With our cold, windy days I've been looking for locations where I can part and sketch from my "mobile studio." At this time of year you can park along the street by Corey Beach in Bayport and get a view like this one. The covered pavilion and the life guard's shack are a good backdrop to the shrubs and beach grasses.
The arches and fancy decoration were a lot to capture. I liked this view looking through the arches to other arches in the midground and then the background. I did use ballpoint pen to make the lines stand out a little...nobody from the Cloisters noticed.
On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at The Met Cloisters which is located in Fort Tryon Park, high on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. I decided to drive and did the trip by myself. I wasn't sure how long it would actually take me or what the parking situation would be, so I left earlier than my GPS told me to. I got there about 15 minutes before it actually opened. I was able to park directly across from the main entrance. Sitting there, munching on my bagel, in my side-view mirror I noticed Mel and Josh (who were hosting the event) standing in front with another person. I decided to do a very quick sketch of what I was seeing in the mirror. My art supplies were in the trunk and I only had minutes. I grabbed the only paper near me in the car which was a pad of small sticky-notes about 3 inches square. That was my paper. You can see that the signs are backwards because I was seeing them in reverse in the mirror. This took me under 5 minutes.
I don't remember ever being inside, although my sister says my dad took us there when she was maybe in 5th grade (which would put me in 1st grade). The interior is really lovely with chapels, arches, and courtyards. I sketched alongside some of the arches facing toward a small chapel.
The Cloisters' policy for artwork is pencil only, so I used mostly watercolor pencils dry for the sketches I did.
I did a continuous line sketch for a scavenger hunt on Creative Spark. Of course when the sketch was done I added washes of color.
In Middle Island there is a small lake called Artists Lake. It abuts a main east-west road on one side and then is encircled by a few small developments. Every time I pass by there is a flock of birds hanging around. I think a lot of people stop to feed them. This time they were out in the frigid cold sitting on the snow and ice...not a comfortable idea in my opinion. The lake was fairly frozen and there were two teenagers walking on it not too far from the edge. I don't know how thick the ice was, but I wouldn't take the chance. Two men came along with an auger(?) that screws into the ice. I couldn't see where they went and if they were checking the thickness of the ice, but in about 7 minutes they were back at their car and drove off.
I sat outside the entrance to San Succi Preserve in Holbrook to capture the snowy view there.
Our temperatures were still freezing today, but warmer temperatures are supposed to be on their way. The snow will probably be gone soon, so I'm glad I sketched it a few times.
I still participate in the scavenger hunts on Creative Spark. It is a challenge finding some of the items that people put on their lists.
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| a lemon or other fruit and crustaceans |
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| a pine cone (done in direct watercolor |
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| a feather |
We had a bit of snow recently. Not a lot, but because of the cold temperatures it is hanging around. It seems like New Orleans and some places in Florida actually got more snow than we did. lol I sat in the living room and used my iPad this time. Snow isn't easy to do.
The Wuyang Casa BBQ is in a strip mall in Lake Grove. With the colors and the design this structure definitely stands out. I felt like I was in a different place.
What can be more fun than sitting and sketching the view in front of you? I sat in my mobile studio and started on the right side of the page sketching down to the building with the clock on it. Then I sketched coming back up the left side of the page. Of course I had to include a few cars in this sketch of Islip...both closeups and a few in the distance. Add a few signs and wires and the sketch is complete.
Sayville has a number of interesting stores, like this one called "Good Things." Looks like they have some interesting merchandise inside.
The other day I had plans with a friend to meet for lunch in Rye. I always leave a little early because I don't really know what the traffic will be like, and it is about an hour away. I was nearly there when Louise sent me a text saying she was running about a half-hour late. I told her not to worry and that I would find a place to sit and sketch. By the time I found a place to park with a view I only had about 12 minutes before I needed to head over to the restaurant. I sketched this house on a small pad (4 x 6) of Strathmore linen-finished paper that is supposed to be for oil painting. I've sketched on it in pen before, but the watercolor wasn't working too well. I did the sketch and left the rest to finish at home.
Louise and I did have a very nice lunch, and it is always good to catch up with her even though she is a distance away. (We usually meet half-way between us.)
I love riding along and suddenly seeing water tucked behind the grasses or shrubs. We have so many places like that on Long Island. This was near Meadowcroft Estate in Sayville.
Behind St Ann's Episcopal Church in Sayville there is a small building and a gazebo. It overlooks the water area between the church and Meadowcroft Estate.
There is a lovely French bakery, Mademoiselle Patisserie, in Patchogue. I try to avoid going there because things are just too delicious. I think it is better for me just to sketch the building. lol
Sometimes it gets a little frustrating here on Long Island. There are so many beautiful areas where you can't park or you have to be a resident to park. Luckily many of those places you can visit in the off season. I also do a lot of sketching from my "mobile studio" and figure I'm safe as long as I am sitting in my car and not leaving it "parked." This was down one of the streets leading to the bay in Sayville. You were actually allowed to park on the street, but not in the space right by the opening at the end of the beach. I was a quite a few feet back.
The Patchogue Sketch Club met recently to sketch sewing notions. I've collected a lot of spools of thread over the years, and can actually remember which sewing projects I used them for. Most of these items were in a sewing box given to me by my parents. It came in handy, but seems to be bursting at the seams.
Down near the town dock in West Sayville is Blue Island Oyster Company. I love the assortment of buildings, cars, covered boats, and foliage around the area. It was a fun sketch to do. I've never been inside the building, but I googled it for info. This is their distribution center and corporate office. I do believe they are also open to the public for sales. Before the pandemic a friend invited a few sketchers to visit and sketch at her husband's oyster farm. It turns out this is the same company that Chuck Westfall is part of. He was a great host the day we visited and drove us back and forth to sketching locations where the farm is located. It is a small world.
On one of our recent cold days I wanted to sketch indoors, not from my mobile studio. I headed over to the Panera in Bohemia. It is set up so that I can get a view of the counter and the people ordering. Of course I got there and nobody was at the counter, so I started with the people sitting at the table on the left and made sure to leave space for people when they went to the counter to order. It worked. There was a bigger pillar with stones and a coffee bar set up there, but I used artistic license to move that because it would take up too much space. All of this was done directly in ink.
I've been participating in a 10 day online collage class given by Catherine Rains (catherinerains.com). I took a shorter collage class with her before and really enjoyed it. She gives this class once a year and it includes recorded lessons as well as live Q&A sessions. She is very good.
We started off making an assortment of different kinds of collage papers made from different types of papers and different weights. I used copy paper, tissue paper, deli paper, watercolor paper, and rice paper. She taught us various methods to turn them into colored collage papers. We used crayon resists, bubbles, marbles, scraping, and water resists to design our papers. Some were more successful than others. Here are some of the papers I made. We worked with 2 primary colored paints plus black and white paint. The last time I used blue and yellow, so this time I tried red and yellow. The colors are not ones I would normally pick, but I wanted to challenge myself.
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| These are mostly crayon resists. |
My second sketch at Grand Central was at the food court area downstairs. Tartinery is one of the few food stalls that has actual seating. If you get food from most of the stalls there are standing tables only. It isn't very condusive to eating. I think they did that because previously there were too many homeless people that would come in and sleep in the seats at the tables and the customers had nowhere to eat.
My trip into the city last week involved transferring at the Jamaica station to catch the train to Grand Central. Although there should be a direct train from Ronkonkoma to Grand Central is just wasn't running on Saturday...just my luck. The trip took a little longer, but I ended up at my destination. Grand Central is always impressive and I really wanted to sketch in the great hall where the famous clock is. It was super crowded so I looked for a view that was a little out of the way.
I had texted a few friends telling them I was going to be sketching there, but the small group was going to the Metropolitan Museum. I wasn't in the mood to sketch sculptures so I decided to stay put. I told them if anyone was passing through and wanted to stop and say hello to let me know. I sat so that I was at the side opposite the Apple Store. It gave me a view of the clock too. The holiday decorations were still up so I was able to include those too. I tucked myself into a corner near track 32 with my back to the wall so nobody could bump into me. Nobody noticed I was there. It was a great spot except when a lot of people stood in front of me and blocked the entire view.
Last Saturday I decided I needed to go into the city for some sketching. The NYC Urban Sketchers hadn't gone in on the weekend in several weeks and I was craving sketching something other than Long Island. Even though the group wasn't going in, I decided I would go on my own. I took the 8:08 train from Ronkonkoma. I had to switch at Jamaica to go to my final destination of Grand Central.
There are usually people within view for me to sketch. The problem is that Ronkonkoma is the first stop and sometimes there are no other people seated near me. I lucked out and there was a lady in the middle seat with her bag across from her...and nobody else in the way. I find the Long Island Railroad trains to be rather shaky so I usually sketch the scene in pencil first. I added the watercolor and used a watercolor pencil I had in my bag to outline the scene. A lot of the time I outline with pen.
This interesting building is part of the Vanderzalm Nursery in Bellport. I'm always attracted to the old gas pump outside.
We have had some beautiful clouds lately, and some of them were mixed with blue skies. This was painted down by the bay in Bayport.
I was down by the bay near Timber Ridge, a golf community in Oakdale. There were still some green trees there.
Last week I rode up to Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai. The beach is on the north shore of Long Island along the sound. There is a beach as well as a marina. I noticed this area of sand that must have been piled up there for a long time because shrubs and trees had started growing out of it. This was on the marina side. The beach itself was on the opposite side of the road.
Happy New Year!!!
Since my favorite place is the beach I usually try to get there to start the new year off.
Today I drove over to Robert Moses State Park to check out the beach there. I was tempted to paint the lighthouse, but I couldn't get a good parking space with a view of it. I needed to sit in my mobile studio because there were gale force winds at the beach today. The wind didn't stop many people from venturing there. On one section of the beach there had to be at least 50 people on the sand watching something...and a hellicopter flying over the area. I have no idea what was going on and was not tempted to check it out.
Instead I went down by the boardwalk area and positioned my studio so I had a good view of people walking back and forth to the sand. I captured a few groups of people enjoying the day.
