On Sunday a friend and I went to see the North East Watercolor Society's Members' Show in Garden City. The work was really good and inspiring. Since we were in the area we stopped at the Blick store in Carle Place. I bought a few tubes of watercolor and gouche as well as a few Neocolor II crayons since they sell them as open stock. I skeched some of the supplies when I got home since "bought recently" was one of the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt prompts.
I couldn't visit Smith Point Park without sketching the actual ocean view. This was done directly in watercolor. I tried to catch the waves.
The clouds were great in the sky looking back toward the mainland from Smith Point Park. Sometimes you have to look the other way. lol
This is the front porch of the Swezey Avey House in Yaphank. My plein air group will be holding our annual exhibit and sale there in November. The patriotic bunting makes this historic house look so welcoming.
A new restaurant opened this spring in Bellport called La Plage. Passing by it today I saw this scene by the outdoor seating area. I quickly sketched the woman outside the fence just in case she moved away sooner than the other women. It was a smart move to draw her first because she moved off quickly.
As you know I do sketches for Creative Spark's Scavenger Hunts. Some of the sketches are really small like this sketch of a golf court. It is about 2 inches by 2 inches.
I stopped at the Sayville Farmers Market last Saturday. The vendors were set up around the perimeter of the field so I aimed for the vendors right actoss from where I was parked.
I had an appointment up in Wading River and when I was done I stopped at Andrews Family Farm to so a quick painting. I liked the view of the umbrella and table in the middle of the flower field.
This was sketched down at Sayville Beach looking toward the entrance. The flag was flying at half-mast since it was the 25th anniversary of 9-11.
An easy way to get some of the listed items for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt is to put several of the items into a still life. Then I like to do a continuous line of the whole thing...
My plein air group always heads to the Dahlia Garden at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum at this time of year. I usually do a closeup of a dahlia or two but I did a more encompassing view of some of the flower beds this time.
I am not a golfer and it took quite a bit of studying as I sat there to capture the correct stance of these models. This was sketched at the West Sayville Golf Course.
This is not my best lobster sketch. I made the body too thick, but I'll post what I've done anyway. For this one I used Neocolors and watercolor.
When we were in Chinatown we met an elderly Chinese gentleman who invite us to an art reception nearby that he was participating in. We spoke to him for a short while before he continued on to where the show was taking place. We stopped by to be polite and were amazed by all the gorgeous artwork. Much of it was in the Chinese style, but most of the paintings were large and lovely! I was so happy we stopped and viewed the show.
After viewing the reception I walked down to sketch Joe's Ginger, one of the Chinese restaurants with large lanterns in front.
It turns out this restaurant is connected to Joe's Shanghai which is where we were heading for dinner...which was absolutely delicious.
A few friends and I decided to organize our own little trip into NYC recently. We headed down to Pell Street in Chinatown. It was busy, but the view on Pell Street couldn't be beat...lots of people, Chinese lanterns and umbrellas...with a few NYC water towers thrown in.
The schools here on Long Island went back last Tuesday. I went down to Islip Beach and there was no lifeguard and only a few people on the beach. The staff should be back for the Labor Day Weekend...but it seemed too soon to see it so empty.
The Patchogue Sketch Club is working on our group project for Arts on Terry which will take place on Sunday, Sept 13. Mark and Karen were working on their canvases at the MOCA Gallery (more about the project in the future) but I had already finished mine at home. I kept myself busy sketching them as they worked. Mark is used to me sketching him but Karen was unaware that I sketched her. She is new to the group and doesn't know that I tend to sketch the members often. She liked the sketch.
I've sketched the ferry boats that leave Sayville for Fire Island quite a few times. There are usually a few docked along Brown's River and if I time it right I can get a sketch done before the ferry departs for it's trip. There were a few people on board when I started so I was able to include a few figures. This was sketched in the sketchbook that seems to have no/little sizing so the ink and the watercolor behave differently than on most of the papers that I use. Bon Voyage!
I wanted to sketch the land formations by the marina attached to the Timber Ridge Golf Course in Great River the other morning. This woman was actually sitting on the front end of a boat that was docked there being stocked with supplies for a trip. I loved her pose so I sketched her...and of course the boat pulled away before I could sketch it too. She was already in a seated position so I plunked her down on the dock that was right in front of me.
My second sketch on Saturday was done inside Madison Square Park. There is a fountain on the south end of the park and a small round pond on the north end of the park. The fountain was in a perfect sunlit spot and the bench I sat on was in the shade. A jazz group was playing nearby.
Another NYC Urban Sketcher came along when I was nearly done and we started talking and sharing stories. Then a photographer came along and told us he was doing a project on groups of people in the park and how they use the park. He asked if he could take some photos of us working. Later when we were doing our show-and-tell he took photos of everyone and their work to use in the project.
On Saturday I joined about 40 other NYC Urban Sketchers in the Madison Square Park area. On the left is the Flatiron Building. I liked the vibrancy of the yellow umbrellas and foliage in the foreground of the sketch. I was sitting on the outside sidewalk by Madison Square Park which is located near 23rd Street between 5th Ave and Madison Ave.
This was painted by the park down on the bay in Sayville. It looks out toward Fire Island.
My plein air group went to Lenny Bruno's Farm in Manorville. There were sunflowers in the field and a nice road heading back toward the barn. Of course I was sitting there and a truck came along bringing produce back to the barn and the farm stand, so I had to move over a bit. I think I need to lighten the red truck on the left by the barn...or at least give it some light on top of it.
I like sketching at the Land's End Marina in Sayville because the view seems to go on forever. We have been having some wild clouds in the sky lately so I thought it was a nice combination.
