#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - Sayville Garden Tour

Today was the Sayville Garden Tour. I had previewed the gardens when I did the black and white sketches of them so I picked the two gardens I wanted to paint in. This is the view of the first garden. There were many spots I would have loved to paint but most of them were in direct sun and it would have been too hot on this very sunny day. I found a very shady spot and painted this view toward the house. I even put in the home owner, Donna. She loved the painting and bought it. Yay!!!

The second garden property had all these fun spots. This one had a pink pig tucked into the foliage.

Yes...I know...I needed a direct watercolor painting for today. Each garden had musicians...a jazz group in the first garden and these two ladies playing in the second. I had a little time after painting the garden itself, so I turned and painted the two musicians as my day 15 painting for #30x30DirectWatercolor2018. They were so delighted that I painted them and kept telling me that I made them look better than in real life. lol They were sweet.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - Day 10 - Garden Sketches

My very generous friend, Susan invited two of us to come and paint the peonies that were blooming in her garden...after breakfast at the diner. (We needed sustenance for painting.) This is 5 x 7 and was done for the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge. Peonies are hard because they are sort of shaped like a ball...but not like a ball, with crazy irregular petals...and lots of them. lol This probably took me nearly 2 hours.

When I finished the peonies I wanted to do a small direct watercolor of the foxgloves. My small sketchbook is square and the pages weren't long enough to fit everything so I did this one on the diagonal.

I posted a few of the black & white garden sketches for the Sayville Garden Tour the other day. Here are the sketches done for the other 3 gardens.

Garden 4

Garden 5

Garden 6

Sayville Garden Tour

Today I participated in the Sayville Garden Tour. There were 6 gardens to view on the tour and in each garden artists and musicians were scheduled. I had seen 3 of the gardens previously, so I picked two gardens to paint in from those I had seen. The first garden had several views that I wanted to paint, but the front entry and garden caught my eye the first time I was there, and that was what I painted. The only problem was that I was standing in full sunlight for the entire time. I was able to shade my paper with my painting umbrella, but not my body, so by the time I was done I was hot. The homeowner, Carolyn kept offering me cold water and when I was finished she let me go inside and wash up and cool myself off before I headed to the next garden. Here is the painting I did and it was SOLD to the homeowners. Yay!!!

Then I dashed off to the next garden I had been assigned. Again I went with the view I had seen the other day, and I'm glad because there were several spots I liked. This time I was able to stand in the shade to paint and the homeowner had a big jar of lemon water for the visitors to the garden. Here is my painting looking at the area near one of the side gates. The woman who owned the home loved the painting. She took my card and told me she had to check with her husband before she could buy it. I hope that isn't the kiss of death for this painting. lol

Here is the view I was painting.

Sayville Garden Tour

My plein air group, PALS, was invited to participate in the Sayville Garden Tour that took place today. We previously did quick pen and pencil sketches for their brochure, but today was the actual tour. People picked up their tickets at the Gillette House in Sayville where we had a show hanging of mostly floral themed paintings.

There were 6 gardens in the tour and artists were assigned for morning sessions or afternoon sessions at the different gardens. I chose to do one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

From 11 -1 o'clock I was at a garden on Sunrise Avenue in Sayville. When I was there originally I sketched a cherub near the pergola that goes to the koi pond. 

Today I focused on the pergola itself with the view through to the tree and the koi pond. If you look closely you can see the cherub on the left.  Why did I select that view? I just loved the pergola with the pink flowers on top and winding through it. 

Here is the view I saw.

And here is my painting (8 x 10) which was purchased by the homeowners. Yay!!!

Another artist, my friend Jean, was painting at the other end of the garden.

While we were painting we were serenaded by musicians playing on the patio.

At 1 o'clock I moved to the second garden on Seville Blvd. When I was there the last time I sketched the fish water feature by the pond in the yard.

Today I never got past the front view of the house which I think was just lovely. There were beds of flowers, unusual trees in greens and reds and a great house with great windows.

Since I got a bit of a late start here I decided to only do a 5 x 7 painting, but I was very happy with the way  it came out. Here I am at work in front of the house.

The owners both loved it but didn't offer to buy it. 

They already had a painting from one of the artists who painted there in the morning.

I did go around the back of the house when I finished painting and found my friend, Muriel painting in the back garden by the musicians.

It was a really nice day at lovely locations!

Garden Tour Sketches

My plein air group (PALS) is taking part in the Sayville Garden Tour next month. During the tour there will be artists from our group painting in each of the gardens. The garden club prints up a black & white brochure to hand out when people buy the tickets for the tours, and they asked if we could do a few small black & white sketches of each garden to go inside the brochure. So last week 6 of us met and did a quick sketchcrawl through the gardens.

Two of the gardens are at private condo units in the same complex. 

This was the front garden in one of them.

This garden had a lot of nooks with statues tucked among the flowers and foliage.

I thought the pig was cute.

This garden had a pond area with a fish that I think sprays water when it is up an running.

Most of the gardens were still being readied for the tour next month, so not all features were ready and with our weather many of the flowers were not in bloom yet.

This garden also had areas with statues and a water feature that was being prepped by the homeowner that day.
I did like the cherub on the pedestal.

There are 8 gardens in all, but I didn't get to sketch each one. It was very strange to be working on a sketch of a garden in black and white. I was itching to get at the color! lol