Malik Farms Flowers

Malik Farms LLC from Coram had a wonderful stall at the Sayville Farmers Market. The vendor sold sunflowers and bouquets of flowers. I sat a distance away to sketch and brought it over to show the woman when I was done. She could tell that I was sketching her and was thrilled. She took a photo of the sketch with my permission. She said I brought her luck because she sold out early!

Last Days

 Sunflowers are interesting even when they are well past their prime. These were starting to curl and droop so I figured I should sketch them before I tossed them. I think they still have a bit of elegance to them.

S

East Moriches Sunflower Field

 My plein air group, PALS, visits this wonderful sunflower field in East Moriches every year. The owner of the field has his workers come and plant sunflowers every year for the community to enjoy. He has the field fenced in so the deer don't get inside and last year started leaving buckets with sunflower bouquets for the public to take for free. I guess that keeps the public from wandering in and cutting the flowers at random. Each year I try to find a different perspective to use for my painting.

Bush Farm Sunflowers

My final painting for the plein air event was done at Bush Farm in Brookhaven on Saturday. I was attracted to the buildings with a small area of sunflowers. 

Sunflowers in a Vase

 This is probably the last of the postcards that I did for the postcard project going to Ukraine. The cards went out a while ago and Mary Jo Ernst received them. I hope they brighten the lives of those who receive them. This was done with acrylic inks.

Sunflower

 In between the landscapes I've been painting for the postcard project I've been doing some sunflower paintings for Ukraine. I've been doing them from my own photos. I'm behind posting the cards here, but today I mailed the finished cards to my friend, Mary Jo who will be sending them to Ukraine. This one was done with acrylic inks. I like the rich colors they created.

Sunflowers in Acrylic Inks

 I am still working on some postcards for the project for Ukraine. Instead of working from life I used one of my photos for inspiration for another sunflower painting. This one was done with acrylic inks. They are fun to play with but aren't easy to work with en plein air because the bottles can spill. They worked fine on my kitchen table and I was able to quickly paint this directly without any pencil drawing.

Sunflower in Watercolor

 I have been doing a postcard project where, along with other artist, I am creating postcards to be sent in support to Ukraine. I have done some landscapes, seascapes, a few still lifes, and a few of their national flower, the sunflower. This is 4 x 6 done in watercolors. My friend, Mary Jo Ernst, a fellow Urban Sketcher from Michigan, is organizing the drive and the postcards will be sent to her at the end of the month. Since sunflowers are not in bloom here at this time of year I am using photos I have of them as inspiration.

Sunflower

My plein air group has made two visits to the sunflower field in Center Moriches. The sunflowers were past their peak, but still had a certain charm and made good subjects. I still haven't finished the first painting I started there this summer. Eventually I'll finish it and post it. This one is smaller...about 5 x 7 on Khadi watercolor paper which is handmade and rough. I bought a pack of it when I was in the Sennelier store in Paris a few years ago, so it always brings back good memories.

Digital Sketches & Continuous Lines

 I grabbed my iPad a few times lately to sketch. I bought a bouquet of sunflowers at the market. It is always hard to find something to hold them so that they don't droop too much. All of these sketches were done with Procreate.

I take my iPad to the pool with me, but use it mostly for reading, not sketching.

The chairs by the pool aren't arranged so that it is easy to see someone who is sitting, but this lady was in a perfect spot.

For the current Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt this fit the category "from the kitchen cabinet." 

I did it as a continuous line and then added watercolors.

And this fit "something from the bathroom cabinet." This was also done as a continuous line.

Red Umbrellas with Sunflowers

 I find red umbrellas very hard to resist and these had buckets of sunflowers below them. How could I resist this display at Bayview Market & Farm in Riverhead?

Sunflowers

When I went to Bellport Day on Saturday I checked in with at the South Bay table and the submitted artwork. Then I went off to find something to sketch. Outside Bellport Central there was a great display of sunflowers for sale...some in containers and some in a bicycle basket. I started directly with watercolor and only had a bit of the flowers on left done when someone took them inside. I figured the ones in the bicycle basket would be next so I painted quickly. Sure enough that display disappeared too. That is one of the perils of plein air...the subjects often disappear.

 

Sunflower Play

 A few weeks ago I stopped at Andrews Family Farm in Wading River to check out their produce. As I pulled in I noticed that one of the owners, Denise was there. I hadn't seen her since the end of the fall and it was good to catch up with her. I left with some veggies and two bouquets of sunflowers that she gave me. They made a huge arrangement and I painted a few of the flowers when I got home. The painting wasn't quite finished and the sunflowers were gone, but at last I got around to finishing the painting during one of our rainy, damp days. I played a lot with the background.

Waterdrinker Sunflower Field

On Tuesday my plein air group, PALS went to the sunflower field at Waterdrinker Farm in Manorville.

It was great to be surrounded by sunflowers! I painted it in a 8 x 10 size...

but I'm debating whether I should crop it to a size similar to one of these. I think the sky area and the field are too similar in size. Your thoughts?

 

Sunflower Quartet

 Yes, the sunflowers were finally tossed, and they didn't last 2 weeks like the vendor said. I did get quite a few sketches from them as they slowly drooped.

This was the first one which I already posted. It is a direct watercolor.

This one was also a direct watercolor.

Then I did one as a continuous line in ink.

This last one was done with Caran d' Arche Neocolor, Hoblein Oil Pastels, and Derwent Aquatone Watercolor Sticks. At this point some of the tips and leaves were turning brown. I would have kept them for another sketch, but they were really starting to smell.

Sunflowers

At the Islip Farmers Market the other day I bought a bunch of sunflowers. The vendor told me they would last 2 weeks. Since they are already drooping and have lost a lot of petals I don't think they will make it.

 

Inktober Day 13 - Sunflowers

I needed something to brighten things up a bit after 2 days of rain and drizzle. I found these sunflowers at the market and thought they would be good for my Inktober Day 13 sketch. Too bad I couldn't find a sunny yellow ink to use.

Sunflowers 3

This is the last of the sunflower paintings I did from the batch I bought the other day. I put them in a different pitcher that I thought might support the heads of the flowers better, but it seems to be a hopeless case. They weren't bad for this painting, but right now they look like all the petals will fall off if I even breathe near them. lol This was done with a media that I am not familiar with using. Although I've had this box of oil pastels for quite a long time, I really don't know how to use them. Mostly I use them as a kind of resist in a watercolor painting. But this is just oil pastels...

different for me.

Sunflowers 2

I didn't want the sunflowers from the other day to feel neglected so I am doing a series of sketches of them in various media. This version was done with assorted ink pens, including an Elegant Writer as well as watercolors. I kept them in the same glass pitcher which sort of got lost in the flowers.

Sunflowers 1

I bought a small bunch of sunflowers the other day. I figured it would give me something different to sketch. Because it is a small bunch I had to find a small vase or container to put them in. What I ended up using was a glass pitcher that I've used for milk. They seemed lost in anything else. This was done directly in watercolor.