Lilacs

My plein air group, PALS, had our first outing of the season on Tuesday at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale. The lilacs were in bloom...and they smelled heavenly. They are definitely not easy to paint...sort of like painting hydrangeas. Too many tiny blossoms. 

Locust Avenue Farm

As I said in yesterday's post. I didn't end up buying flowers at the Bloomin' House when I was there. It was just raining too hard to make it comfortable to walk around from greenhouse to greenhouse. I ended up at the Locust Avenue Farm in Bohemia the next day. When I parked I had a pretty good view, so I sat in the car to sketch this. It was super windy out anyway...and too cold. We are having a very strange spring.

Outside the Bloomin' House

The other day I really wanted to paint something and buy flowers for my patio. I headed to one of the local nurseries, called the Bloomin' House in Holtville. Of course I got there and it started to drizzle. I couldn't get a parking spot facing the flower displays so I sketched the view looking out of the parking lot while I sat in the car. 

Pink Tree & EDM Sketches

The pink trees have been changing into their spring greens. I will miss all that wonderful color.

Here are a few of my recent sketches for Every Day in May.

Here's my suitcase that I was packing for my trip to the graduation.

This sandwich is one that I wish I had right now...a meatball sub.

Jewelry was the prompt so I sketched one of my earrings made from some kind of nut found in the Amazon.

Last night I had to do cutlery.

Sketch of the Smith College Graduation

As promised yesterday, I worked on the sketch of Caity's graduation to finish it today. This is about 11 x 7 done on sketch paper, not watercolor paper. We got to the college at 8am to get good seats for the ceremony...and we were in the second row behind the graduates. Because we were there so early I had a lot of time to sketch this out before the ceremony started. I started with the building and the tent over the stage. Then I did the stairs and the wall. I left room (too much I think) for where the graduates would be seated. I painted the areas I had sketched. When the graduates and the faculty and honorees came in I quickly sketched that in pencil and then put the sketch away. I wanted to be able to watch the ceremony. Today I inked the graduates and the people on stage and finished painting it. I tried to include Caity's question on her graduation cap, but it is really too tiny to see it.

Here is a photo my brother took of us waiting for the graduation to start. You can see me in the turquoise jacket sketching.

Swan River View & Caity's Graduation

On Wednesday evening the Patchogue Sketch Club met at the Swan River Preserve right off Main Street. Everything was turning green, the ducks were out, it was warm (yes, warm)...a great night for sketching.

Today was my niece, Caity's actual graduation from Smith. I did sketch before (and a little during) the ceremony but the sketch isn't finished yet...probably tomorrow. Here are a few photos from today. You can see from her graduation cap, Caity is quite a character. It says "Can I take a nap now?" lol

Patchogue Train Sketches & a Graduation

I am presently up in Massachusetts at Smith College at my niece, Caity's graduation. I have my computer so I can still do a post.

Some days you get a good view on the train and some days are just so-so. When I went into the city on Tuesday I took the Long Island Railroad from Patchogue not Ronkonkoma like I usually do. What's the difference sketch wise? On the Ronkonkoma train half the seats face forward and half face back. If you sit near the center you can get a good view of someone facing you. The Patchogue train is a multi-level train and almost all the seats face the same way. There are very few people facing you. I did manage to sketch the lady across the aisle from me.

Here are the proud parents with Caity the day before graduation. Caity will go on to graduate school here at Smith College for social work.

Joe, Caity, Joan

Here she is with 2 out of her other four siblings.

Patrick, Caity, and Jaime

 And with her proud Aunt Joan (me).