Hector

 The celebration of the 18th anniversary of the Patchogue Arts Council coincided with the night the Patchogue Sketch Club normally meets. Their party was held at Spy Coast a restaurant/bar in Patchogue. Since we are members of PAC we were invited to the party. There was live music, socializing, cake, and a model for us in the rear of the room. Hector, who we have sketched before, posed for us. He is really a good model and comes prepared. We didn't have the setup we usually had, but it was fun anyway.

Hector always take photos of the sketches we do of him. Here is Hector taking photos.

Inktober 2022 - Day 20 - Smithtown House & Life Sketches

 Today I was up in Smithtown and found an interesting house for my Inktober sketch.

Last night the Patchogue Sketch Club was invited to a special event at MOCA LI and hosted by the Patchogue Arts Council which involved poetry and sketching. Our poet, Terri Muuss, read us several of her poems and then posed in a way that she thought reflected her feelings about the part of her life that each poem was written about. As she read her poems we got to know a little bit about her and the horrific difficulties like incest, drugs, and loss that she has survived. Her poems are raw, emotional, and inspiring. 

In the sketch below we did 5 two minute sketches overlapping them.

The very bottom sketch with her arms raided was in response to her poem, "Finish Line."

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.

Joanne

 Last night the Patchogue Sketch Club had a live costumed model. We are part of the Patchogue Arts Council which covered the model's fee. Joanne was dressed in a flamenco style dress and definitely posed that way in some of the short poses. She did 1, 2, 5, and 20 minute poses. I did one more sketch  but didn't quite finish it yet.

PGSB Part I

I am once again participating in Paint the Great South Bay (PSGB), a week long plein air event held locally. I believe I have taken part in three of them.  From this past Saturday to this coming Saturday we can paint anywhere in the designated area. Included in the organized events (which are optional) are nocturnal painting nights, a visit to the beach in the evening, a quick-draw event, and painting from a rooftop building. Artists must have their papers/canvases stamped before they can paint. This year they did a competition for the design of the PGSB rubber stamp and mine was selected. I won free admission to the event as well as a free renewal to the Patchogue Arts Council for the year.

Here is the stamp I designed printed on the flier for the event.

On Saturday I headed over to the Sayville Farmers Market. I wasn't sure what the weather would be like since it was spritzing on and off, so I parked my car where I would have a good view of a booth and then wedged my beach umbrella between the door and the seats of the car. It offered a little protection just in case. Of course people came along and checked out what I was doing, even the man who organizes the market. He asked me to send him a copy of the finished painting so that he could post it on the Sayville Farmers Market website, and to also send the details about the reception which will be this Sunday. Here are some photos of my setup and progress.

Our first organized event was on Saturday evening. I met with some of the other artists prior to picking a location. We were told that there would be a photographer and a writer who would be doing an article about the event for our largest newspaper in the area, Newsday. The weather forecast was not good so I decided to get started quickly and paint near somewhere where I could take shelter if it started raining. I went into the Terry Street Garden which was near the Patchogue Arts Gallery. The photographer came over and took photos of me working. I think she took photos of 2/3 of us before it started to rain.

This is how far I go on the painting before the rain started. I packed up quickly and ran for cover by the gallery nearby. It rained for hours! My friend, Gina was so wet that she had to call her husband to bring her some dry clothes. It probably started raining about 7 and the writer wasn't coming until 8. Most of the artists (except for 3 of us) left once there was a slight lull in the rain. Gina, Segundo and I hung around until the writer came to do the interviews. The article should be in Newsday either today or tomorrow.

I didn't paint on Sunday because I had the monotype workshop. On Monday I debated as to whether or not I wanted to go back and work on the same painting or find a new location. I decided to return...once again the sky didn't look promising, but luckily it didn't rain. I decided to enhance the urn with some inkwork using my Elegant Writer pen. 

As the painting progressed I used more of the ink in the painting.

The finished version of the painting is below.

Van Cortland Park & "It Takes A Village" Exhibit

After 30 days of direct watercolor I took a break today and didn't even take out my watercolors. I did work on some alcohol ink tiles this morning and then went to the pool for a few hours.

I still have a few sketches that I never posted from before my trip to Australia. Back in April the NYC Urban Sketchers met in the Bronx at Van Cortland Park. I started with a sketch of part of the Van Cortland House Museum.

My next sketch was done down by the wetlands by the lake. A lady and her little boy posed with some ducks for us.

At lunch we shared our sketches and of course did some sketching of each other.

This afternoon was the Patchogue Sketch Club's reception for our exhibit called "It Takes A Village." All the sketches are of the village of Patchogue and are hanging in Roast Coffee & Tea Company in the heart of the village. We have sketched there many times so it was nice to be invited to exhibit our work. Here are a few photos from the reception.

Rosanne O'Reilly

Rosi Berry

Me

LuAnn Thompson

Jenn, Rosanne, Gina, Me, Rosi, LuAnn

Jennifer Mesticky

Gina Lento who organizes our group outings.

Festival del Amor

The Patchogue Arts Council has been celebrating the Summer of Love all summer long with art shows and events. On Saturday evening they had their "Festival del Amor"and the Patchogue Sketch Club was invited to sketch. A few of us showed up. I only stayed for part of it and my friend and I were there before the flamenco performance started. The stage was set with a large poster and the chairs were covered with lovely Spanish shawls. I did add the guitarist to this page when he started playing.

The flamenco dancers from Sol Y Sombra were really good. Their were 3 women in colorful, tiered dresses and a gentleman in a colorful shirt. The dancing was intense. They each did a solo piece and it was hard to sketch them because they moved so much. These are composites of some of their movements. The bad part about sketching was that it took so long to get the actual sketch and color done that I didn't get to "watch" the performances as an audience member. I wish I had been able to watch more of it and appreciate the dance.

While the festival was going on my friend Amanda Reilly was painting one of her large canvases. Isn't she amazing?