Flowers and Grasses in the Snow

 I like riding around and finding small scenes with snow and shadows. These hydrangeas in Sayville were dried to a very light brown as were the stems, and the sunlight on them attracted me. This is small...only about 3 inches by 3 1/2 inches.

These weeds attracted me the same way. I loved how they stood out from the snow around them. This is also small...about 2 1/2 inches by 6 inches.

Down the Street

 After a couple of days of rain and drizzle I finally got out to sketch. This was done looking down one of the streets in Sayville. A lot of the snow is mostly gone except where it was piled along the curb.

Lefty Lucy Poses

 On Tuesday Lefty Lucy was back posing for the group. She was wearing some sort of clown costume with a bit of burlesque thrown in. Here are the longer poses from that night.

This was a five minute pose.

And a ten minute pose.

I like that she has been doing a portrait for the 20 minute pose.

Oriental Sculptures

 The Patchogue Sketch Club met last week to sketch Oriental sculptures. Three different photos were shared one at a time and we had about 25 minutes to do each. I wish I knew the information about each piece, but that was missing as we sketched. The first two were older pieces. I sketched them is mostly water-soluble pencil with some watercolors added.

This sketch below was from a larger piece of Oriental soldiers.

We had one modern piece by a Chinese artist from Beijing named Yin Xiuzhen who did a city in a suitcase. It was really a very different piece.

Snow at the Preserve

 I kept sketching the snow while it still looked good. This was done from my mobile studio at Swan River Preserve in Patchogue.

A Tuskegee Airman

 The NYC Urban Sketchers theme for this weekend was events and people to honor during Black History Month. This is a sketch of Capt. Lawrence Dickson, a New York pilot killed during WWII. He was one of 27 Tuskegee Airmen listed as missing in action during the war. Lawrence's remains were finally identified from a DNA sample in 1988, 74 years after he was killed in a crash in Europe.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Air Corps. They trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama and flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa during WW II. Their impressive performance earned them more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and helped encourage the eventual integration of the U.S. armed forces.

Snowstorm

 Here are two more snow scenes I did while I couldn't post. This first one is the view outside my window. This time I sketched from the spare room...which funny enough has no spare room. The view is only slightly different from the living room. This was done on in my Strathmore tan toned sketchbook.

 

When I finally left the house I drove towards Oakdale. There is a little spot with a bit of the river running through it. There used to be more water but in the last year or two some of it was blocked and there is only a narrow rivulet. I was able to park along the side of the road in my mobile studio looking in through the entrance. From all the footsteps in the snow I know some fishermen and bird watchers had been there to check things out. I was comfortable just being in my car and sketching. This was done in my Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook.

Snow Scenes

 These snow sketches were done right after the previous snowfall when I couldn't post anything to my blog. The first one was done in a local park looking uphill from the parking lot. There were a few bare spots where the shrubbery was.

The sketch below was done at the entrance to San Soucci Preserve in Sayville looking up the hiking/walking path. Of course for both of these I was sitting in my mobile studio.

Sketches While Waiting

I haven't been able to sketch much indoors due to Covid restrictions. However, I wanted to get some clams and oysters for our Valentine's dinner. The Fish Store in Bayport was busy and I was told I would have to wait about 20 minutes...and was that OK...lol I had a little moleskein book in my purse so I just stood back away from the line and sketched. The ink lines were done on location but I added the color when I got home. I did remember while I was doing this that I really don't like sketching standing up.

 

Last week I finally was able to get my first shot for the Covid 19 vaccine. I had scheduled it at Walgreen's pharmacy which worked out well. I had a few minutes before the shot and had to wait about 10/15 minutes afterwards to make sure I had no reaction. I used that as my sketching time.

Still Life Setups

 The Patchogue Sketch Club has been meeting on Zoom lately. These sketches were from the week when I had no computer and wasn't able to post here. Three members of the group created still life setups and took a photo of their setup. Then each photo was screenshared on Zoom. We had about 25 minutes to do each sketch.

Mardi Gras House "Float"

 Mardi Gras is such a fun time and the people of New Orleans had a brainstorm when they heard that due to Covid 19 the Mardi Gras parades would be cancelled. Instead people decorated or had their homes decorated to represent parade floats. People were able to follow a map to the locations of the houses that were participating. I went through a lot of images and videos to find a house to sketch. I think this idea was genius!!!

Sayville Houses in the Snow

While the snow was still looking good I did a few more sketches in Sayville. I always look for houses that have shrubs that still have snow on them. The top sketch was done on Strathmore tan toned paper and the other was done in my Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.

Lefty Lucy as Lady Justice

Last week Lefty Lucy dressed as Lady Justice/Lady Liberty. She is always fun to sketch. 

Portrait Party

 The NYC Urban Sketchers has a portrait party every year on the first Saturday in February. Of course due to Covid 19 this year had to be held differently. It was fun, but the camaraderie of being in a huge room with everyone while sketching and then seeing all the sketches laid out on the floor for display was sorely missed. We used Zoom as our platform and we were divided into groups of 5/6 members. This was done twice in the morning and then again in the afternoon. You could attend as many sessions as you wanted, and the participants changed each time. Your group of 5/6 had an hour and 10 minutes to complete the portrait which worked out to 10 minutes per sketch.

I could only participate in the first group in the morning, We started with 5 people but after starting an additional person was added in. By the time we were ready to sketch the last two people we ended up with 7 minutes for one and 5 minutes for the last person. Talk about pressure! lol Here are the sketches I completed during my session.

I looked through the posts on Facebook later in the day and was able to find this sketch done of me.

Local Snow Scenes

While I was gone NY had a bit of snow. Our first storm dumped about 10 inches in my area. Luckily I don't have to go anywhere, so if I sit tight things get plowed and I can get out easily. This first sketch was done the morning after the snow started. We had about 24 hours where it kept snowing, sometimes very lightly but that was after we had a lot of snow.

 This was done from my living room window. The path had been plowed and due to some cutting back of the foliage in the fall you can actually see the houses beyond the fence.

This sketch was done down by the Sayville Grange just a few minutes from me. Some nice lady and her dog came walking into view while I was sketching which was a bonus.

 

Roadside America - LL Bean Big Boot

 Sorry to have disappeared. My computer wasn't working and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to post here from my iPad or my iPhone. After waiting for an appointment for a few days, I took the computer to Apple to be repaired. They told me it was a "vintage model" and after having it for a few days it was determined that it couldn't be fixed. So I bought a new one. I've spent most of this evening trying to get up to speed with the new Mac since things are different.

Anyway it seems that I am back to posting with a lot to catch up on. I did another Roadside America sketch since they were such fun. This is the giant boot that stands in front of the L L Bean store in Freeport, Maine.

Lebanon Sketch 2

 Since Lebanon was such an interesting area I did another virtual sketch when I joined the NYC Urban Sketches and USk Lebanon.  This was in the same area as my first sketch but the reference was looking down instead of up. I also wanted to tackle a nocturnal sketch.

Before everyone disappeared for lunch photos were taken of the combined NYC/Lebanon group holding a piece of their artwork. I am in the bottom row, 2nd from the right. There were 3 pages of sketchers.