Terry Street Garden

The Terry Street Garden in Patchogue was our meeting location last night for the Patchogue Sketch. It was a wonderful night to be out sketching and the plants and flowers inside didn't disappoint. 

Shep Jones Lane Field of Flowers

In the town of Stony Brook there is a preserve that is along Shep Jones Lane. It is filled with beautiful yellow flowers. My plein air group has been going there for years to paint. I haven't been there in a few years and it seems like there are a lot fewer flowers now. Before you could look out on meadows on both sides of the road and just see yellow flowers that were nearly as tall as you are. A storm last year affected the area with heavy flooding when a dam and a nearby road were washed away. I wonder if that affected it. It is still a lovely spot, although harder to reach since the other road still hasn't been repaired.

 

From the Patio

 I recently took a short trip with my sister, Michelle, up to Maine to visit our other sister, Chris, and her family. We spent a lot of time catching up with each other, but I did head outside the first day and paint from the patio. Across the street there was this wonderful very tall pine tree. This is a very small painting...maybe the size of a bookmark, but perfect to show the height of the tree.

There is a birch tree in my sister's yard that she planted years ago in memory of my dad. It is now huge and provides lots of shade to the yard and the house. It is here against their barn.

In the morning I took a walk for exercise in Damariscott. Here are some of the flowers I saw on my walk into town.

A Rose is a Rose

 I had saved one rose from my Valentine's Day bouquet that Jerry gave me. The flower was already dried out and papery with a sort of dusty pink color. I did this in watercolors and a touch of Neocolors.

Going Digital

 While I’m here in Venice I’ve tried to keep up with the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunts. I find doing some of them as Procreate sketches works best. I don’t need a separate sketchbook. 

One of the items was leaves. I have a small pot of flower that our pianist, Natalie, brought me when we arrived.

Another item was a coffee station. I gathered the coffee maker that Jerry uses and the small moka pot that I use for my decaf coffee. It barely makes a half cup. lol I did this as a continuous line sketch and then added color.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! 

The Farm on Lakeland is located on Lakeland Avenue in Sayville. The have a large assortment of plants and vegetables for sale. I always buy corn and tomatoes there when they are at their peak. I often sketch The Farm from the side around the corner so that I don't take up one of the parking spaces in front since there aren't too many of them. This was done in direct watercolor for the 30 x 30 challenge.

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Flowers by the Fence

These flowers were behind a wrought iron fence near the beach in Sayville. Doing direct watercolor I need to be more patient and wait for things to dry...something I tend not to do. lol

Suffolk County Farm

I hadn't been to the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank for a while. There were some flowers in bloom. I painted them in direct watercolor for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge 2025.

The sheep were out and some were near the shelter...

(These were also done for the 30 x 30 challenge.)

and some were just grazing in the nearby field.

(More for the 30 x 30 challenge.)

Flowers by the Steps

 Recently I had a few paintings in a show with one of my art groups. They were displayed for the month of April in Port Jeff. When the show was over I drove up to pick them up. While I was in Port Jeff I sat and sketched the steps and flowers along the street. Port Jeff is very hilly so the house here was above me, but I liked this view down below.

Venice 2024 - Part 6 - Burano, Rialto Market, Vegetable Stand, Florist

I can't go to Venice without spending a day in Burano. The colors of the houses just sing!!! It is about a 45 minute vaporetto ride to Burano, but first you have to get to the other side of the island where the Fondamenta Nuovo is located. I was up and out early to take the 25 minute walk to the vaporetto stop.

The colors are so bright and wonderful in Burano. I did one sketch in the morning after arriving and then spent some time walking around and taking photos. It was sad to see that there are so many more houses in disrepair than last year. Many of them look abandoned. I am sure they take a real beating being so open to the water of the lagoon, the alta aqua, and the weather.

After a fairly quick lunch I returned to painting. There was no way I would go there and only do one painting. By the time I finished this painting I just couldn't sit on my stool any more. I needed to get up and stretch my legs and get the blood flowing again. I did some wandering through the shops but bought nothing...even though the lace items are always so tempting.

The next day I headed up to the Rialto Market again. I wanted to do a double-page spread with small scenes and items from the market. It is hard to plan the composition of the page. You need to decide on what to sketch and leave space for a heading. I started with sketches of two different vegetable stands. Most of the produce always looks so good...and I like finding things that I don't see at home.

This vendor had a wonderful assortment of wild mushrooms. He attracted a lot of people.

Then I saw the florist who always sells right by the entrance to where the fish vendors are located. He always has such beautiful flowers. I liked the contrast of the softness of the flowers and the architectural structure of the arches. I showed him the sketch when it was done and he was so pleased to see it. Of course I came back to the apartment with a small bouquet of flowers that helped me add more interest to the page.

When I got home I added the signs, and a few more details like the strawberry, the melons, and some of the flowers from the bouquet. The final additions were the lemon and the clementine at the bottom of the page.

My thanks to Brenda Swenson for the beautiful pages she has done that helped inspire me to do a spread like this. I followed some of her suggestions.

 

Rose Begonias in a Pitcher

 I have some rose begonias in hanging baskets on my patio that are getting very leggy. I cut some of the plant back and put the pieces with flowers in a small pitcher...a good still life.

Queens Botanic Garden

Last Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers had our annual "picnic" at the Queens Botanic Garden. We used to have a Christmas Party but the group got too large for us to find a venue where we could hold it. After Covid hit and we were able to gather again, it was decided to have it at the Queens Botanic Garden in the summer. There's lots of room for us and we also have an indoor room where we have our raffles, auctions, garage sale and refereshments. 

Here is the first sketch I did for the day of an area of flowers with the visitor's center behind them.

Here are two photos of Kim, myself, and Mark facing that view.

Outside the gates of the garden were some interesting buildings. Many residents of the community came by to see what I was painting and to compliment me. I alway worry about the signs and hope I've done a good enough job that I haven't written something inappropriate. lol

After lunch one of our members, Mel Barranco, led us on a sketchwalk. For most of our stops we were limited to a 2 minute sketch, although our last stop lasted 5 minutes. We were given the task of sketching anything that was in the area. I did a combination of people and plants.

 

Here are a few photos of the sketch walk. Not everyone participated.

The sketch walk was followed by the auction, raffles, etc. This event is part of our fundraising for the year. It was fun to see everyone!

Flowers at Rotary Park

The Patchogue Sketch Club was scheduled to sketch at a concert in Rotary Park in Sayville last Wednesday. The weather forecast was for the possibility of strong thunderstorms...although it looked fairly nice. Three of us showed up at the park only to find a sign saying the concert had been postponed due to weather. We decided to stay and sketch the flowers in the area. FYI...we didn't have any storms.

 

Susan's Garden

Last week my friend, Susan, invited the Patchogue Sketch Club to sketch her garden. I've sketched there many times, but this was the first time the group did. At the end of the evening we gathered together to make s'mores over a small fire. We had fun!

 

30x30 Direct Watercolor #22 Meadow Croft & Flowers

The lawn at Meadow Croft Estate in Sayville had some lovely yellow flowers...perfect for a 30x30 Direct Watercolor.

The Patchogue Sketch Club went to the Swan River Preserve in Patchougue the other night. The foliage there is so tall it is hard to find a view to sketch. I ended up focusing on some small flowers against the slats of the fence.

 

30x30 Direct Watercolor #21 At the Arboretum

Recently I took a trip over to the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. I wanted to paint the roses on the trellises and wasn't sure if they were blooming yet. According to one of the horticultural specialists the aren't at their peak yet, but as you can see they are blooming. Hopefully I will get back there and do another painting. I love this spot because it reminds me of Monet's Garden when I painted there. 

When I finished the roses on the trellises I went into the walled garden. These flowers are Canterbury Bells. I used a bit of oil pastel on this in addition to the watercolors.

30x30 Direct Watercolor #20 Olish's Farm

I like looking inside greenhouses, like this one at Olish's Farm in Eastport. They always have such nice displays outside. 

Flowers at the Market

 When I was out on the North Fork recently I was attracted to all the flower displays like this one at Bayview Farm & Market in Aquebogue.

Flower Shop (Negozio di Fiori)

 Near the Accademia Bridge I came across this lovely flower shop. I did a very nice business. I looked fit the name of the shop but didn’t find it.

My apologies to those of you who have been posting comments, but Blogger isn’t letting me respond to comments. That is so annoying!

Anniversary Flowers

 For our 26th Anniversary Jerry picked out a bouquet of flowers for me. This was done in a Strathmore Tan Toned Sketchbook. I used watercolors, oil pastels, white gouache and watercolor pencils.