Hog Farm in Autumn

I drove over to Hog Farm in Brookhaven last week. I caught it when it was open and there were a lot of people and things to sketch. 

There were several dogs with their owners, but very few stayed put except for this one.

Usk Sketchmas Day 18 - Dog or Cat & Museum Trip

 The Sketchmas prompt yesterday was a "dog or cat." I don't have any pets and didn't really want to disturb a friend to go over and do a pet portrait. So I went to Petco and stood by their window to the grooming station. The dog I picked stood pretty still, but the groomer kept moving around and blocking my view. Also, I couldn't see the dog's paws because there were boxes blocking my view. I did the sketch on site but added the color at home.

On Saturday one of my art groups, Wet Paints, had a bus trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a free trip for members...only guests had to pay. How could I pass that up? The museum had several great exhibits so I wasn't planning to spend the day sketching like I usually do. Along with two friend from the group I went to view the Manet/Degas Exhibition which was really good and extensive. Manet & Degas were friends and often painted in the same areas and used the same models. The curator of the exhibit showed a painting of each of theirs and the info by the paintings discussed how the two paintings were related. I learned a lot about both of them.

The second exhibit was titled "Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism." The two artists redefined color as they painted with colors that they sensed rather than the natural hues of what they were seeing. It was a color explosion.

The final exhibit we saw was "Women Dressing Women" which explored many of the women fashion designers from The Met's permanent collection from the turn of the century to the present day. My favorites were some of the older fashions.

The Met's Christmas tree with the beautiful angels merited a stop too.

But I did have about 30 minutes to do a sketch before we were due back on the bus. My friend Liz was sketching in front of me.

Sketching Here And There

 Last week Jerry had an eye doctor appointment for his shots to his eyes. They put numbing drops in and then he has to wait for a bit. I used that time to sketch him in the chair. This was done on blue Strathmore paper. 

On Saturday afternoon I met my friend Suzala in Northport to paint. We decided not to venture into the city in the heat but to stay local instead. Later we headed down by the waterfront park and I sketched some people.

I also sketched in watercolor. This woman was sitting on a stone bench next to us.

There was a cute dog near her that I had to sketch. Both of these were done directly in watercolor.