View at the Bay

 I painted this at the Islip Beach. The view looks out toward Fire Island in the distance.

Line Sketch

 I did a line sketch near the Long Island Railroad station to include a few items for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt. I was able to include a structure, a sign, a vehicle, and trees and plants.

Lenape Day Celebration - Part 2

 The celebration continued upstairs in the rotunda with music, songs, and dances. The Red Blanket Singers and Dancers performed as a narrator explained about the music and the dances. The costumes were beautiful and the dancer ranged in age from 9 years to adult. They were really good! I was able to capture a few of the performers as well as the narrator on the left side of the page.

After seeing two performances we headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the NYC Urban Sketchers were spending the day. Rather than sketch there Suzala, her husband and I stopped to see a few special exhibits. One was an exhibit of the work of Emily Sargent, the sister of John Singer Sargent. The other exhibit was of Man Ray's work. We were finished just in time to join the other sketchers for show and tell.

Lenape Celebration Day - Part 1

 On Saturday I joined two friends, Suzala and Patricia at the Museum of the City of New York where they were having a Lenape Celebration Day, honoring the culture and history of the Lenape Indians who were the first residents of the New York area. 

The day began with a welcome by a Lenape member who opened with music from his flute. He told a little about the Lenape history and what the day would be like. 

Denise Dunkley led a group in a craft activity. Materials were supplied for children and adults to create corn husk dolls. She demonstrated the steps to be followed. We were in a crowded room. Suzala and Patricia decided to create corn husk dolls, but I decided to sketch the two of them being creative. Denise did her demo a few times as people finished and new people entered. She explained that these dolls were actually first made by the Native Americans, the Lenape, who lived here. Most people assume they were first created by the slaves but that isn't true.

Christmas Cactus

 I bought a Christmas cactus at the Bayport Flower House when I was there recently. It has started blooming with these beautiful fuschia blossoms. I sketched it with my colored ink pens. I may have to do an updated version becuse there are so many more blossoms on it already.

St Ann's Church

 St Ann's Episcopal Church in Sayville is lovely. I sat across the street to sketch it head-on. They will be having their Christmas tree sale soon which is a very popular event. The trees usually sell out in a day or two. I did sketch the event in the past. Maybe I'll get a chance to sketch it again this year.

Idle Hour in Oakdale.

 Idle Hour is a former Vanderbilt estate that is located in Oakdale. Part of it is in use by Dowling College. and part of it (stables, barns, etc) were developed into small houses. Apparently for a while it was used as an artist's colony. Today the houses are rather exclusive and parking in the area is restricted to residents only, but I've found one small street where it is possible to park for a while and sketch.

Sayville Water View

 I am lucky to live in an area with such great views of the water. This was painted at a marina in Sayville.

Printing Session #1

Now that the Patchogue Sketch Club is back working inside, we have started doing some printing again. Last week we picked up the supplies we needed and some of us worked on carving a plate for printing. We met at the gallery at MoCA to do our work. Those of us (like myself) who had already carved a plate used the printing press first. I did an ornament hanging on a tree and a word (which was the hardest because yo have to work on a mirror image when you are cutting.

We had different plates than we used last year, and the rubber was harder to cut into. I was pretty happy with the way mine came out. If I find the time I'm going to try it again at home with the supplies I bought last year.

Most of the other sketchers were able to print their plate at least once. It is always exciting to see the paper pulled off and what it looks like.

Maureen inking her plate.

Maureen gets a print.

Janet inking her plate.

Pat with her print.

Teresa did a few plates.

Tian's poinsettia plate.

Liz in action.

We will continue printing next week.

Autumn Colors by the Bay

My autumn color quest took me down by the bay in Blue Point the other day. Fire Island is peeking out across the water.

 

Autumn Path

 It is hard not to stop and capture the autumn colors when I see them. Here's another local scene.

Autumn Colors

 I'm still chasing the bits of autumn color that perk up the landscapes.

Sketchers at Work

 We had about 25 sketchers join us at The Forum on Saturday. As you can see from my sketch, it is a roomy area for meeting, and due to the huge windows I was easily able to sketch the view outside on 125th Street. I had some very cooperative models for this sketch.

View from The Forum at Columbia University

 The NYC Urban Sketchers met at The Forum at Columbia University. Located at 125th Street and Broadway, The Forum is a unique community gathering space with an open atrium look with plenty of seating, tech tables for charging devices and is an ideal gathering spot. The space has huge windows making it easy to sketch the surrounding area. Right outside is the trestle for the #1 elevated train which I sketched here.

Traveling to the City

 Saturday I planned to join the NYC Urban Sketchers at a location at The Forum at Columbia University in Harlem. My usual sketching partners from Long Island weren't going so I took the Long Island Railroad from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station, a ride that was about 1hr 30 min. The good part about taking the train is that I usually have time to complete a sketch on the way there.

Ronkonkoma is the first stop so I make sure to find a spot to sit where I am pretty sure I will have a good view of a few models. A lot of the people who board the train (at 8:07 AM) pick up breakfast for the ride in. Most of the passengers ride all the way to the city, so I had a lot of time to work on the sketch. A family got on and were seated across the aisle from me and facing me. There were a mom & dad and two daughters. The mom had the window seat that wasn't visible to me, but I did manage to sketch the two children and the dad. 

I was finished before the train arrived at Penn Station. 

Now I was ready for the subway ride up to 125th Street.

Exhibit at the Maritime Museum

 On Friday the Long Island Maritime Museum had their reception for the artwork that was created for the auction & fundraiser for the repairs to the Pricilla, a historic oyster schooner being worked on there. Each artist selected a slice of the original mast of the Pricilla which was being replaced. Mine is on the bottom...a painting of the dock at the Maritime Museum itself. I painted it with acrylics. In all there were over 100 pieces of art created. Each can either be bid on or there is a "buy it now" price.

I've participated in the auctions/sales previously at the Long Island Maritime Museum. It is nice to know that the money being raised was for the repairs to the Priscilla. At the reception someone asked how much it actually cost to do all the repairs to the ship, and we were told the final price was $395,000. She also had the deck as well as some of the siding replaced. 

I enjoyed seeing the clever ways some of the artists painted their pieces of the mast. Most were nautical in some way, but not all of them. I hope it is a successful auction.

You can see all the artwork and bid on any pieces here.

Sunken Meadow Fall Colors

I'm still trying to capture the autumn colors before the leaves all fall off the trees. This was painted at Sunken Meadow State Park on the north shore of Long Island.

 

Quick Sketches for the Hunts

 I've done a few sketches for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunts.

This was a continuous line sketch, with watercolor added later.

The most recent hunt includes a pair of something...Sharpie markers in this case.

A trio of brushes...done directly in watercolors.

Autumn Still Life

 Our theme for the Patchogue Sketch Club last week was Thanksgiving. Pat brought in a fun jug and some dried Indian corn.

Local Autumn Colors

This view in Sayville had a bit of all kinds of colors on the trees, the ground, and the wall. 

Blazing Red

 I finally found a blazing red group of trees! Yay!! Found in Sayville.

Roosters

 I must say that birds are NOT cooperative models. They are in constant motion. This was sketched at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank.

Yellows and Greens of Autumn

 Finding autumn colors really excites me. I have to search for some trees that are red. The yellow ones seem to be easier to find. This was done in Bellport.

Autumn Colors & Halloween

 It was nice to see that there was still some autumn colors on the trees when I got home. I was afraid I might have missed it.

For the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt one of the items was something Halloween related. Riding thru Sayville I came across a house with decorations on the front lawn including a tall sketeton. This was done as a continuous line sketch on toned paper. White Posca pen was added later.

At the Airport

On Saturday we flew home from Milan. I had reserved wheelchairs for both of us. I knew from our previous trip how far it was to the American check-in counter. The front desk at our hotel (Sheraton Milan Malpensa Hotel and Conference Center) is at the airport and the doors of the hotel open right into the terminal. The clerk at the front desk arranged for the wheelchairs to be brought to the hotel lobby and they took us to check-in and then directly to our gate. With motorized wheelchairs it took about 15 minutes...and they knew where we were going. 

At the gate the "mobility challenged" passengers had special seating behind the check-in counter. We were there early so I had some time to do a sketch as they were setting up for the passengers.

Restaurant Near the Grand Canal

 I like finding a scene that has a bit of a different view. This was sketched along the Grand Canal past the entrance to St Mark's Square. A small canal juts through between where I was seated and where this restaurant is located. I smiled when I saw the red checkered tablecloths.

Squero di San Trovaso

 Squero di San Trovaso is one of the places I always return to when I am in Venice. New gondolas are built here and gondolas are repaired and serviced here too. It always has a lot going on...and I love all the bits and pieces that can be found there. 

This sketch was done over two sessions. I started it on a damp, drizzly day. I was sitting under a fairly well covered area and was doing fine for a while, until it started pouring. Then the ground around me started flooding as the puddles that were already there started growing. I noticed that the bottom of my backpack was actuallysitting in water so I packed up quickly before I had big problems...but the sketch wasn't finished. I went back this week (on a dry day) and finished it. Meanwhile I had to take almost everything out of my backpack so that the backpack and the supplies could dry. Luckily I keep all of the papers I'm using in protective plastic sleeves so they were safe.

 I had one small section left in my Hahnemuhle concertina sketchbook and found a great scene to finish the book. There is an area with covered arches near the Rialto Market. One of the arches opens to the Grand Canal. The gondolas kept going down the small river across from it so I was able to to sketch the gondola activity based on a few boats that turned into that canal. I am hoping to take photos of all the paintings in this sketchbook and maybe make an iMovie. If I get it done and don't have major problems with it, I will post it here on the blog.

Doorway on the Canal

 It is hard to resist sketching the doorways along the canals. The tide was really high and part of the door and the steps are cornered with water (aqua alta).