Arts on Terry

 Arts on Terry was recently held in Patchogue. Two of my art groups were represented. The Patchogue Sketch Club once again did a group project...this time we did printing. I posted a few photos of the group in action carving the plates and printing on paper and on fabric. Here is what our wall looked like...although it was hard to get the whole wall without a lot of glare on the pieces. The lobster prints were mine.

My favorite part of Arts on Terry is seeing the live paintings that are created. My friend, Nora Francese was painting nearby, so I sat and sketched her at work.

A friend's friend snapped a photo of me sketching Nora.

Here is Nora almost finished. She started at noon and was painting until 5 PM. There were somewhere between 8-10 artists selected to do the large paintings. They are always impressive!

In addition to the wall with our prints on it, our group had a table with assorted merchandise as well as paintings and sketches on display. Here are a few of the members of the group.

Printing Project - Part 1

 The Patchogue Sketch Club has been working on a printing project for Arts on Terry, a local art exhibition that is taking place on Sunday. Each of our participating members created a carved plate of something that had to do with under the sea. Here are the designs that were carved.

This lobster is mine.

We all did black prints of out plates. Then they were arranged in a pleasing order.

Then a piece of fabric was placed over the inked plates and rubbed until the images transferred.

This is the final print of the images on the blue fabric.

We continued printing with the plates...this time in blue ink on an orangey fabric. The designs showed up better on this fabric. I think the blue one competes too much with the print designs.

Printing Project Part 1

Every year for the last few years the Patchogue Sketch Club has taken part in an outdoor festival called Arts on Terry. We always do a group project. This year we are doing a printing project. Each of the members carved a plate of something having to do with under the sea. We have printed the plates together on fabric. The first ones were done with blue ink on an orangy fabric.

Here is my lobster plate ready for printing. 

Here are the other plates that were printed.

Janet's seahorse.

Marianne's scuba cat.

Rosanne's underwater scene.

Laurie's fish.

Casey's koi.

Here they are printed on the fabric.

Then we printed using black ink on a blueish fabric.

The contrast in some areas wasn't quite as good as on the orange.

 

Portraits for Arts on Terry

 Last Sunday I participated in Arts on Terry with the Patchogue Sketch Club. Terry Street in Patchogue is closed for this event. This year our group project was called "We By Us." We were partnered with another member of the group and we did portraits of each other from a photo. 

My friend, Pat Sweeney and I were paired. We were given a 14 x 16 canvas to paint on. Since I do watercolors my canvas was covered with watercolor paper. This was difficult because I don't do too many portraits and I don't work that large! My piece came out OK. I couldn't get Pat to look old enough to match her photo...but I guess younger is better than making her look older. 

Pat wanted the portrait to reflect her life in 2023 so she wanted the portrait to include one of her many hats that she has been wearing since finding a spot of cancer near her left eye. So I did the portrait with a hat. Right before Arts on Terry, Pat had her Mohs surgery and the entire left side of her face was coved in bandages, so she didn't make an appearance at the event. But she was there in spirit and I sent her lots of photos of what was going on. She had some difficulty doing my portrait because her vision was obscured by the bandages. I think she did a pretty good job!

My portrait of Pat.

Pat is on top and the portrait of me is on the bottom.

Here are all the portrait pairs.

All the artists except Pat.

It was fun to see all the different styles and that everyone did something so unique.

Exquisite Garden

 Today was "Arts on Terry" a fun, annual event presented by the Patchogue Arts Council. It is a contemporary art fair highlighting 300+ artists from a variety of Long Island Arts organizations. It included a full day of art exhibits, demonstrations, PAC Paint Showdown, live painters, family-friendly activities, live music, poetry, and performances. Two of my art groups exhibitied at the event and I had work showing in both groups.

As we have previously, the Patchogue Sketch Club did a collaborative project. Each participating member was given a panel on which to paint a garden. The panels each had half circles on both sides to be halves of flowers on their panels to match the half circles on the panel in each direction. The 10 panels were then hung together. Here is the completed project.

Artists left to right: Liz Dow, Mariann Anderson, Christine Hanson, Pat Sweeney, Laurie Samara-Schlageter, Rosanne O'Reilly, Linda Prentiss, Joan Tavolott, Jennifer Mesticky

I took photos of it in sections too.

This is the section I painted. Most people used acrylics but my panel was coated with watercolor ground and I painted it with watercolors. The panel to the right of mine was also painted with watercolors.

The project was a lot of fun to work on, and a wonderful surprise when the panels were finally hung together!

Here are photos of a few of the paintings that were done for the live paint showdown.

Pandemic Life Project

 Today the South Bay Art Association and the Patchogue Sketch Club took part in Arts on Terry, a contemporary art fair including 300+ artists from a variety of Long Island Arts organizations. I had two paintings that were hanging with the South Bay Artists. 

The Patchogue Sketch Club did a group exhibit on Pandemic Life. Eleven of our sketchers each received an 11 x 14 canvas and was asked to sketch a scene of something that might have been seen through a window during the pandemic. Each canvas would be a window in a facade of a building that was constructed of plywood and painted to look like brick.

I decided my window would look into a room where an artist was sketching the view outside. I made it look like an art studio with shelves with bins for art materials. The artist was sketching on an easel with her mask at the ready in case someone came in.

Here are the three walls of our pandemic building with the scenes from each artist. The building panels were standing in a triangular shape.

Close Up On Patchogue

Today was a big art festival in Patchogue called Arts on Terry. At the suggestion of our organizer, Mark Propper, the Patchogue Sketch Club decided we were going to do a special project for the event which we worked on for several weeks. Pat Sweeney took a photo of downtown Patchogue that Luanne Thompson blew up in her frame shop. The photo was enlarged to about 7feet x 5 feet and then divided into 12 inch square sections. The plan was that any interested artists in the group would select one or more sections of the large photo and paint that image on a 12 inch square canvas in their own style and their own medium. The project was inspired by the works of Chuck Close. Then the entire thing would be reassembled and displayed at Arts on Terry. I selected 3 panels and debated how to paint them. Watercolors didn't seem like a good idea since we would be displaying it outside and I would need a way to protect the watercolor once it was finished. So I did the pieces in acyrlics.

To be fair in selecting the parts to work on, we drew numbers and picked the panels that way. Here we were at the library selecting sections of the photo.

The first piece of the photo I worked on was part of the buildings on Main Street. Here is the photo I worked from and the sketch I did of it.

 

Here is my final painting of it.

I also did a piece that was part of two cars, shadows in the street, and a brick walkway.

Lastly I did a piece that was mostly sky and branches, but I forgot to take a photo of that piece.

Here is the project put together as it was displayed at Arts on Terry as well as a photo of me with the project.

We really had a great time doing the project and people at the art event loved it. There was some talk that the mural is going to be put on display at the library in town. I hope it is displayed somewhere so that more people can see it.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - Day 27 - Sayville Charm

I have painted this house in Sayville before, but riding past it today I couldn't help but stop and concentrate on the windows, shutters, window box and fence. This is my day 27 painting for the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge.

My friend, Michele DePaolo took a photo of me at the Arts on Terry event on Sunday with the painting I was doing. I've been too busy to finish this yet, but will post it when it is done.