A Day in Oyster Bay

The NYC Urban Sketchers recently met in Oyster Bay to spend the day sketching. It is a fairly easy commute for me since I can drive there in about 45 minutes. Many of the sketchers came from the city out to Long Island and were met at the Long Island Railroad train station which is about a block from the gazebo in the center of town. The location has homes, churches, businesses and if you walk about 2 blocks it has a beach and a harbor area. I've been there before and this time I concentrated on a business called 20th Century Cycles, which happens to be Billy Joel's motorcycle shop. It does a good business and there is usually a bike or two parked in front by customers.

After a short lunch with the other sketchers I concentrated on a shop called Chalikian. While I was sketching a tour group came by and the guide said that this was one of the oldest continuous businesses in Oyster Bay selling jewelry and small antiques. 

It was a fun day for all of us, and I capped it off with a home-made chocolate Italian ice from 

the Bonanza Hot Dog Stand. Yum!

Bikers at Captree

 Saturday was one of those beautiful days that you just have to get outside for a while. I took a ride over to Captree State Park thinking I would sit out by the dunes and sketch the lighthouse across the bay. Imagine my surprise to see motorcycles and bikers in the parking area near the fishing charter boats. There were probably about 8-10 of them just hanging around talking. I've seen some groups of bikers that make me a bit nervous, like the Pagans, but a few of these bikers were wearing Harley Davidson logos on their clothes so I was thinking these were more recreational bikers. I loved the guy on the right wearing chaps. His girlfriend was also there wearing chaps too. I didn't get too close because I didn't want them to realize I was sketching them from my "mobile studio."

Inktober 2020 Day 23 - Cycles and Still Life

 For my Day 23 Inktober sketch I found two motorcycles parked together. Both were Hondas and one was black and one was maroon. Looks like there is a couple in Sayville that rides!

Wednesday night the Patchogue Sketch Club met on Zoom for our sketch event. Our meetings are usually organized by Mark Propper. We give him suggestions but the final decision and posting of the events is in his hands. Due to darkness we are now forced to sketch indoors so Mark set up an interesting still-life for us to sketch. Some members did part of the setup, but I did the entire thing on a page in my Strathmore Grey Toned Sketchbook. I used watercolors, ink, white pencil, and a water-soluble pencil for this.