Edward's Street House

Back in February I was contacted by someone who had seen my paintings on Facebook on the Sayville Artists Page. The woman was interested in the red house I had sketched which turned out to be her parent's house. The sketch was really tiny from what I remembered and I couldn't even find it. I told her that if she was interested I would do a painting of it. She wanted it as a gift for her parent's anniversary. It was going to be a surprise so I couldn't exactly sit there and paint it, especially since she wanted it in 11 x 14 size. That's too big for my mobile studio. So on a cold day I sat in my car and did a 5 x7 painting of it with snow like she wanted. Then I came home and sketched it out in the size she wanted. I used my sketch and several photos I took as reference. I emailed her the sketch to approve and showed her the small, new version. The painting has been done for a while, but the woman lives out of state. She asked if I could hold onto it until her sister returned to NY from wherever she was traveling. Her sister would pick it up and pay me. She also wanted the small version for herself. Anyway, her sister finally picked up the painting this morning...good timing since their parent's anniversary is April 20th.

Here is the 11 x 14 painting.

Here is the smaller 5x7 sketch.

Pink Tree

 The signs of spring are slowly showing up. I've been watching for the tiny pink and white buds on the trees. It seems once you see them they are in nearly full bloom overnight. I found this beautiful lonely pink tree on Bellport Lane in Bellport. Hopefully I will find more trees in bloom. 

360 Degree View

 Over in the Scavenger Hunt on Creativespark.art one of the items was the view in front of you. As a challenge we were asked to sketch what was in front of us, then turn 90 degrees and sketch that view, turn 90 degrees again, and finally sketch the last final 90 degree view. My friend, Jo Castillo did the challenge so if she could do it I could too. lol I went to Captree State Park which is on the bay side. The clouds on Saturday were a feast to sketch. It was windy so I sat inside my mobile studio to do all of these.

I did the sky in front of me to start.

Still seated in the car I turned to my left and sketched this car and the buildings that house the restaurant and the restrooms.

Next I did the view 90 degrees to my left...a truck and some foliage.

This view was behind me so I backed out of my parking space, turned the car around, and reparked but in reverse in the same spot.

Charleston

 On Saturday I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers on a virtual trip to Charleston, South Carolina. I've visited Charleston in real life and really enjoyed its southern charm, so I was happy to look through references and revisit some of the places I remembered. I picked a reference of one of the cobblestone alleys between the buildings. I really like the colors of some of the buildings.

I had a little time before we were going to share our work so I did a quick, small sketch of the live oak trees directly in watercolor.

Three Amigos

 This is actually one of the lessons from Sketchbook Revival given by Kris Keys called "Wildflower Floral Painting Workshop." She worked loosely on the yellow flower with watercolor pencil followed by liquid ink/watercolor. The second flower was done by wetting the paper first and then adding the watercolor. More paint was added when the area was dry. The third flower on the bottom was supposed to be done within a wet area but the color was dropped liquid from an eyedropper instead of using a brush. I had some bottles of Dr Ph Martin's liquid watercolors, but hadn't used them in eons and they were all dried out. So mine was done wet into wet with a brush. The bottles were tossed.

Daffodils at the Arboretum

The other day we had weather that was mild enough that I ventured out of my mobile studio to sketch at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. I knew the daffodils were in bloom there so I headed over. I did need my jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves but it was so great to be out sketching! First I sketched the view across the great lawn.

Then I focused on doing daffodils that were closer to me.

Here's how the whole page looks.

 

Surprise Sketches

 The Patchogue Sketch Club met at the library this week to do some sketches...but our subjects were a surprise. Each sketcher put an item/items into a brown bag with materials to sketch with. You were only supposed to use the materials that were in the bag. 

The first bag I picked had a wooden statue of a bird. Inside the bag were assorted pens and a marker all in the brown family. Only one was water-soluble and it turned pink when you added water. It was a challenge to get the bird to look brown. Many layers later this was what I was able to achieve.

The second bag I selected contained a large yellow onion, a small round rock and a clam shell. But the sketching materials were a red, blue and green oil pastel...no yellow! I couldn't get the onion to look like an onion, but I gave it my best shot.