Seville Cement Company

  On Saturday after we sketched the train station, Suzala and I stopped at another location she had seen while riding around recently. We had stopped to check it out on the way to the station and figured we would have it for a future location, But we had time enough to stop and sketch there too. I think it is part of Seville Cement Company. There was no name anywhere, no workers anywhere, but the gates were wide open, so we just drove in and parked. I googled the area to find out where we were and found a website for the cement company. What makes me think that might be right is that there were Seville trucks parked on the property. This was so much fun to sketch with all the ladders and tanks and whatnot. I used my Lamy pen and permanent ink. To get the shading I touched a wet brush to the point of the pen to pick up a little color.

Farmingdale Train Station

 On Saturday my friend, Suzala asked me if I wanted to join her sketching at the Farmingdale Train Station. She has been painting at the station several times recently. It was cold and blustery so we sat in her "mobile studio" to get this view of the station. It was so comfortable inside the car with the sun streaming in through the windows and the sunroof that we were quite content.

 

The Barber Shop

 Every time I pass Top Hat Barbers on Main Street in Sayville I check to see if there is a parking spot where I can see inside to the patrons getting haircuts. It happens once in a while and this week I was there at a perfect time. It isn't easy to see the position of the barber's hands while they work...and they change their hand positions and their stance quickly. I gave it a shot.

Street of Colors

 The autumn colors aren't completely gone yet, but they are harder to find. Here is a street down by the bay in Sayville. With the position of the sun in the sky the shadows are so long and strong at this time of year.

Casual Lucy

 For the first time since "Let's Art With Lefty Lucy" started she did not dress in costume. I liked the casual look but then the pants were just pants. I tended to ignore them. lol Her look was very monochromatic which I liked so I went with it.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I am so thankful for many, many things this year. I hope you are too. One of the things I am very thankful for are my fellow artists who are so supportive and encouraging. Thank you!

Last week when the Patchogue Sketch Club met at the library we each brought things that would fit with a cornucopia. We had a little of everything stretched out across the table. 

Farm Stand in Autumn

 I sat across from this farm stand in Speonk/Westhampton to sketch. It was busy with shoppers getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Arboretum Colors

 The Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale has some great trees. Sprinkled around them was some color when I was there this weekend. Of course I had to capture it. The weather has been very windy so I'm not sure how much longer the leaves will last before falling. I'll capture it as long as I can.

Juicy Autumn Colors

I drove over to Ronkonkoma Beach which is on a lake and there were a few trees with juicy, rich colors.

 

Autumn Light and Shadows

We had a nice, mild day on Thursday so I took a ride up to Sunken Meadow State Park which is on Long Island Sound. It is one of the few places here on Long Island where you can get a view of hills as a backdrop. The light and colors as well as the shadows were great. When I finished I was able to do a walk on the boardwalk too.

Assorted Sketches

 On Wednesday I had to have my car serviced at Nissan...inspection, oil change, and a recall. I was there for a while so I got to do a few sketches of people in the waiting room.

Since I had Art Rage on my phone I did a sketch of a woman waiting for her car. I don't know how people do sketches so easily on the phone. My fingers block my view of what I'm doing.

Back a while ago I did a sketch of a small sailboat at the Sayville Marina.

I'm still doing sketching for the Scavenger Hunts although they have moved from Wet Paints (which is shutting down in the next few months) to crebativespark.art. It is a very welcoming, smaller art group. One of the items in the scavenger hunt was a cup/mug and something held in your hand. This was done with a sketch & wash pencil.

Lefty Lucy from the Sea

 I believe this week's theme for Let's Art With Lefty Lucy was a bit of an underwater theme. It was an odd costume that she's worn before. The hoops are a bit difficult to sketch and I was worried that she might pop out of the top...but the only problems were technical. We were on Zoom and the image was blurry, the audio was off and before the 20 minute pose we lost the connection completely except for audio. Lucy instructed us to join her live on Instagram instead. That worked but we had no music. lol It was a difficult night for technology.

Frank Melville Park colors

 Our plein air group headed up to Frank Melville Park in Setauket recently. I've painted the bridge there several times but the colors called to me that day. If you look hard the bridge can just barely be seen in the background.

Stormy Weather & Tornado Warning

 My posts are a little behind. This was painted out east near Calverton on Sunday. The forecast in the morning was for sunshine followed by cloudy skies and the possibility of storms later in the day. Like usual I hopped in the car and headed out looking for autumn colors. I found a spot out in an area that is mostly farmland. I was painting from my car and this view was to my left. I'm not quite sure what the bushes were. They look sort of like grapevines but I've been in this location before and I know there aren't grapes growing. This still needs a bit of tweaking. I never finished the roof and didn't paint the windows at all yet.

You know how you get into that zone and don't really notice what is happening around you? I did notice that it started getting darker and it was only about 2:30/2:45. I looked out the front windshield and then to my right and saw the sky was getting darker by the minute. This was how it looked over the peach trees.

I decided to pack up and head home before the storm hit. I was driving for about 5 minutes when my cell phone started blaring out a warning. Those are loud enough when you are home but in an enclosed car it is downright scary. It was a tornado warning telling everyone in the area to seek shelter until 4:15. There was really no place to go for shelter so I kept driving in the direction of home watching the sky carefully. I didn't feel any strong winds so I was hoping for the best. I got down to the highway and kept driving for another 5 minutes or so when the tornado warning went off again. Then a deluge came from the sky with such heavy rain that everyone turned on their emergency blinkers and drove at a snail's pace through the rain. It only lasted a few minutes and then the sky looked a little brighter...or at least not as dark. 

When I finally got home I found out that 3 tornados touched down on Long Island. One was just due south of where I got on the highway and it caused damage to a shopping center. It was probably about 15 miles away. It was a scary thing! I was talking to my sister about it and she said that when they drove cross country once they were in an area where they passed nothing but fields for several hours and the radio kept giving off tornado warnings (pre-cell phone times). I know what to do when I'm indoors and a tornado warning is issued but this was different! I guess with the weather changes that have been happening we all need to be prepared at all times. Stay safe and be aware!!

Fishing at the Lake

 This is one of my paintings done one Tuesday morning recently with my plein air group. We were by a lake in Yaphank. From what I can tell from the map this is Upper Lake and it doesn't have a more distinctive name than that. There were two men fishing, but I left one out. This is still a bit of a work in progress. I think I need to make the water reflections a bit different in color from the colors of the actual trees. Any suggestions? The painting is 8 x 10.

Cordwood Park View

This weekend I found myself sketching at Cordwood Park in Saint James.  It ia an area of open space along the water in Smithtown, but has parking only for about 6 cars and says you need a Smithtown permit to park. I ignored that since it was off season and sketched from my mobile studio rather than climbing down by the water.

By the Train Crossing

I positioned myself in the parking lot of the Sayville train station to sketch looking out. I wanted to make sure to get the train crossing arm in the view. 

 

Surrounded by Color

The colors here are probably at their peak now...no real bright reds but I'm happy with the oranges, rusts, and yellows. This was down the road looking toward the Sayville LIRR Station parking lot.

Today, like most days I went out sketching only to have the sky turn very, very dark and then have the blare of a tornado warning coming out of my phone. There was no place for shelter so I just headed home watching the sky just in case. Hit a huge downpour on the highway and luckily everyone was content to go really slowly with their blinkers on. Not very nice weather for sure.

 

Shoes

 The Patchogue Sketch Club has started meeting indoors at the Patchogue Library for our Wednesday night gathering. This week's theme was SHOES. I brought along a few pairs, and sketched a pair of thong sandals that I have. I'm glad they were good for sketching because they are not comfortable to wear.

My friend, Pat always comes with something that I have to draw and it is usually something that belonged to one of her children (who are all grown adults with grown children). Pat brought in a pair of baby shoes that have to be at least 40 + years old. She even had the little socks tucked into the shoes and they were in the original little box (which I didn't sketch). Now how could I resist?

Lefty Lucy Again

 On Wednesday I attended "Let's Art With Lefty Lucy" on Zoom. As always she was a great model.

Autumn Golds

It is hard not to stop short in my tracks when I see the splendid colors on the trees when the sun is shining.

 

Truck with Autumn Trees

I am still finding new spots of beautiful autumn colors to sketch. I liked this scene with the truck in the driveway. 

Stony Brook Harbor

 Stony Brook Harbor has some nice views. It was a windy day so I sat in my "mobile studio" to do this gouache painting This was done in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook.

DollsOn

 On Wednesday the Patchogue Sketch Club met at the library and our theme for the evening was dolls. I had contacted my friend, Pat and asked her if she could bring along an extra doll for me to sketch. It is one of the many things I don't have at home and don't have access to. She brought several dolls including a cute Pipi Longstocking which I sketched.

A number of the dolls were standing upright in the middle of the table facing in various directions so I did a pencil sketch of some of them.

Here we are at the library with our sketches.

Glamour Poses

This week Lefty Lucy from "Let's Art With Lefty Lucy" posed in a glamorous gown...va-va-voom!

 

Autumn Colors

 It seems like just overnight the leaves started changing color here. Of course we don't get the abundance of reds and oranges like they do in New England but every once in a while the sun lights up some of our colors to make them super bright. This tree scene was between two houses. Just because I've been saying I have to do something different I used gouache on this painting. Basically gouache is rather opaque and is used from darks to lights like oils. I am still working as if I were using watercolors and keep adding darks when I should be adding lighter tones.lol I was pretty happy with the way this turned out. It was painted in my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook.

Bayville Bridge

 On Sunday two friends and I went up to Bayville on the north shore. I think it is the town that Billy Joel lives in/lived in. It is pretty and has a scenic drawbridge that my friend, Suzala wanted to paint. The bridge is under reconstruction but we sort of ignored that. Suzala had visited the area the day before and got permission from Bay Marine to paint from their marina.

The weather was colder than most days recently but we brought along layers of clothing just in case. By the end of the day I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a light weight jacket, a fleece hoodie, and a super heavyweight sweatshirt over everything. The sweatshirt is one of my favorite things because it is very warm. I think it is a men's XL and it will fit over a puffy winter coat and all my layers. I also had my warm hat and fingerless gloves on....but no winter coat. lol

Somehow I forgot to bring my case that holds all my pens (and pencils) so I had to do this directly in watercolor. I finished this painting on site and then did my Inktober sketch which was the last one for the challenge. Having some extra time I started a pen and ink of this same view but it needs a little more work. It got too cold to keep painting and we packed up for the day.

Inktober Day 30 & Day 31

 My Inktober Day 30 sketch is of a restaurant in Bellport. I've eaten there but not in a very long while. I used Platinum Carbon ink for this both from my Lamy pen and from my Sailor Fude pen.

Maybe I'll have to go back...but from what I remember their lobster rolls have celery in them, and I don't like them that way.

    My final sketch for Inktober 2021 was done when I was out with friends painting on Sunday. It was a chilly day and we were painting a bridge near the water. I turned around and saw this view, so I took out my Lamy pen and did just a line sketch...no use of water for bleeding the ink.

As much as I enjoy doing Inktober I am usually glad when it is finally over and I can get back to using more color. I'm glad I did so many sketches with the twig and Chinese ink. In the past I'd do one sketch and then those supplies would be put away and not taken out for a long time. It was fun to see the variety of effects I was able to get with the different inks.

Inktober Day 29

 A field and a fence...what more could I need. This was done with my Elegant Writer pen and my Lamy filled with Platinum Carbon ink.

Inktober Day 28

Inktober Day 28 took me riding around in Wading River. There is quite a bit of farmland like this with rows from the produce that was growing. I don't know what was growing in this particular field but it looked perfect for Noodler's Brown Ink.