Terry Street Garden

The Terry Street Garden in Patchogue was our meeting location last night for the Patchogue Sketch. It was a wonderful night to be out sketching and the plants and flowers inside didn't disappoint. 

Shep Jones Lane Field of Flowers

In the town of Stony Brook there is a preserve that is along Shep Jones Lane. It is filled with beautiful yellow flowers. My plein air group has been going there for years to paint. I haven't been there in a few years and it seems like there are a lot fewer flowers now. Before you could look out on meadows on both sides of the road and just see yellow flowers that were nearly as tall as you are. A storm last year affected the area with heavy flooding when a dam and a nearby road were washed away. I wonder if that affected it. It is still a lovely spot, although harder to reach since the other road still hasn't been repaired.

 

Beach Sketches

 I haven't been to the beach in a while to actually sit on the beach...a rare thing for me. I've been going to the pool mostly. I did go a few weeks ago with a friend to sketch. This time I headed over to Islip Beach which is on the Great South Bay. It isn't as good as being at the ocean, but it is closer and the parking is a lot easier. This lady was relaxing right in front of me. She kept moving her arms to awkward positions.

This lady was also nearby. It is fun to see where some of the body parts go in relationship to the chair parts. Sorry for the shadow on the left.

Hindu Temple

My friend found an interesting location in Melville. I met her at the BPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple. It is a beautifully designed building and so different from what we usually sketch.

I had checked their website before we went and it said they were open for the afternoon from 4-8. We wanted to see if we could sketch inside. We checked at the front desk and were asked to remove our shoes. We enterd the area of worship through the woman's entrance. A gentleman met us inside and we asked if it was possible to sketch. We were told that the this is a sacred Hindu place of worship and visitors are asked to be peaceful, pray, and meditate. He agreed that quiet sketching would meet with their values. Their leader came and prayed, as well as several other visitors.

The sanctum of the Mandir has images and statues of the diety. The statues are surrounded by pinnacles adorned with beautiful carvings and sculptures. I hadn't brought my paints inside, so I sketched in ink. I would love to have painted in watercolors to show the beautiful costume on the statue and the beautiful carved golden pinnacles. We sat and sketched for about 40 minuted until we were told that there would be about a 20 minute period when the area would be closed. A curtain was closed in front and we left the area. As we were leaving we were told that we were welcome to come back and sketch any time.  

The Groovy Smoothie

I stopped at the Sayville Farmers Market on Sunday to sketch and shop. The forecast was for rain so I sketched this view from my mobile studio. It had just started spritzing when I finished but I scooted out to get some frest veggies. About an hour later the spritzing changed to heavy rain with thunder and lighting which lasted most of the afternoon. I always feel sorry for outdoor vemdors who have to pack up quickly when rain hits. (We've experienced that a few times.) Luckily the Groovy Smoothie truck didn't have a lot to pack up and could get out of the rain fairly quickly. 

Bellport Street Scene

Yes, this is a similar view to yesterday's post. It was painted along Bellport Lane looking toward South Country Road. I am participating in the South Bay Art Association's Plein Air Event again this year. The artwork will be on display on Bellport Day on July 25. The participants have about a week and a half to paint in the designated area and select one piece to enter into our exhibit. I the show is juried and prizes are awarded to the winners. So far I've painted 2 possible entries but I'm fairly sure this is the one I will put in the show. 

Bellport Street Corner

This ink and wash sketch was also done for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt. The prompt was a street. 

Scavenger Hunt Items

Here are a few sketched done for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunts, 

A gate

Ceramic & Metal

 

A Knight in the Garden

My plein air group met at a private garden in West Sayville recently. We've painted there before but they often have new interesting items tucked among their flowers and trees. This time there was a suit of armor by one of the trellises. I knew I had to paint it. Someone was getting rid of it and offered it to the homeowner, Tom who worked on it to make it stable for the outdoors and then placed it in their garden. He was thrilled that one of us selected the suit of armor for a painting. 

Patchogue Farmers Market

 I enjoy going to local farmers markets to see the different items they have and find things to sketch. This was my second visit to the Patchogue Farmers Market this summer. It is at the Long Island Railroad Station in Patchogue. It is set up nicely and has some tables in the center that are shaded and perfect for sitting and sketching.

I was sitting at a table planning to sketch a floral display across from me when I noticed that in the other direction there was a woman holding a pilates class. Yasmine from @flowhausbyyaz and two students were doing all kinds of stretches that made me ache just watching. I sketched a few of the poses. When they were done I met Yasmine and one of the students. They were so nice.

In the opposite direction Peach & Bloom had a lovely booth. I loved the idea of a bouquet bar. I stopped to show the vendors my sketch and they loved it. They were really so nice.

South Shore Farm Stand

The South Shore Farmstand recently relocated to Bayport from Oakdale. The building looks larger and I hope their business does much better in this location. I didn't get a chance to go inside after my sketch but I will go soon. I've seen their ads and it looks like they have a lot more merchandise. 

The Shed

 Right along Main Street in West Sayville is The Shed, a restaurant in West Sayville with a large oudoor seating area. The umbrellas over the picnic tables give a peaceful feel to the place.

Lazy Bunny Ukulele Band

Summer had officially started with a concert by the Lazy Bunny Ukulele Band held at the Common Ground Park in Sayville. The band is really entertaining and by the end of the evening there were quite a few people up dancing. I enjoyed the show with the other members of the Patchogue Sketch Club. 

Continuous Line Fun

I did this continuous line sketch by the pool with Procreate.  It seems much easier to do a continuous line on paper rather than an iPad. It just doesn't have the same feel to it. I added color which made the sketch a bit clearer...my water bottle, sunglasses and my beach bag.

Lavender Field

 My plein air group was scheduled to paint at Lavender By the Bay in Manorville again, but the weather wasn't good. I gave it another attempt, again from my mobile studio, but I was the only member who showed up. There was a small patch of yellow and red flowers in the field which was a different contrast.

Strawberry Jam

During our heat wave it was good to find items inside that I could sketch. This fit a Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt item too...something sweet. 

Outside the Sayville Bean

 A stop at the Sayville Bean was a good spot to find some people to sketch early in the morning during our heat wave. It was early enough for the heat to be tolerable.

Scavenger Hunt Sketches

 I had gone out early to get lobsters for 4th of July dinner (a tradition our family had for my mom's birthday which is the 4th of July). I hadn't had breakfast and I had left Jerry sleeping so on the way back home after picking up the lobsters I stopped at Mc Donald's to pick up Sausage and Egg Mc Muffins. One of the prompts for the current Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt was "yummy" so I thought this fit. 

yummy

shoes

fruit and a bowl

Lavender By the Bay

 Somehow this didn't get photographed and posted earlier. My plein air group, PALS was scheduled to sketch at Lavender By the Bay in Manorville. When I got there it had started to drizzle. On ly myself and only 2 other members actually came to paint due to the weather.It is a huge lavender field and I didn't want to get stuck out there if it really started to rain hard, which it ended up doing. There is a covered pavilion but you still would have to get there and back. Instead I pulled up near the fence, sat in my mobile studio, and painted the view.

This week the English lavender will be in bloom so the group is scheduled to return there on Tuesday.

From the Maritime Museum Grounds

The other evening the Patchogue Sketch Club met at the Maritime Museum in West Sayville. Rather than focus on the water like I usually do I did a direct watercolor of the view out the entryway to the grounds looking toward the house across the street. 

Near Home

 Before the craziness of the 4th of July took hold I sketched the street scene in Sayville. This was done as a direct watercolor with no pencil lines.

We had a number of really hot days going into this weekend, so I made sure I had a lot of time to relax in the pool at our complex or time to sit in the shade. This was done on my iPad with Procreate.

Kalers Pond Barn

 Right after I got home from Maine my plein air group went to Kalers Pond in Center Moriches to paint. There is a rustic brown barn there that was a good subject to paint.

Boothbay Harbor

On our last full day in Maine, the three of us took a ride to Boothbay Harbor. We walked around in and out of some of the shops. Neither of them planned on sketching so I left them shopping and went down where the harbor boats take people out on cruises. I sat on a bench and sketched the colorful ticket booth in front of me.

A man came over to see what I was doing and started telling me that his 12 year old loves to draw and is very good, but she has no confidence in what she creates and is very shy and also autistic. He asked if he could bring her over to see what I was doing. By the time I finished the painting they hadn’t come over so I packed up my stuff and went over to meet my sisters. The family happened to see me there and came over so I got to show her this painting. She was really sweet and told me she has been doing a lot of Procreate art lately, so I asked her if she had any of her work on her phone. She didn’t but I gave her my card and asked her to send me something that she did. We all had a nice chat about sketching and painting and I stressed how important it is to keep practicing. I hope she got a little encouragement and continues to make art. I love encounters with young budding artists.

Again I took some photos during my morning walk in Damariscotta.

Sketches from Pemaquid

 One of my musts to visit when I go to Maine is Pemaquid Point and Pemaquid Lighthouse. I usually sketch some part of the lighthouse but this time I sketched the rocks below it. It was a very foggy day and the horizon kept appearing and disappearing. There are always people climbing around down on the rocks so I included a few. I no longer have the agility to climb down there and back up again.

Seated off to my left were a few people having lunch. I sketched them and again this was done on paper that is the size of a bookmark.

Both of my sisters brought along their sketching supplies and were seated a bit behind me. Chris took this photo of me sketching.

Here are a few photos from my morning walk in Damariscotta.

From the Patio

 I recently took a short trip with my sister, Michelle, up to Maine to visit our other sister, Chris, and her family. We spent a lot of time catching up with each other, but I did head outside the first day and paint from the patio. Across the street there was this wonderful very tall pine tree. This is a very small painting...maybe the size of a bookmark, but perfect to show the height of the tree.

There is a birch tree in my sister's yard that she planted years ago in memory of my dad. It is now huge and provides lots of shade to the yard and the house. It is here against their barn.

In the morning I took a walk for exercise in Damariscott. Here are some of the flowers I saw on my walk into town.