Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center

Cornell University sponsors the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center in Riverhead. There are assorted gardens to visit, but I stayed close to the entrance. 

Queens Botanical Garden

 On Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers had our First Annual Picnic Summer Celebration at the Queens Botanical Garden. Due to Covid we were unable to have a holiday celebration indoors so this was our way of celebrating together. The day included sketching as well as raffles, free art supplies, a silent auction, and some desserts. The best part was spending time with the 80+ members who came to celebrate. Some of the members hadn't been together in person since pre-Covid. I also got to meet several of the members who I had met only on Zoom during our indoor events. We had an indoor space at the gardens but since the weather was so beautiful outdoors, we mostly enjoyed being outside.

By the main building I found Leslie Sim and some koi posing for me.

Pat Gaignat stopped by while I was painting. We hadn't seen each other since the pandemic started.

Facing the gift shop was a great circular gate surrounded by beautiful flowers.

The Queens Botanical Garden is located in part of Flushing that is filled with Oriental businesses and is the second largest Chinatown in New York City. I wanted to include that in one of my sketches so I looked for a scenic spot that gave a glimpse of what was outside the park, like this Oriental market.

It was so great to be back together as a big group again. My thanks to all the members who volunteered and helped organize the event.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 12

 Yesterday along with several other invited artists I participated in the Bellport Garden Tour. As people walk around the gardens we paint the gardens. Unfortunately we have no control over what is in bloom and neither do the homeowners. The garden I was in for this painting was very pretty but a lot was not fully in bloom yet. I did find a spot to paint and spoke to many of the people who came through touring the gardens.  Rather than the small size I've been doing for the challenge this one is 8 x 10.

The Bellport Garden Club had asked my permission to use one of my paintings for the poster 

advertising the Bellport Garden Tour.

Spring Blooms

 Spring has finally hit here on Long Island. My friend, Susan, invited me over to sketch in her garden. I focused on her purple crocuses. I love how they stick their heads out through whatever is there in the garden.

I did an ATC using ink and watercolor to do another sketch of a few of them. It was so nice to be able to sit outside in the sunshine without having to wear a jacket. Yay!!!

Terry Street Garden

I have sketched inside the Terry Street Garden in Patchogue quite a few times. This time I sketched the view from outside looking in through the covered arch. In the background are some buildings that are part of artist residences called Art Space. They were designed specifically for artists to live in as they redeveloped Patchogue to be an art destination. I sat in my car to sketch this.

Garden #1 - Hidcote Manor Garden

The NYC Urban Sketchers event today involved gardens all over the world. My friend, Lois Bender, led the group, suggested a few gardens to visit, and provided links. Lois and I sketched together last year several times in Paris, including at the Luxembourg Gardens. Of course you could select a garden that you wanted to sketch, but I was pretty happy with her choices.

One of her suggestions was Hidcote Manor Garden in the Cotswalds area of England. This garden is one of the best known examples of a British "Arts and Crafts" garden, featuring outdoor "rooms" that follow various themes and moods. I did a view of the manor house from below. This is a direct watercolor.

Iris

I recently thought I had a break before Jerry came home from having his hip surgery, so I went to visit my friend, Susan. She has a wonderful garden and I had hoped to paint some of her flowers. Of course we spent some time catching up with each other since we haven't been together in months. But before I could paint, my phone rang and I had to head back home to take care of some calls before Jerry would be released the following day. I did stop and take a few photos. This is one of her many irises that were in bloom. I couldn't do it from life but I did do it from the photo. 

This is one of the paintings I did as part of this year's 30x30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. So far I am keeping up with one a day.

Crocuses

I painted the crocuses in my friend’s garden recently.

So far, so good with posting from the iPad. The size came out better this time.

#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

Port Jeff Garden Tour

On Saturday a few friends and I participated in the Port Jefferson Garden Tour.  I believe there were around 6 gardens that were on the tour and each garden had 1 or 2 artists painting. I was randomly assigned a garden and had no idea what I would find. Although the garden wasn't super inspiring I found a view that I liked that contained a lot of hydrangeas. Saturday was a very hot, sunny, humid day, but I was able to see this view from the homeowner's patio above the pool. From there I was able to paint from under a big market umbrella. The homeowners were very nice and had lemon infused ice water, lemonade, and cookies and cake for the visitors and me. So it was a bit uncomfortable but bearable. This painting is 8 x 10.

Here is the painting as well as the view I was working from.

I was at the garden from 11 until about 3:30. When I finished the first painting I had enough time to start another one. This view was looking toward the harbor which you could barely see through the foliage past the birdhouse. This painting was 5 x 7.

Lucky for me the owners loved both and bought both paintings. Yay!!!

Just a side story...one of my friends was painting at a different garden and the homeowner came over and asked her if she was going to give the painting to her. I don't understand how someone can watch as you spend hours painting something, as Susan said "out in the blazing sun" and expect to get it for free. Why would someone even think that? 

New York Botanical Gardens - Part III

For my last painting I returned to the area in front of the conservancy. There were a lot of artists painting there at that time because there were quite a few areas of shade. I painted the path in front of me and included two of the "invited" artists...Shari Blaukopf to the right and Elissa Gore to the left.

Here are a few photos of the other artists at work.

Marc Taro Holmes

Shari Blaukopf

The day of painting was followed by a reception for the invited artists. We knew a few of them and were invited in to view their work which was on display.

Welcome to Spring & The Final Part of the Urban Sketching Day

Happy First Day of Spring!!!
 In the spirit of the day I wanted to paint some outdoor flowers today. My good friend and fellow sketcher, Susan, who lives nearby is always ready to share her garden treasures with me. I called her this morning to check that something was in bloom in her garden and she told me to come on over. She works from home, so we chatted for a little while and then she went inside to work while I painted her crocuses, hellebores, and heather. Luckily it was sunny and warm enough to spend some time in the garden without freezing. Thanks, Susan!

On most occasions when the NYC Urban Sketchers gather, we meet at the end of our sketching day to share our work over drinks. I think we had about 20 people with us at the Brooklyn Museum and we headed out at about 4 to Tooker's Alley, a bar nearby. They open at 4 so we didn't worry about it being too crowded for us...and Mark always lets them know we are coming. Once everyone has a drink or whatever they order we start sharing our sketches from the day. It is always fun to see how everyone else captures the same or almost the same views. Some people do a lot of quick sketches and some people complete one longer piece. We have 2 rules when we share...you can't say anything negative about someone's sketches and you can't say anything negative about your own. The second rule is the hard one. LOL

In addition to sharing our sketches, almost everyone immediately whips out a sketchbook and starts sketching the other sketchers at the table or the other patrons where we are. It is good because the other sketchers usually don't get up and move...although they move around some talking to people to their right or left. I was able to get two sketches each with several people seated opposite me.

As you can see from the three days of posting...it was quite a busy day!

Varenna & Menaggio

In my last post I had several photos of the contradas in Varenna. The were so interesting with the balconies and terraces giving the residents a glimpse of the lake.

To sketch this one I sat up by the main road looking down toward the lake...and hoped none of my supplies would go rolling down the steps. LOL I really didn't want to climb down and then back up.

I took a walk to a wonderful place along the main road. Villa Monastero is open to the public and has extensive gardens along the lake in a very narrow area that probably extends about 1/2 mile along the lake. The views are beautiful. There are all kinds of trees, flowers, and architectural details.

I did one sketch in my sketchbook at Villa Monastero that day, but went back for a return visit at another time. This is what I sketched the first day. I was looking at the scene in of the archway in one of the photos above.

The next morning Jerry and I decided to explore the lake a little by ferry. We got a mid-lake ferry pass and headed across the lake to Menaggio. The town had a pretty waterfront, but none of the steep, scenic alleyways and stairs like in Varenna. I was glad that we were staying in Varenna because I thought it was a much prettier town. Menaggio did have a vegetable and fruit market as well as a butcher, so I was glad to find that.

More to come.