Island Dreams Coffee

We had a warm, but rainy day recently. I headed over to the Bayport-Blue Point Library where Island Dreams Coffee is located. When I arrived it was closed and the sign said it would reopen at 3:00. That was fine by me because there was nobody blocking my view of the counter. A young woman from the local high school arrived at 3:00 and opened the cafe for business. By that time there were other people waiting for coffee. I hadn't left room for the young woman but found that I could fit her in behind the pastry display. lol I did have a coffee, but I find it very annoying that they don't have any brewed decaf coffee available. I find that in a lot of places.

Short Beach

 A slightly warmer day took me up to Short Beach in Smithtown. If it wasn't for the wind I probably could have sat outside to paint, but I sat protected in my mobile studio.

Holbrook House

We had a lot of very cold days recently so if I went out I was painting indoors or from my mobile studio. This house is directly across the street from my church, Good Shepherd. I sat in the driveway of the grounds pulled all the way over so I was out of the way. I'm always attracted to the trellis in front of the house. 

Islip Buoys

 Riding around in Islip I found this house with a lot of lobster buoys along one of the canals. It reminded me of the houses in Maine. They were prepared with a few boats too.

Ace Hotel Lobby

After 3 sketches in the bar area I made my way back to the Ace Hotel Lobby. There were sketchers all over. I found a spot to sit in a comfy chair and a view of...you guessed it...sketchers sketching. My only problem with the lobby was that it wasn't well lit and it was hard to see the details of what I was sketching...which could be a good thing. lol 

 The staff at the hotel was really very nice. We monopolized their lobby and part of the restaurant from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon when we had our show and tell.

Ace Hotel's Bar Area

 The NYC Urban Sketchers were scheduled to meet at a fashion exhibit at FIT (the Fashion Institute of Technology) for our sketching location last week. Unfortunately when we got there we found out that we couldn't use stools, backpacks had to be hand-held, and only dry media could be used in this very DARK exhibit. We are adaptable and the organizers offered another location...the Ace Hotel. A few of the sketchers stayed to sketch standing in the dark, but my travel buddy, Suzala and I checked out the exhibit and then headed to the Ace Hotel which was a few blocks away. Many members of our group were already there working.

There was a nice hotel lobby with comfy seating, but it was fairly dark. Off to the side was the entrance to Koloman, their lovely contemporary French restaurant that was very European in feeling. I went in to scope it out and found Leslie sitting at the bar with her coffee and pastry. She was busy sketching the bar area. As long as we ordered something they were fine with us staying in the front of the bar area which had a huge window that overlooked the street. It also had a ledge all across the window which provided a good space to work. 

I started sketching Leslie, who was now joined by Elaine. The waiter took my order and before I could finish my first sketch, my coffee and this delicious croissant with jam and butter was delivered. It made such a great subject that I had to sketch that too...but quickly so I could eat the croissant! So I switched and started sketching the croissant on another page leaving space for the rest of the presentation. As soon as I had the croissant sketched, I moved back to the sketch of the sketchers because I know people, even sketchers, tend to move after a while. They were now joined by a random person not affiliated with our group, but I included him too.

Then I moved back to the food setup and added in the plates, jam, butter, and cutlery.

While I had the street view in front of me I decided to paint the building right across from us...some sort of construction was going on there with workers going in and out, but that is the fun of sketching NYC.

Our group in the bar area changed as people joined us and left us for the lobby. This photo was taken by my friend, Suzala of some of us ladies that were sketching and chatting about all kinds of things. We had a great time together!

Left to right: Me, Leslie, Shawne, Elaine and Kim.

Southdown Coffee

 After sketching at the camilla house (see yesterday's post) we decided to stop for coffee. Suzala checked with her daughter to see which coffee shop in Oyster Bay would be best for us as a sketching location. She suggested Southdown Coffee. We found a small table tucked near the window with a nice view of the counter...and sketched away.