Final Sketches of 2023

 I've been having fun with the continuous line sketches so I thought I would do one final one for 2023 of my breakfast. I almost always have the same breakfast...a swiss cheese omelette with spinach. My holiday plate makes it a little more festive.

My final plein air sketch for 2023 was done down at Hecksher State Park in East Islip. It is a huge park that is right on the Great South Bay with views across to Fire Island. The parking lot I was in had some huge puddles from recent flooding or high tides. It could be either but this particular parking lot seems to always be partly flooded. The ducks were quite happy, but the human visitors had to drive through some of the water to get out of the lot.

Mastscape Over the Fence

 I like this mastscape over the fence. You can only see a small part of the boats at this marina in Patchogue. It is the masts and rigging that tell the story.

Downtown Sayville

There is something about small town downtown areas that always catches my attention. Today we are visiting downtown Sayville where they just put in a new crosswalk, conveniently in front of the new restaurant, The Wayward. 

New Art Supplies & Assorted Objects

I was having fun with the continuous line sketches so I pulled out some of the new art supplies I got for Christmas and had a go sketching them that way. Then of course I added color. 

While I was in a continuous line frame of mind I did a few items for the scavenger hunt over on creativespark.art. An umbrella, a bottle, a fruit, a veggie and a lock were on the list.

Starbucks and Blueberries

While we were having our wet/dreary weather I ventured out to have coffee at Starbucks. It is far from my favorite place for coffee, but it was indoors. They recently finished renovating this particular Starbucks in Patchogue to make it a "drive thru." I'm not impressed with the results as a sketcher. Instead of having some tables and a few comfy chairs, all that was replaced with a few high stool tables in a row and then behind that against the wall with windows one row of small tables. The customers sitting at those tables were all to my side so there was no view of them. I had to hope for someone to sit at the high stool table, but as soon as her order this lady was ready and out of there. It is not condusive to having people in various positions hanging out for a while. The people that were there a while were sitting to my right and left and unless I wanted to face them directly I had no view of them for a sketch. I guess I won't be rushing back there. 

While sketching for the hunt on creativespark.art the item to sketch was berries. 

I used Procreate for this sketch.

Happy New Year & Assorted Postings

 Happy New Year to all! 

I don't know how we reached the end of 2023 so quickly. The year just flew by! I hope you ended 2023 on a good note. Wishing you a 2024 filled with joy, peace, love, and inspiration. My thanks to you for following me along on my artistic journey. I really appreciate your support.

As one of my Christmas gifts Jerry got me a few new art materials that I needed or wanted. Here are a few of them. This was done as a continuous line sketch with watercolor added later.

I got a Christmas package in the mail from my niece, Jaime. A few years ago we decided to no longer exchange gifts among the families so it was surprising to see something from her. When I opened it I found something she had specially made from one of my sketches that I did last year of the steps for making my mom's pierogi recipe. She had it printed on a kitchen towel. She not only sent it to me but to my other siblings too who all make her recipe for the holidays. I thought it was so sweet of her. 

Here is the original sketch that she used.

Goodbye 2023...Hello 2024

 My apologies...I the draft of this post was never sent yesterday so here it is a little late.

2023 was a fun year! Here are a few special happenings for me in 2023.

I once again participated in some challenges hosted by different artists that I follow or that were new to me. 

Birgit Koopson had a 30 Day Gel Printing Challenge. I had a gel plate but hadn't used it much so I followed Birgit's prompts and demos...and even a few of her full-length videos. Here are a few of the pages I did. I hope to be doing more in 2014.

Mark Holmes and Liz Steel challenged artists all over the world to join their "One Week 100 People" Challenge. Of course I couldn't resist. I try to do this challenge every year.

Another challenge was the 30x30 Direct Watercolor Challenge...no pencil lines first!

Then there were the things I was able to return to like sketching at the Museum of Natural History. 

I hadn't been there since 2015!

I took part in some fun events locally.

For the South Bay Art Association"s Plein Air Paintout I painted along Main Street in Bellport among other locations. My painting won 1st prize at our ehibition at Bellport Day in July.

I took part in the Long Island Maritime Museum's "Art From the Wreckage" auction and sale. The paintings were done on shingles that had come off the boathouse in one of our storms. They had a similar sale a few years ago and raised quite a bit of money for the museum.

So far two of my pieces sold.

One of the best things I did this this year was I traveled out of the country with Jerry and returned to Venice. I sketched every day. It wasn't an easy trip to take with his handicap but we did it!

This year I challenged myself to work on my iPad with Procreate. Again I watched a lot of videos and have had some success. It takes a lot of time to make the tools work the way you want. I will continue working with Procreate in 2024.

I hope you year held some special memories. My thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement in 2023. It makes what I do extra special. I appreciate your visiting my blog and leaving your comments.

Wishing you a wonderful, joyful, happy and healthy 2024!