Spring Lake Golf Club

It has been too cold and nasty out to see golfers out on the greens, but I headed over to Spring Lake Golf Club in Middle Island the other day. I liked the contrast of the autumn colors against the green grass.

Artist Lake

Yes, there is such a place as Artist Lake in Middle Island. It is a spot where there are usually lots of birds because there is a parking area along a main road and people pull up and feed them. Of course I got there and there must have been 20 birds batting their wings in the air, but by the time I had my materials out I was only able to capture a few before the lady ran out of whatever she was feeding them. lol I did quick basic sketches of the birds and quickly took a few photos to help me once they were gone.

Dunes at Smith Point

I really enjoy sketching the dunes at the beach. They are constantly changing from day to day and hour to hour. This was done at Smith Point Beach.

Northport House

After sketching in Northport recently I decided to go back to the same area and find another house to sketch. I liked the stone wall in front of this one.

30 Day Challenge - Day 19 - Barn View

I drive around a lot always looking for new scenes to paint here on Long Island. Yesterday I was going from a friend's house headed to a particular spot to paint and was using the GPS on my phone for the best route. On the way I passed this awesome barn and just had to stop. I had never seen it before. So the barn became the subject for my Day 19 gouache painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. I sat along the side of the road to paint this.

Fireplace Boat Basin and Long Island Snow

Now that I'm finished with the 100 People challenge, I can get back to posting some of my other work. This was painted down at the Fireplace Boat Basin in Brookhaven. In season it is filled with boats, but at this time of year there was not one boat in the water. I didn't let that stop me. Since nobody else was around I parked my car at the end of the little boardwalk going to the water by this shack. It was a good vantage point for sketching from my "mobile studio."

Today we had a snowstorm here on Long Island with about 5 inches of wet snow by me. Here are a few photos I took when I walked around my complex when the snow stopped, as well as a sketch of some of the snow on the branches of one of the trees.

This was done with my Elegant Writer which shades so nicely.

Beach Dune

Living here on Long Island we definitely don't lack views of the dunes and beaches. I painted this standing at my easel in the parking lot at Robert Moses State Park last week. I love the grasses and the odd trees there. This is 5 x 7.

Crab Meadow Dunes

I went up to Northport the other day which is on the northern side of Long Island. There are some nice spots by the water to sketch and paint, but once the "season" arrives you can't park there unless you are a resident. Crab Meadow is partly on the water and partly on an inlet and has several nice spots to sit and sketch. You just have to watch out for high tide, ticks, and poison ivy. I was sitting low down to sketch this...watching the water level carefully. lol

My newest installment to my fake blog "Floral Fantasy" can be found here.

floralfantasybyjoan.blogspot.com

Beach Rocks & Lighthouse

Last week I took a ride up along the north fork of Long Island to the Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold. After this weekend you need to be a resident to park in the area, so it was now or wait until the fall. I decided to go down to the beach which required walking down a staircase of over 125 steps. Of course that meant I had to walk up those same stairs when I was finished. It was a workout lugging my backpack and chair too. This was a bit of the rocky view down there.

Of course when I got to the top I had to sketch the lighthouse, which you can't see from down on the beach. You have to be a ways out in the water in order to see it.
Both of these are 5 x 7.

Bayside Jamesport

I can only go for so long without painting near the water. This was done on the north fork of Long Island at the Jamesport Town Beach. It happened to be one of those sunny, warm days that made me think that spring is actually here. 

Icy Harbor

With the cold temperatures here lasting for so long things have become quite frozen. I went up near Northport on the northern side of Long Island and drove all the way out to one of the beaches...about 7 miles down this peninsula. The harbor there was just huge chunks of ice. When the tide comes in and out it moves the ice and cracks it. In spots it was piled up in chunks. There were some fishermen in this harbor working to crack more of the ice so their boats could get out into the channel. It looked very eerie.

Docked Blue Boat

Long Island has a lot of marinas and boats. This was painted at the Squassux Marina in Brookhaven. This is 5 x 7.

Farmland

This is a small ATC (2.5 x 3.5) that I did of some farmland on the North Fork of Long Island.

I love the rows of green stretching so far back...I wonder what they're growing.

Poppies in the Garden

My plein air group (PALS) met to paint at a private garden in Bellport last week.

The pink and red poppies were in bloom.

Aren't they great?

Sunset

Yesterday my schedule was thrown off a bit due to shopping for a new TV and all that entails. It is like a snowball once it starts. lol Anyway I ended up coming to the library later in the day to use the computers. By the time I was leaving it was about 3:45 and the thought entered my head to head to the water and paint the sunset. I drove down near Corey Beach in Bayport and parked on the dock facing west. This is about 4 x 6. I'm glad my schedule was off and I was outside in time for the sunset.



Smith Point Beach

I finally took a ride down to the beach that I go to most often in the summer to see what it was like after the hurricane. As you can see in my sketch, a great deal of the sand is eroded under the concrete walkways. The previous storms had eroded a lot of sand even up to the wall. But now it is eroded past the wall and around the side, breaking up some of the concret path itself. In front of the food pavillion was a big staircase leading to the beach. Only a few pilings are still standing ...none of the staircases or railings. The beach is much shorter too. To the right of what you see here were dunes that were about 15-20 feet high. They are totally gone. The water had come over the dunes into the bbq area and wiped away everything.

The surfers yesterday were having a great time. I think the floor of the ocean in front of the beach has probably changed and is producing different waves. I don't know if that is good for them or not, but they were out there checking it out yesterday.

 

On another note I am pleased to announce that my work will be hanging in a few places next month.

First is our annual PALS Plein Air Show on Dec. 8th and 9th.

Here is an invite in case you are in the area.

My work will also be going into the Fiedler Gallery on Main Street in Greenport, NY. Rich Fiedler has his work in the gallery downstairs and rents wall space to artists upstairs in the building. Two friends of mine have been sharing a section of one of the walls with other artists they knew. The other artists are dropping out and I will be sharing the wall with Jeanne Salucci and Chris Taylor starting December 1. I will post some photos once we have the new arrangement hung at the gallery.

Wish me luck!

Pink and Orange

I braved the crazy Columbus Day weekend traffic yesterday and headed out to the north fork of Long Island. I've painted at this market many times...usually from the car because it gets so crowded. I've always wanted to paint their pink truck. This is 5 x 7. This was done at the Bay View Market and Farm in Aquebogue.



Yaphank House

Please come and visit my "fake" blog that I have been doing for the month of April, I still have a few entries to post before the month is over.
http://themagicfeatherbyjoant.blogspot.com


This is one of the buildings on the grounds of the Suffolk County Farm. in Yaphank. I liked the white fence and the trees in bloom.