Fountain

 I've sketched this fountain which is in front of a home in Sayville so many times. I love fountains and the aren't very common. This was done in the sketchbook from Venice that seems to have no/not enough sizing on the paper. I'm trying to use it up anyway.

Madison Square Park Fountain

 My second sketch on Saturday was done inside Madison Square Park. There is a fountain on the south end of the park and a small round pond on the north end of the park. The fountain was in a perfect sunlit spot and the bench I sat on was in the shade. A jazz group was playing nearby.

Another NYC Urban Sketcher came along when I was nearly done and we started talking and sharing stories. Then a photographer came along and told us he was doing a project on groups of people in the park and how they use the park. He asked if he could take some photos of us working. Later when we were doing our show-and-tell he took photos of everyone and their work to use in the project. 

It turned out to be a productive day for the group. Two of the sketchers actually sold the pieces they had done on site.

Fountain

 I haven't found too many homes in the area that have fountains, but this one in Sayville is one of my favorites. One of the items on the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt recently.

Another item on the Scavenger Hunt list was an anchor. This one is outside by Shellfish Marine Inc down by the West Sayville dock.

House with a Fountain

This house in Sayville has a beautiful fountain in the front. I love passing by and seeing the water splashing. The building is stucco, and it sets off the fountain nicely. But at some point they turn off the water for the winter and the entire fountain is wrapped up.  

Lincoln Center and Inktober Day 16

 Yesterday I forgot to post!!! That's because I went to see my sister, Michelle who lives in New Jersey and her daughter and husband that were visiting from Oklahoma. I hadn't seen them in about 5 years. I left here early and got back late. Sorry about that. 

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers were meeting in the area around Lincoln Center. Our first stop was the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on the corner of Central Park West and W 65th Street. I always find churches and buildings like this difficult to sketch. We got there a little late so I had only about 30 minutes to do this sketch. I decided to let it be my Day 16 Inktober sketch and not worry about color.

Then we moved on to Lincoln Center itself. Aside from the fountain I don't find much there to be too exciting in the plaza. But there are a lot of people that sit at the edge of the fountain and they are always fun to sketch or paint. I did this directly in watercolor. I purposely did the fountain with the trees behind it to make the water stand out more. 

After a nice lunch and time chatting with some of the other sketchers I had time for one more sketch. I sat across the street in Dante Park and sketched the people in front of me and the view back toward Lincoln Center. It gave me a fun composition to work with.

When you are sketching outdoors you never know what will happen. When we got to the plaza I set myself up on my painting chair facing the fountain and Mark set himself up on his stool about 1/4 of the way around the plaza. A short while later a security guard came over to each of us and told us that we could sit on the stairs, or the structures that looked sort of like flat rocks, but we "couldn't use our own furniture." Later I found out that he went around to each of the sketchers that had their own "furniture." We've never had someone stop us from using stools or painting chairs before.

Garden and Trellis

 I went over to Meadow Croft in Sayville. I found a nice view looking into the garden toward the fountain (which has no water). There weren't too many flowers in bloom.

Back to the City - Part 1

 My friend called and asked if I wanted to go into the city with her to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers on Sunday. Her husband said he would drive us in and drop us off where we were meeting. That meant I wouldn't have to walk too far or worry about public transportation. The weather forecast was for cloudy skies and a chance of showers so I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a good pool day... so I said yes.

The group started off in City Hall Park which has a lovely fountain and a backdrop of lots of tall buildings. The park was pretty empty in the morning but a few people stopped by to see what we were doing. I found a good spot and started painting but after about a 40 minutes it started to drizzle. I covered up my sketchbook and moved over to an area that was pretty dry due to the thick foliage on the trees. It wasn't quite the same view but I had all the basics sketched in already and when it came time for the background buildings I got up to see what was there so I could paint it. 

We had lunch in the park and it was fun to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen the last time I got together with them. Some of the regulars who show up most of the time from Westchester couldn't get to the city because their rail line was so badly affected by the flooding we had. 

Biddle Fountain

I was up in Port Jefferson the other day and luckily found parking right across from this fountain. The fountain is in front of the town's Baptist Church. The Biddle Fountain was donated in 1898 by John Biddle, a wealthy piano manufacturer and summer resident of the village.  

Sayville Fountain & Breakfast

I was passing by this fountain in Sayville and noticed it had water. The last time I sketched it I think it must not have been summer because the water wasn't running. There was part of a house in the scene but I used artistic license and left it out. Most of the water is saved whites but I also added a few narrow drips of water with my white gel pen.

This was a sketch for a recent scavenger hunt on Wet Canvas...food and fruit. It was hard not to eat the breakfast before sketching it...thus the bites taken out of the peach. :)