30 x 30 Direct Watercolor & More

Today is the final day of my direct watercolor challenge. I headed down to Boothbay Harbor to do my last painting of the lobster traps and buoys at the lobster wharf there. It started to drizzle so I painted from the car. 

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Next I headed for lunch at the lobster place next door. I ordered and there was a big clap of thunder followed by more thunder. I grabbed my food and like everyone else fled inside. It poured for about 15 minutes and I left when it stopped. I drove over to Ocean Point and parked along the water to paint. It was still drizzling but I was able to see to paint. It is really a pretty spot.

I noticed some big, black clouds behind me and it stormed again. I stayed put until the storm passed and then headed home.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 29

Today's Direct Watercolor is part of my dinner. It is rare for us to come up to Maine and not have lobster for dinner at least once. 

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This afternoon I walked into town to do a sketch...planning to do one last direct watercolor. I didn't want to drag my whole backpack with me so I just took a few things. When I got across from this breakfast/bakery spot I realized I had left my watercolors back at the house. So I sketched this in ink on site and added color when I got back to the house. That's what happens when I change bags. lol

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 28

They were forecasting rain for tomorrow so I figured I had better go out painting today. I went to my favorite place around here, the Pemaquid Lighthouse Park to do my Day 28 Direct Watercolor painting. I found a spot where I had a view of the rocks in front of the lighthouse, but the area had a lot of fog. Of course as I painted the fog slowly cleared so I could see more and more details, and the painting kept changing. lol

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I did a second sketch but it is in my sketchbook in the car. I'll post that tomorrow.

After lunch I headed over to this little town called Round Pond. It is one of those towns that if you blink you will pass right through it. I had seen a painting of a building from there when I was at the lighthouse in their art gallery. It looked cute and I thought it would make a nice sketch subject. I drove around and found the building, parked my car, and set up in the shade on my painting chair across the street from the house. It is a mansard roof house which has a sloping, narrowing second floor. 

I painted for a while and then noticed that a man from the house was heading my way. He put something in his car and asked if he could look at what I was doing. We started talking and he told me he owned the house. It looked really small so I asked how many rooms there were, and he said two upstairs and two downstairs. The house was build around 1860. Then he asked if I wanted a tour. He asked me to bring along the painting (which wasn't quite finished) to show it to his wife. They showed me the two small buildings that were outside. They were wide enough to fit a bed from one side to the other and not much of anything else. One little building had a double bed and the other one had bunk beds and a washer/dryer in the room. They said their grandkids like to sleep there when they visit. There was also a two-seater outhouse...and one side was hooked up as a flush toilet.

Inside the house downstairs was a combined living room and kitchen. It had a small stove but no oven or microwave and just enough shelving for what they needed. There was a wood burning stove, a bench use for seating, a bookcase with a lot of books, and a window seat in the bay window. They don't have a TV. Here is a link to an article about the house in a magazine. It is definitely worth looking at it even just for the photos.

From what they said they only come up in the summer from around the 4th of July until Columbus Day. Upstairs was a room big enough for what looked like a double or queen bed, a small closed cabinet for storage and a built-in dresser. They also had a full bath upstairs. The house apparently is very popular and has been in several magazines. We talked for a while and then I went back to finish up the painting.

When I was done I brought the painting back over to show it to them. They wanted to buy it. It was in my moleskine sketchbook so I cut it out for them. We continued talking and they asked if I had seen the lupine field up the road. So the three of us got in their car and took a drive over. It was beautiful with all these mostly blue flowers in this huge field with the cove behind them. Someone had wanted to buy the property and build a big house, but the community got together and had a fundraiser to buy the property to keep it as a flower field. They also took me to see another of their favorite views a few minutes down the peninsula. They had both been teachers in New Hampshire so we had that in common. They were really such nice people. They really made my day!

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 27

Today we traveled from Long Island to Maine to visit my sister and her family. The ferry from Orient Point to New London was the perfect place to sketch a person for the Direct Watercolor Challenge.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 26

Painted in Sayville this morning.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 25

Today was another rainy day so I decided to do a still life for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. I used my bottle of lavender lotion and my lavender sachet. It smelled great while I was painting.
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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 23 & 24

I caught up on my watercolors for the Direct Watercolor Challenge. 

Here is Day 23 done at the beach earlier today.

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Day 24 is my fuchsia basket that is hanging on my patio.

Close Up On Patchogue

Today was a big art festival in Patchogue called Arts on Terry. At the suggestion of our organizer, Mark Propper, the Patchogue Sketch Club decided we were going to do a special project for the event which we worked on for several weeks. Pat Sweeney took a photo of downtown Patchogue that Luanne Thompson blew up in her frame shop. The photo was enlarged to about 7feet x 5 feet and then divided into 12 inch square sections. The plan was that any interested artists in the group would select one or more sections of the large photo and paint that image on a 12 inch square canvas in their own style and their own medium. The project was inspired by the works of Chuck Close. Then the entire thing would be reassembled and displayed at Arts on Terry. I selected 3 panels and debated how to paint them. Watercolors didn't seem like a good idea since we would be displaying it outside and I would need a way to protect the watercolor once it was finished. So I did the pieces in acyrlics.

To be fair in selecting the parts to work on, we drew numbers and picked the panels that way. Here we were at the library selecting sections of the photo.

The first piece of the photo I worked on was part of the buildings on Main Street. Here is the photo I worked from and the sketch I did of it.

 

Here is my final painting of it.

I also did a piece that was part of two cars, shadows in the street, and a brick walkway.

Lastly I did a piece that was mostly sky and branches, but I forgot to take a photo of that piece.

Here is the project put together as it was displayed at Arts on Terry as well as a photo of me with the project.

We really had a great time doing the project and people at the art event loved it. There was some talk that the mural is going to be put on display at the library in town. I hope it is displayed somewhere so that more people can see it.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 22

Today was a busy day. I went to New Jersey this morning to meet 2 of my sisters and my cousin who is visiting from California. I try to get to see my cousin when she comes to NY but hadn't seen her for 2 years. My sister from Maine drove down for the weekend because she hadn't seen her in 9 years. I left at 8:30 and got back home at 10 PM. Luckily I planned ahead and did a painting for Day 22 of the Direct Watercolor Challenge last night.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 21 - Thornhill's

Thornhill's Rexall is/was a pharmacy on the corner of Main Street and Gillette Avenue in Sayville. Apparently it was an institution in Sayville and anyone who grew up in this area had memories of the pharmacy and the candies and sodas that could be purchased there when they were kids. Something I read said that it had been around when they were a kid in the early 1950s and that the pharmacy had the first telephone number assigned in Sayville. 

I've lived in this area about 14 years, but never had the occasion to enter the store...and then it closed. People were heartbroken and the store stood vacant for  years now. Recently I read that it was finally sold. I don't know what the new owner plans to do with the store but it is attached to a group of store so I don't think it can be torn down. 

I decided I needed to capture it before the sign comes down and renovations are done. Who knows how they will change it... Today was another rainy day so I sat in my mobile studio in the parking lot across the street from Thornhill's to paint my Direct Watercolor Day 31 painting. I do hope I get a chance to get back there and do another version of a painting/sketch of the sign and the corner building. This month the Rainbow flag is flying on all the posts along with the American flag and I wanted to capture that too.

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30 x 30 - Direct Watercolor - Day 20 - Still Life

Rather than driving around in the rain and looking for another view to paint from my mobile studio I decided to do a  still life. I dug through the fridge to see what I could find that had some color. The garlic was hard to do since it is so light but it was fun to play with the colors in the papery skin. 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 19

We had another rainy day today. My mobile studio is coming in very handy lately. This is a deli/pub on a corner in Patchogue. I don't know if it is open for business. I've never seen anyone going in or out.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 18 - Sayville Window

We had a damp day today with drizzle and rain on and off. My plein air group didn't meet this morning but I went out to find a view for my Day 18 direct watercolor. Due to the rain I did this view in Sayville from my mobile studio.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 17 - Under the Umbrella

Today I took a ride out a bit east of me to Aquebogue which has a few wonderful farmstands. I've sketched and painted them many times and always go back again. How could I possibly resist this big red umbrella with all those sunflowers?

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 16 - Open Gate

Today I went to Sayville in the afternoon looking for a location for my Day 16, 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor. I liked looking through the gate into the property.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 15 & Sketching on 10th Street

Today I had someone ask me how I can be working on such large paintings all the time (30 x 30), so I guess more people than I realize aren't aware that in this case the 30 x 30 stands for "30 paintings in 30 days" not the size of the paintings.
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Today's NYC Urban Sketching location was 10th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue, a street of many lovely brownstone apartments. I started with the one at 27 10th Street. The homeowner came out and looked at it when I was just starting and did get to see it finished when he returned. 

After lunch I came back to reality and did my Day 15 30 x 30 painting. Alan was sitting in front of me working on his sketch. I liked the touches of the brick building as well as the typical things seen on the NYC street like the dumpster and parked cars. lol I joked later that I painted Alan from behind so that I didn't have to do two portraits of Van Gogh. Alan was waring artist socks with portraits of Van Gogh on the front.

I had a little bit of time before we were meeting for show and tell, so I sketched another view along 10th Street. This was done directly in ink and then I added the watercolor.

We had a pretty good group. Here are some of us in a group photo taken after lunch.

For our "show and tell" we went to Washington Square Park which was a few blocks away. We had enough room to share our work. So nice person on the lawn offered to take the photo for us.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 14 and Ink Sketches

Today in the USA we are celebrating Flag Day, so I couldn't think of anything better than finding a scene with an American flag. This was down by one of the marinas.

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Yesterday in addition to sketching at the Metropolitan Museum I did a few ink sketches. This one was done at the Variety coffee shop a few blocks from the museum. We were a bit early and since it was raining we ducked into this spot rather than stand out in the rain.

On the trip home we got to Penn Station about 40 minutes before our train so we sat down in the waiting room. I was tired but finally decided to sketch and pulled out my materials. I got so involved in the sketch that Susan had to nudge me and let me know that our train was boarding...so this time I had to leave before the sketch was finished. lol

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 13 - Angel

Last night my sketch group met at Lakeview Cemetery in Patchogue. I used this angel statue for the subject of my Day 13 Direct Watercolor.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 12 - Train Trestle & Still Life

Today for my Day 12 Direct Watercolor I did a street scene along South Country Road in Brookhaven. The owner of the house that was to my immediate right came over to ask if he could help me. I explained that I was painting the scene and he said, "Oh, OK. I just was wondering why someone was sitting in front of my house."

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Last night one of my art groups had their meeting. They have been having trouble finding models so they are doing still life setups instead. I thought this one was pretty interesting.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 10

Since I was behind in my direct watercolors I did two of them yesterday. The weather was pretty overcast, although by the time I found a location for this painting it had improved just a bit. This was done in Osprey Park in Mastic Beach.

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30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 9

I never got out to do a sketch yesterday. I got up late and then went to an art reception for a little while. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. By the time evening came I didn't have anything around that was inspiring to paint. So I went out today and did a direct watercolor for yesterday down along the water in Mastic Beach. You can see by the sky that today was an overcast day. Right now it is raining and I hope it gets over and done with it.

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Philadelphia

Yes, you are right...I missed posting yesterday. The NYC Urban Sketchers went to Philadelphia for the day. One of our members had been in contact with the person who organizes the Philadelphia Urban Sketchers and worked out plans for a day where the two groups would meet in Philly and sketch their town. Most of the NYC sketchers left by Greyhound bus from the city, but my friend and I went down by car with her family. We we leaft Long Island at 7 am for the three hour trip.

Michael (our host in Philly) had sent us a map and a schedule for the day starting with his group meeting our group at the bus station. Of course there was a small problem since Greyhound had oversold the seats on the bus and 4 of our group didn't get to come down on the 8 am bus, but on one that arrived about an hour and a half later. That was the only problem the entire day.

We started off at Independence Hall which had a wide, grassy area where we spread out to sketch. I did this sketch in my large Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook.

After lunch some of us took the train and some of us walked to City Hall. The building was impressive but I decided to do just a part of it with the colorful umbrellas in front of it.

Lots of sketching was going on. In addition to NY and Philly sketchers we had someone from Sydney, Australia and Washington, DC.

Erin Hill, from Australia was sketching close to me, so I did my 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Day 7 sketch of her at work.

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My final sketch was of this super cool Airstream that was turned into a food truck in Dilworth Park.

At a sketching event there is always lots to talk about and share.

Many thanks to our two organizers, Suzala (seated up front on the left) and Michael (seated on the right) for all their hard work in making this event happen.

After our "show and tell" which lasted until about 7, Suzala and I met the rest of her family and went out to dinner. Of course there was traffic at the George Washington Bridge coming back to NY. I finally arrived home at about 12:45 this morning. It was a long day!

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 7

Today's Day 7 Direct Watercolor was done in Sayville. At some point I will have sketched/painted all the houses there. lol

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30 x 30 Day 6 and Swan River Preserve

My Day 6 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge was done in East Moriches at a garden center. The tractor (with its flat tires) was off to the side.

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Last night my sketch group met at Swan River Preserve in Patchogue. There is a train trestle bridge that is always interesting to sketch. I used my brown Noodler's ink which isn't waterproof. I guess it worked but I didn't have much control of how it bled.

There was some wildlife at the preserve.