Bluepoint Beach Grasses

I went down by the water in Bluepoint yesterday even though again it was bitterly cold, and sat by the water in the car to paint. I used watercolors and ink for this and did it without any preliminary drawing.This is about 4 x 6.

Oranges and Peels

New York has had a few days of brutally cold days, unusual for us. It was so cold yesterday I didn't go out to paint at all. I looked around at home for something different for a still life and I found some oranges. This is small...just 5 x 5.

Bay View

This was painted down near the bay last week. 

It was a cloudy, cold day but I had to get out and paint something.

Cutsy and Cold

Yesterday was a cold day here. I had to go out to pick up a painting from a gallery and took along my Stillman & Birn Alpha Sketchbook. I figured I could find something to sketch in route. I didn't plan on being out too long in the car, so it needed to be something I could sketch fairly quickly. I found this garden with two snowmen...a bit cutsy and cute, but I decided to do it anyway. Doing shadows on snow is not easy. lol

Snow Scenes

This morning I worked on the painting I started yesterday. I darkened a lot of the trees and bushes and added some more background trees. I hope you like the way it turned out. I found it hard to do the shadows on the bushes, and have those snow areas be differentiated from the other areas of snow.

This is 8 x 10. I'll put a small image of how it looked yesterday so you can see the difference without having to scroll back down to the bottom of yesterday's post.

Today the weather is still cold. It was only about 5 degrees when I got up this morning. I wanted to go out and paint another snow scene before the charm of the snow wears off. lol It goes so quickly from looking so pretty, to looking sloppy and messy and being annoying. As it is, even though it is so cold, the parking lots are just slushy messes with huge puddles mixed in with the snow so that when you try to walk you are nearly up to your ankles in slush.

But along the roads there were lots of pretty views. I had dressed in a few layers so that I could sit in the car without running the engine for heat. The sun was shining on me while I painted so I was pretty comfortable and didn't even need to put on my fingerless gloves. This was a spot along Montauk Highway going into Sayville and is 5 x 7.

First Snow of 2014

We had a bit of a snowstorm here in NY. It started snowing lightly yesterday and by last night the intensity picked up and the snow got heavier. It continued snowing overnight and this morning we had a bit of a winter wonderland! It was bitterly cold but I bundled up and headed outside to take a few photos. We probably had about 9 inches of snow.

Here's the view right in front of my patio. 

The view of the patio itself.

And a view of my apartment...my Christmas decorations are still up and the ones on the railing are now covered with snow.

It was too cold to paint outdoors so I decided to paint the view from the window in my bedroom. It was the perfect opportunity to try out my new easel that I got for Christmas.

Here is the view out the window.

And yours truly painting.

Here's the almost finished painting. I need to touch up some areas, but you can get the general idea. I'll post the finished painting when it is done. I needed a bit of a break for a while.

Food Court Sketches on New Year's Day

Happy 2014!!!

Today my friend, Susan, and I went to sketch people at the food court at the Tanger Mall in Riverhead. It was cold outside (very cold) and an indoor location seemed like our best bet.

These were done with my Lamy Safari pens, one filled with a grey waterproof ink and the other with a brown that isn't waterproof. The brown bleeds nicely when you touch it with water.

It was a good sketching opportunity.