Venice - Part 9 - Nocturne, China Cup, Caffe' at Ferrovia, Train Riders, Flight Home

One of the things I really wanted to do on this trip was a nocturne. Most days I was too tired to head out to sketch after dark. But one morning I woke up really early and couldn't fall back asleep. It was still dark so I went into the living room and pulled out my art supplies. I knew I didn't have long before the sky would really start to lighten, so it was now or never. This is part of the view out the side window in the living room. It is a really small painting but I'm so glad I did it. Yay!!

The kitchen cabinets in the apartment were filled with assorted china plates and cups, and then some full sets of dishes. There were a few of these cups and I used Procreate to create the design. I think I was fairly successful.

The end of our stay in Venice came too soon. We navigated with Jerry's walker, two backpacks, and a rolling suitcase to the train station for our train back to Milan. Luckily a lovely woman helped us over the bridge near the apartment and then it was pretty clear sailing to the station. It was a lot of walking for Jerry and we were early, so we stopped at one of the only sit-down cafes inside the station for a cappuccino before it was boarding time. I swear there was maybe two mouthfuls of coffee in the cup and the rest was foam! I did have time to do a sketch of two people at a nearby table. They had a duffle bag with them that was as big as they were. lol Finally it was time to board.

This train was not as roomy as the one coming to Venice, and it seemed like all the seats were filled. I sketched a few of the passengers across the aisle.

We arrived at Milano Centrale and had to walk all the way to the other end of the station to find the Malpensa Express to go to the airport, which was were our overnight accommodations were (the Sheraton Malpensa Milan Malpensa Hotel).  By the time we arrived we had been traveling about 6 1/2 hrs. The great thing about the hotel is that it is right at the airport. When you walk out the doors of the hotel you are in Terminal 1 of the Milan Airport.

It seemed to take forever (and 4,664 steps according to my step counter on my phone) before we arrived at the door of the plane. Jerry had it easy because he was in an electric wheelchair with his agent. I was walking.

I did get to sketch of the flight, because this nice model was sitting across from us.

The trip was really great, and I was happy with the amount of sketching I was able to do. Jerry also got a lot of work accomplished with the musicians he was in Venice to work with.

Sketching Party

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met for our holiday party. It was held in the penthouse party room in the building of one of our members. The room was on the 8th floor with floor to ceiling windows and an unobstructed view of downtown Manhattan from Jersey City, NJ. Yeah!!! We had about 60 people show up...most of them sketchers or spouses, but a few guests too. Our chapter has a group that meets on weekends as well as a group that meets during the week, so it was nice to meet some of the people who don't join us on weekends. We also did an art swap where everyone brought a wrapped sketch. Of course everyone brought their sketch materials and either sketched the view or the other sketchers at the party. It is hard to keep sketchers from sketching. lol

This was the view we had. The party began at 3 so we did have enough time to do a daylight sketch.

I've always wanted to do a nocturne of the city...so when it got dark this was my chance. I used gouache for this small, fairly quick sketch.

One of my friends brought along his mom who he takes care of. She is in a wheelchair and a bit unaware of what is going on, but she was a good sport about posing for us. I think she enjoyed the attention. I did a quick sketch of Mary Jane before she and Andrew went home. It came out looking so much like her! I was really pleased with it.

I stopped sketching for a while so that I could socialize too. It is hard to sketch and talk to anyone except the people sketching next to you. lol We had good food, conversation, music and a bit of dancing. Here is a group photo that was taken at the end of the night. I think some of the sketchers were missing by then. Many of these people have become a good part of my sketching family.

You'll notice someone in the middle with a big sheet of sketching paper. Those pages were passed out to all of us. Everyone was asked to do one or two sketches either using a single page or the double page that is going to be made into an accordion book. I did a sketch later of some of the sketchers sitting at the tables, but forgot to take a photo of it before handing it in so you can't get to see that one. #nycurbansketchers #momentsketchers

I know this was a lot of work for the party committee, but they did an outstanding job! Everyone seemed to have a good time, even if some of them nearly froze getting there. The temperature yesterday was in the teens and very windy with lots of snow on the ground from our storm the other day. A group of us from Long Island carpooled so it wasn't too bad traveling.

#inktober, #inktober2015 - Day 30 & Nocturnal Painting

I was out plein air painting today with my friend, Gina at a farmstead. After painting the outside we each headed inside to do an Inktober sketch of the produce.

My friends, Jeanne Salucci and Chris Taylor invited me to come nocturnal painting with them down by the marina near Jeanne's house. We got there about 5:00 and the sun was scheduled to set at 5:54. That gave us nearly an hour to get set up and sketch out the scene. I've painted sunsets before but always left once it got dark. There was supposed to be a full moon that would provide some light, but due to the clouds you couldn't see the moon at all. The plan was to use the lighting at the marina to see the view, and I brought along a book light and a small flashlight to illuminate my painting and my paints. It worked for a while, but the overhead lights in the marina never came on. All we had were small lights along the posts on the dock itself. I was able to paint but I'm not sure it looks much different from what I usually get at a sunset.

Here is a photo of my setup once it got really dark.

This shows how really dark it was. Jeanne and Chris's silhouettes can barely be seen...everything else was pretty much black. It was a fun attempt anyway.