Today after the funeral and luncheon with the family I drove my sister back to New Jersey. I had a few hours to relax there while the rush hour traffic lessened and I would be able to drive home. My sister had two amaryllis plants that she had planted and was watching and waiting as they grew. One is a clown amaryllis which is white with red sort of stripes. I'm not sure what the other amaryllis will be. Since I didn't have the opportunity to do any other sketching today the amaryllis seemed like a good subject for today.

Flowers

My sister, Mickey came to stay over on Sunday so we could go to our aunt's wake and funeral together. It was not the best reason to get together but we're trying to make the most of it since we don't get together all that much any more. After catching up a bit we decided to do some painting. I still had my roses from Valentine's Day roses which are now dried roses. We thought they were interesting that way. They are yellow roses with these interesting deep rose edges to the petals.

Trees and More Trees

While out east in Wading River the other day I came across this interesting bare tree with a background of these wild looking trees with red branches sticking out. I think the background trees are peach trees. I faintly remember seeing signs at one time that the field was part of the Davis Peach Farm. 

Along the Tracks

I'm always looking for a different view to sketch and it seems like there aren't too many spots locally that I haven't sketched yet...but I found one today along Overton Street. This is up behind the Long Island Railroad tracks in Sayville. I'm going to have to explore on the other side to find out what that tall, narrow building is. Maybe there is a sketch waiting on the other side. lol

Top Hat Barber Shop

I always liked this barber shop on Main Street in Sayville, but it isn't in a great location to sketch it unless you can get a parking space right near it. If you sit across the street there are too many cars in the way, and even during mild weather if you sit on the street in front of the shop you are too close to get a good view (besides blocking the narrow sidewalk). I lucked out today since I was in Sayville in the morning and pretty much the entire block had no cars parked yet. Yay!!! When I first pulled into the space there was a man sitting on the bench with his dog. Of course they took off before I could sketch them. But along came this man with his dogs and I sketched them quickly. In fact there were three dogs but I couldn't sketch that fast. lol

In the afternoon Jerry had an appointment to renew his driver's license so I went along to sketch some people at the DMV. I don't know how but we were out of there fairly quickly so I didn't get a lot of sketches done.

View Up Middle Road

Yesterday our forecast was for snow in the afternoon so I went out fairly early to sketch something before the "storm" came. I sat in a parking lot in Sayville along Middle Road to paint this view heading from Sayville to Bayport. Of course it started snowing lightly while I was painting so the wipers had to keep being turned on to clear the windshield. Right here I don't think we got more than an inch of snow...just enough to make things wet and sloppy. This morning almost all of it was gone except for areas that were really in shade.

Seatuck

Yesterday I took a ride to the Seatuck Environmental Center in Islip. Although the building wasn't open to the public at this time of year, I had a perfect parking spot to sit and sketch the greenhouse. From the sign on the other side of it I found out it was an Eagle Scout project done in 2012.

Ocean View

I usually don't go too long without a trip down to the ocean since that is my favorite place. This was sketched from my mobile studio at Smith Point Beach.

Cloudy Sky Sketches

We started the day with misty drizzle and some snowflakes. By the afternoon it had improved a bit and the sky was rapidly changing over the bay. There were some great cloud formations so I did two small sky sketches. These are about 3 1/2 x 5 each.

Country Store

The other day I took a ridge out east to Jamesport. I've wanted to sketch this building for a while, but there isn't a good place to park the car and sketch it. Usually there are cars or trucks blocking the view. I decided to go with it anyway.

Armor at the Met

Today the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to sketch in the Arms & Armor section. This is such a fun place to sketch with so many sketching possibilities. I started with one of the samurai warriors. The museum's policy about materials isn't really enforced in all areas and I have always been able to use any kind of medium in this section...probably because almost everything is behind glass. I used my Lamy pen, a Zebra Fine Line Brush Pen and a few assorted watercolor pencils.

After lunch I headed back to sketch another suit of armor. This one had a lot of detail to it. I liked the hearts by the elbows and knees. I also did a separate helmet since I had a little time left before our "show and tell."

Upturned Boats

With all the rain and snow we've had this winter I guess there is a good reason for these boats to be turned over. This is a fun, old fashioned marina in East Moriches.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

When I was in Port Jefferson on Sunday I stopped at Kilwins, a shop that sells chocolate and ice cream. Their products are delicious and eye catching too. I wasn't buying expensive chocolates but I did have a small scoop of their ice cream. There is a branch of Kilwins in Patchogue and I have sketched inside. While I was talking to the young people who worked at this one I asked if I could take a few photos for sketches/paintings. The chocolate covered strawberries caught my eye and I took a photo of the plate of them.

I focused in on one of them for a little painting.

Snowy End

Yesterday we had a bit of snow followed by about an inch of slushy precipitation. There were just little bits of it left around this morning so I decided to see if I could find a local spot where I could sketch it. This was the best spot I could find in Sayville, down a dead end street by the Great South Bay where the snow had been plowed up against the guardrail. lol 

Bailey

The woman who works on me at physical therapy knows that I am an artist and loves to look at my artwork and sketches when I come in. One day she asked if I sketch pets. I was truthful and said that pets are not my specialty but I have done them with some success. She wanted me to do a small painting of her dog, Bailey. There were those famous words, "I have a good photo of her" and she sent it to me. Yes, it was a nice photo, but it was very hard to see any of the structure of Bailey's head because everything was black. lol I did my best with it and have been tweaking it for a while. I think I have to stop. I may do a quick, more sketchy version of Bailey and see if that makes me happier. Who knows...she may love this version.

Sandspit Marina...Return Visit

Back in December I went down to sketch at Sandpit Marina in Patchogue where they are doing some kind of improvements to the rock jetty. HERE is my sketch done back then. A friend asked me the other day if I had been down there recently. She heard that the other day they had machinery out on the jetty and that eventually they will be adding a small lighthouse at the end of the jetty. I decided to go investigate and see if there was anything going on there that was sketch worthy. The rocks they had been digging out of the water were now boulders that were sitting in the parking lot. Nothing was happening out on the jetty yet, but there were a lot of pilings all over the area. I focused on that today. I will have to keep checking to see what else they do.

Main Street Port Jeff

I'm still not feeling energetic but I wanted to get out and sketch a town. I headed up to Port Jeff which is north of me along the Long Island Sound. I like views like this where you are looking down a street. Some day I am going to find a spot to sit where I am uphill looking down toward the town and the water is above the tree line. I haven't lucked out to find a parking space like that. This was done from my mobile studio.

Short Beach

I've been fighting what I guess is a cold the last few days and haven't had much energy. Yesterday I actually stayed home all day, reading on the couch and napping. I guess that helped because today I'm feeling quite a bit better. You know me, I couldn't let another day pass without getting out to sketch. I took a ride up to Short Beach in Smithtown. I've sketched there many times and it always looks different. I tried to make this look textural. I was using a Bee Paper Aquabee Sketchbook which accepts watercolor but I was concerned that it wouldn't take as much punishment as regular watercolor paper. So I was surprised that it withstood quite a bit of scratching. I'm happy with the way this came out.

South Country Deli

One thing we have an abundance of on Long Island is delis. We do like places to stop and get food. The South Country Deli in East Patchogue always has cars in front and seems to do a brisk business. I had an appointment nearby so this seemed like a good spot to do a sketch of it. I ended up starting it before the appointment and finishing it after the appointment.

Geometric Shapes

The Patchogue Sketch Group had geometric shapes as a subject this week. I dug around and found a few items to sketch and added one item brought in by a friend...the Brillo can. The clock was something that belonged to my father-in-law and I knew would make a good sketch item. I'm glad I saved it.

East Patchogue Marsh View

It wasn't quite as warm today so I resorted to sitting in my mobile studio to paint this view along Middle Country Road in East Patchogue.

Birds of a Feather

We had another beautiful, warm day today. I think the temperature reached the high 60s. I know we were sitting out sketching without our coats. Yay!!! My friend, Suzala has been sketching the birds that are kept behind the Milleridge Inn in Jericho. We saw them when we were sketching the small out buildings last month and the peacocks came around the car. There are chickens, roosters, peacocks and peahens, and turkeys. They have structures for shelter but are pretty much free to roam around the property. There is a pig and a donkey but they are kept in their enclosure. Another friend took the train from Brooklyn and Suzala picked her up at the train station.

The birds are friendly but still wander off before you can sketch them fully. I started several of them and just waited until they returned. I did a sheet with a lot of them.

The turkey liked walking around with his feathers on display.

The peacocks were really so colorful.

I also tried out a magic pencil, those pencils that have all the colors swirling around the tips. 

Here are a few photos from our day.

Laura, Suzala and friends.

Turkeys 

This was a tiny puffball of a chicken.

A Beach Day?

It was foggy this morning but it cleared up by about 11:00 and the temperature started rising. I think we hit about 53 degrees which felt like a heat wave after the weather we had the last few weeks. I headed over to Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park. It is a pretty park on Long Island Sound and it has tidal flats that connect to the  Nissequogue River. It was actually warm enough to sit in my painting chair...of course I had my coat on and sweatshirt hood up...but I didn't need gloves!! I've painted this spot many times before but it looks very different depending on the tide.

The park also has a boardwalk along the beach that is 3/4 of a mile long in one direction, so I got some exercise walking the length of it and back. These people were actually sitting on the beach in their chairs. LOL

Planting Fields Arboretum Sketching

Today I met a few friends in the greenhouse at the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. We each set up in a spot to paint and were well under way when someone from the arboretum came over and started giving us a hard time. We were told tripods weren't allowed and we pointed out that we had no tripods. Then the woman told us we couldn't use chairs, we should sit on the benches. I told her if we did that it wouldn't leave any place for the public to sit. She left only to have a guy come over next and give us the same story. He said that on weekends when it gets crowded they don't want people taking up extra space. At no point were there more than 4/5 people walking around. So I calmly explained how we sketch and paint in gardens all over, usually by invitation, and that we are very good at tucking ourselves in to a corner or off to the side so that we don't bother people. My friend told him that we draw people into the greenhouse. People always come over and comment and see what we are doing...and the visitors around us told him that they loved seeing artists working there. We asked if he wanted us to leave and he said no. After a bit of back and forth he finally let us be and we continued painting. It isn't as if we've never been there before. We go there fairly often. It was very odd. I guess he was just following rules.

Here are the paintings and sketches that I did today.

Here is a group photo from yesterday's Portrait Party.

Portrait Party 2019

You've seen some of my practice portraits...and today was the real thing! About 100 members of the NYC Urban Sketchers met in the cafeteria of the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan for our annual portrait party. We were divided into 8 groups of about 12 people each. Each sketch lasted a mere 10 minutes and then you moved on to the next person who was posing...and someone in the group is responsible for timing each sketch so we keep moving along. We took a few breaks but for the most part we sketched from about 1:00 until about 3:30. It is amazing to see all the sketches laid out on the floor when we're done. 

Here are my sketches of the other 11 people in my group. Some came out better than others, but I kept up and got them all done.

Here are a few photos of the event and some of the sketchers.