30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 30

 The 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge 2022 is over today! I have enjoyed the challenge and have become more comfortable working directly in watercolor without any pencil lines. 

It is definitely a different way of working because you need to draw out the sketch in your mind, be careful of the foreground, middle ground, and background. You don't have those pencil lines that shout "stop right there and go around me." lol You are working in layers.

I've also been trying to work on using stronger values, especially in shadows to make things stand out more. I hope you have enjoyed seeing all the different paintings I've done. This last one was done back at the lavender field, Lavender by the Bay, in Calverton.  This is 8 x 10.

My thanks to Marc Holmes and Uma Kelkar for organizing the challenge and being so supportive to all the participants all over the world.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 29

The 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge is nearly over. Here is my Day 29 painting done on location in Patchogue.

 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 28

The challenge days are almost over. Here is my Day 28 painting. This was also done at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank, but from the fringes of the farm near the parking lot for the sheriff's office. I'm not sure what this building was/is used for. It doesn't look like most of it is big enough to stand upright inside it. I liked the way the sunlight was making shadows on the building and the rickety shingles on the roof. 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 27

For my Day 27 direct watercolor painting I painted on location at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank. I am assuming that the silos contain grain for the animals. I was really happy with the way this came out. 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 26

 Yesterday I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers in the city. Our location was Thompkin's Square Park in the East Village. This is probably the funkiest part of NYC...where sex, drugs and rock and roll were so prevalent in the 60s. I opted not to sketch inside the park but to focus on the views around the perimeter of the park. Of course I had my Day 26 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge to do. This was probably the hardest painting I've done for the challenge because of all the graffiti all over this building...but I persisted. This is 5 x 7.

It was a hot day (temperatures in the low 90s) so I looked for another spot with shade. This was on Avenue A and 7th Street...a very colorful Latin restaurant.

On that same side of the street on the opposite corner was Lilly's. I didn't quite finish the sketch before we had to head into the park for show and tell. I will repost it when I finish it. The flag is for the Gay Pride Parade that was scheduled for the following day.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 25

Day 25 of the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge was done up in Port Jeff at one of the businesses by the waterfront.

Last week the NYC Urban Sketchers sketched at the Elizabeth Street Garden. My last sketch there was only partway finished and had no color added. I used a photo to finish the sketch and added color.

Here is the sketch before I worked on it more.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 24

My plein air group met at Lavender By the Bay in  Calverton on Tuesday. This was a new location for me...I've only been to their fields in East Marion. I'm not sure which I prefer since both are really scenic. I did my Day 24 30 x 30 painting there rather quickly, doing a mass of varied purple for the lavender out in the field.  

Wednesday Lefty Lucy posed. I missed her last session even though it was on my calendar...I just forgot by the evening. It was fun to sketch her again. Here are a few of my sketches.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolors - Day 23

 There is something that attracts me to umbrellas...and how could I pass up these red umbrellas. Here is my Day 23 painting done in Smithtown. This is 5 x 7.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 22

Today's Day 22 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This was done by Brown's River Road in Sayville and is 5 x 7.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 21

I stopped at Lewin Farms in Calverton to sketch this greenhouse and the flowers and wall in front of it. All done in direct watercolor...no pencil lines. 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 20

My Day 20 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge is of farmland out on the east end of Long Island in Wading River.

 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 19

 This was painted down by a marina in Oakdale for the 30 x 30 challenge. This is 5 x 7.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge - Day 18

 Today I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers at a wonderful location. Elizabeth Street Garden is a 1-acre community sculpture garden in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan. It is located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets. It is a busy place with a lot of people stopping and enjoying the delights of the garden. There was yoga going on, people enjoying the flowers and the sunshine, people having coffee or lunch, and a collection of urban sketchers enjoying the views. We found out that the city is planning to have the location developed and turned into a 7 story mixed-usage building. The friends of the garden have filed a lawsuit against NYC to stop the destruction of this treasured green space. Hopefully they will succeed!

Here is my Day 18 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This is 5 x 7.

I continued sketching in another area in the park.

My third sketch was done on a small balcony and includes two members of our group. It is unfinished, but I plan to finish the left side and add color. I hope to repost it when I finish it.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 17

 My Day 17 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge was done of an arbor at a local nursery.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 16

My plein air group met at the Peconic Herb Farm in Calverton on Tuesday morning. I usually focus on flowers there but was attracted to this cabin on the property. Here is my Day 16 painting...no pencil lines.

Here's a little extra digital painting I did recently using ArtRage.

 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 15

 We are at the halfway point in the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This was done at Captree State Park and is 5 x 7.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 14

 Day 14's Direct Watercolor was painted at the Islip Grange. I love this little dirt road that goes up to the carriage barn and the house. It always looks interesting, no matter the season.

Here's a little sketch I did a while ago for the scavenger hunt over at Creativespark.art.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 13

 During the Bellport Garden Tour I had about 45 minutes to visit another garden when I finished the floral landscape in the first garden. I went over to the garden next door where my friend, Laurie Schlageter was already painting. There were some lovely bushes filled with flowers near the front of the garden, so I sat myself down and worked on a painting of some pink "knock 'em back" roses...which is what the ladies talking behind me were calling them. This is 5 x 7.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 12

 Yesterday along with several other invited artists I participated in the Bellport Garden Tour. As people walk around the gardens we paint the gardens. Unfortunately we have no control over what is in bloom and neither do the homeowners. The garden I was in for this painting was very pretty but a lot was not fully in bloom yet. I did find a spot to paint and spoke to many of the people who came through touring the gardens.  Rather than the small size I've been doing for the challenge this one is 8 x 10.

The Bellport Garden Club had asked my permission to use one of my paintings for the poster 

advertising the Bellport Garden Tour.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 11

 I've been able to keep up with the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. Like usual I try to keep a few days ahead in case something comes up and I can't paint. My Day 11 painting was done at the Smith Point Marina looking over to Fire Island. You can see a tiny view of the Ranger's Station over on the left.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 10

 My Day 10 Direct Watercolor painting was done at the historic Swezey-Avey House in Yaphank which was built around 1873. I decided to challenge myself even more with this painting. I almost never use a flat brush when I am painting and some artists swear by them. I gave it a try and used it for the entire painting. I'll admit it worked well for the windows and the siding on the building, but for trees and bushes I found it lacking. With architecture painting directly in watercolor is a challenge. I tend to get a bit wonky with it.

On Wednesday night the Patchogue Sketch Club was originally scheduled to sketch outdoors, but the weather report early in the day was forcasting rain in the evening, so Mark opted for an indoor location. He reserved us a table at the back of The Bean, a coffee house in Patchogue. A few people brought something to sketch but I wanted to do the inside of The Bean and some people. The sketch grew a little as I was doing it. I hadn't planned on including my friend, Rosanne (on the left) but that side looked a little empty so I added her and her belongings. If we were there much longer I probably would have added another sketcher on the left. lol

A few of the sketchers had already left when Linda took a photo of her sketch on the big table with two of us still sketching.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 9

I painted a rhododendron at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum for my Day 9 of the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. I wasn't too happy with the way this turned out. I couldn't even get close to the color and lost the transparency of the petals. I may have had more luck if I was working bigger. This is 5 x 7.

This was a mini direct watercolor I did there too. Yellow flowers are so difficult to do with watercolors.  Shading the petals poses problems.

 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 8

My Day 8 painting for the challenge is of foxgloves. These were growing in the small garden on the property of the historic Meadow Croft Estate in Sayville.  Among the residents of this property was John E. Roosevelt, cousin of Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was known to ride on horseback out to his cousin's home in Sayville from his "summer White House" in Oyster Bay. The estate is now part of the Suffolk County Historic Trust and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 7

My Day 7 painting for the 30 x 30 Watercolor Challenge was painted by the water in East Islip near the marina. 5 x 7 

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 6

 Here is my 5 x 7 painting for Day 6 of the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This was painted at a local nursery...no presketching with pencil.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 5 ++

Yesterday my friend and I went into the city to join the NYC Urban Sketchers at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, a new branch of the NYC Public Library system. It is located on 5th Ave and there is an outdoor terrace around two sides of the building. Knowing I needed to get my painting done for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge I chatted with the other sketchers a bit and then sat down to paint the view. 

Directly opposite my spot was this older building with beau arts ornamentation. Someone googled it and found out it is called the Knox Building. (When I got home I checked for more info and found out it was actually the Knox Hat Building, built in 1901 and their retail shops were on the first two floors and the company headquarters occupied the other floors. Today a modern building wraps around the historic building and the entire thing is an apartment building.) Here is my direct watercolor which is 5 x 7.

We probably had about 25-30 sketchers spread around the terrace, including one urban sketcher visiting from Penang, Malaysia. There is an active Urban Sketchers group there. On the terrace there were chairs and tables as well as a wall for us to sit on. I incorporated several of our members into my sketch done looking down 5th Avenue. On the right is the historic Lord & Taylor building which was one of the great places to shop for clothing in NYC. The building was purchased by Amazon in 2021.

I decided to sketch the Knox Building again with water-soluble brown ink. The ink kind of took over the architectural ornamentation in the sketch. I wanted to add a touch of the green patina but that just stirred up the ink even more. I ended up using permanent ink to redefine some of the lines. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way the sketch turned out.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the location so I think we will return there at some point in the future.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 4

 I met my friend, Suzala in Northport to paint. She is also doing the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. I was attracted to the striped umbrellas against the brickwork and the plants. There was a nicer view of this scene but unfortunately there was a fairly steady stream of delivery trucks that kept parking and blocking the view from that spot. This is 5 x 7.

When I finished the painting above I moved over near Suzala. Right across the street was a motorcycle. I had a little time left so I didn't resist.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 3

 Here is my day 3 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This was done on location in Port Jefferson before picking up paintings that were hanging in a show. I was very happy with the way this came out. 5 x 7

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 2

 Somehow I forgot to post this yesterday for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. My Day 2 was painted on location at Clark Botanic Gardens.

If I don't post this now I know I will forget about it. This was done last Wednesday with the Patchogue Sketch Club at the Terry Street Garden in Patchogue. It is nice to get outside sketching with the group. Our indoor sessions and Zoom sessions seemed to last forever.

30 x 30 2022 - Day 1

 You know how I love challenges. Once again this year Mark Holmes and Uma Kelkar are hosting the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor challenge. I have participated several times and the goal is 30 paintings done in 30 days directly in watercolor with no pencil or ink lines as a guide. I am hoping to do my paintings on location rather than from photos if at all possible. This was done at Clark Botanic Garden in Albertson.