30 in 30 - Day 21 - Molly

This painting for Day 21 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge is a deviation from the dogs and cats that I've been doing. Molly belongs to my friend, Pat Sweeney who lives here on Long Island. Molly is in Virginia. I find horses difficult to paint and a photo of a horse in a pasture doesn't give much detail. I relied on additional photos from the internet to get some of the horse's features.

You can check out the other paintings for the challenge here on Leslie Saeta's blog:https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

I still find myself returning to the water scenes around here, no matter how many times I've already painted them. This was painted down by the bay in West Sayville.

30 in 30 - Day 20 - Barney

It is hard to believe that we are on Day 20 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. This is Barney who recently left this world. He was the pet of my friend, Rhea's friend, Steve. Doing a white dog wasn't easy. This was one with watercolors, watercolor pencils, and touches of white oil pastel.

Feel free to hop over to Leslie Saeta's blog and check out the great paintings the other artists have been painting for the challenge. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Here is another sketch done at the Queens Museum last Sunday. This is the view looking out of the cafe toward the Unisphere located in Flushing Meadow Park which surrounds the museum. The Unisphere was part of the 1963-64 World's Fair in NY.

I did a sketch of a few people sitting in the cafe too. The little girl barely stayed still for me to sketch her.

30 in 30 - Day 19 - Summer

Summer is the name of the dog I painted for Day 19 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. This lovely dog belonged to my friend, Louise. Apparently Summer had a bad heart and was only with her family for 5 years. I loved her color!

Check out some of the other artists participating in the challenge here:
https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

This is an unusual sculpture sketched at the Queens Museum on Sunday. The sculpture was part of an exhibit about the sanitation department and was made from discarded work gloves, walkie talkies, brushes and assorted materials.

30 in 30 - Day 18 - Enzo

For Day 18 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge I took on a spotted cat. The reference was sent to me by my friend, Michele DiPaolo. The cat, Enzo, belongs to her daughter, Nicole. I used watercolors, watercolor pencils and a bit of black ink.

On Sunday I decided I needed a trip to the ocean. I had been down to the bay but not the ocean since the year started. My destination was the Fire Island Lighthouse at Robert Moses State Park. It was a very cold day, so I dressed in lots of layers, grabbed a sketchbook and only a few sketching tools and headed off for a sketch walk. Each sketch I did took about 5 - 10 minutes. By that point my fingers needed the warmth of my pockets.

First I sketched with a twig and ink...a view of the dunes.

 

Next I used my watercolor pencils.

I could see the lighthouse in the distance and was thinking to myself...too bad they don't have a cafe inside the lighthouse...by the time I get there a cup of coffee would be nice. To my surprise they had hot chocolate set up as you entered the lighthouse. What a nice touch!

This sketch was done with my platinum preppy pen.

Around the back of the lighthouse is a short boardwalk that leads to the bay. That was my final sketch done with a Le Pen in brown. For some reason the ink turns a burgundy color when water is added.

After this sketch I walked a bit faster back to the parking area. The walk round-trip is probably about a mile and a half...good exercise.

30 in 30 - Day 17 - Willow

Today's Day 17 painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge is Willow. This was done from a  photo I got from my friend, Cindy Fox. She looks like such a happy dog!

If you would like to check out the other paintings being done for the challenge you can find them here: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

I've been getting down near the water a bit lately. It isn't warm enough to sit outside, so I've been making good use of my "mobile studio." This was done down at Hecksher Park.

30 in 30 - Day 16 - Bandolier

My Day 16 painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge is from a reference photo sent to me by my cousin, Mary Jo Greco. This is Bandolier, her son Rudy's cat. I painted the cat in watercolors, added some ink and then did some strokes of oil pastel to give some light fur marks.

If you're curious about what the other artists are doing for the challenge, you can see the other paintings here: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Those of you who follow my blog regularly know I don't do still life paintings very often. My Wednesday night sketch group has use of a meeting room at the library for the winter this year so we decided to do a still life this week. Everyone brought along something to add. Since it was a group of about 10 people we set up several to choose from. I brought along the items in this painting. People loved the bright colors so several of us sketched it. I guess I had cooking on my mind. lol

30 in 30 - Day 15 - Rooster

We are now halfway through the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. This was done from my own photo taken at a wildlife refuge. I just loved the colors in this Rooster's feathers. I used watercolors and ink for this painting.

Some of the great work by the other participating artists can be found here: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Here's another recent portrait I did recently. Freddy is a member of our group and will be moving to Florida. He promised to pose for us before he left. In case you're wondering he has a walking stick with a cobra on it.