Governors Island - Part I

Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers went to Governors Island which is a 172 acre island in the heart of New York Harbor. It originally was a military base - home to the US Army and later to the Coast Guard. Now it is being renovated and is overseen by the National Park Service.

There is a free (Yes, FREE!) ferry from downtown NYC.  My friend, Susan, and I took the 10am ferry for the short ride over to the island. We were early enough to do a sketch from the inside of the terminal looking out. When we put away our sketching material a woman behind us asked if we were part of the  Urban Sketchers. She was too and this was the first time she was joining the group.

Here is the sketch I did of the inside of the ferry terminal.

The ride over took only a few minutes. I worked on finishing my sketch but Susan and Allison were busy chatting and sharing information about sketching and life.

We found a spot with good views of the city and started sketching.

Several other sketchers came over on the 11:00 ferry from Manhattan and the other ferry from Brooklyn. We had a total of 8 people participating this week.

I decided to do some small sketches of what I saw.

Bike riding is a big thing on Governors Island. You can bring your own bikes or rent them there. Someone parked their bike nearby and that was my next sketch.

There were solo bikers,

and groups biking together.

While I was sketching the other members of the group were busy too.

Here are Mark and Allison,

Brian and Susan,

and some of the other sketchers.

While we were in that location I sketched Lady Liberty

and the Staten Island Ferry.

Along the fence were some life preservers just in case.

There are still a number of sketches that I will post tomorrow in Part II.

Dingle Part IV

I would like to take a minute in honor of Memorial Day

to thank all of those who gave so much for our freedom.

As you can see I did a lot of painting in the Dingle area.

This painting has a bit of  a story. I read in my Rick Steves Ireland book that there was a lighthouse in Dingle that you could walk to, and he gave directions to get there. The book said it was about a 45 minute walk one way which seemed doable. So I went off with my backpack and painting supplies.

Of course it was a windy day and cold...but it looked like it wouldn't rain. After the first two turns it told you to climb over the steps by the Coast Guard building and follow the pathway along the ledge along the water in the harbor. It did not tell me that I would have to climb through a slatted fence (luckily I fit) or that I would be walking through a cow pasture for part of the trip with many cows having lunch. I did pass some lovely views of a tower up on a hill too.

When I got to the lighthouse I sat down on my tripod stool and started painting. By the time I was nearly finished, I had my scarf wrapped around my head because it was so cold, and I was wearing my earmuffs and my gloves. It was a pretty spot. I loved the brick wall and the posts on the left.

Walking back wasn't too bad because the wind was to may back. But there was a section that was downhill that was very muddy and along the side of a cliff. My balance isn't good normally and here I was walking with my very overstuffed backpack on slippery, muddy rocks...but I did it!

Paudie's Bar and B&B was one of the typical colorful buildings down by the harbor.

I tried to sketch a view down one of the main streets in Dingle. 

All those cars made me crazy since I don't like sketching cars.

This was the view from Blue Zone Jazz & Pizza.

Our table had a rooftop view.

This was a great store where I searched and searched for a non-wool Irish sweater. They had the prettiest sweaters but nothing I could wear...not even most of the scarves.

It did make a nice spot for sketching.