Sketching on the LIRR

On Saturday I took the LIRR into the city to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers. I got a good seat going in and was able to sketch a few people.

This lady was busy doing crossword puzzles all the way to the city. I wonder if she was doing the NY Times puzzle...after all her t-shirt said "genius."

These ladies were all friends traveling together. They had accents, but I'm not sure where they were from.

This guy was nice and still...a good model.

Goin' Fishin'

The other day on the way to the beach, I made a stop at Captree State Park which is across from Robert Moses State Park. There is a large area along the water where all the fishing charter boats leave from. I lucked out and there were some people already waiting for the 11:00 fluke trip. There were a lot more people but by the time I sketched these three everyone else had already boarded. I hope they caught some fish.

Sketching by the Lighthouse

Wednesday evening my sketching group met at Robert Moses State Park. I arrived about 6:30 and found a few sketchers already very busy. I knew the sun would be setting before I knew it, so after I walked to the Fire Island Lighthouse I focused on the top of the lighthouse tower instead of doing the whole thing.

The sunset was so beautiful that I did two quick, small watercolors of it.

Sunflowers

On Tuesday morning my plein air group met at a farm. Some of us hit the sunflower fields. My thanks to Andrews Family Farm in Wading River which is always so welcoming to us.

New Portrait & Paint the Great South Bay Reception

On Tuesday evening our portrait goup met and Paul kindly posed for us.

Sunday was the reception at the Paper Cup Studio for the Paint the Great South Bay plein air event. Each of the 32 artists who participated were able to put in 2/3 pieces which will hang until Sept 27th. 

If you look on the back wall, this is where all the paper cups we created are displayed. Here I am talking with another of the artists.

Marianne Thorvaldson & Me

Gina (chairperson) gets an orchid from Pauline Hazard.

"The Lane"

"By the Dock"

Gina Lento (chairperson) and LuAnn Thompson (gallery owner)

Gina with her painting "Varneys"

Pauline Hazard with her painting.

Me with my painting.

Ann Baum with her painting.

There was a great turnout for the reception and three paintings sold. Yay!! The paintings will hang for a few more weeks so we are hoping there will be more sales. The commissions from this show go toward our student scholarships.

Paint the Great South Bay - Part IV

Luckily Saturday brought nicer weather for Paint the Great South Bay. I headed over to Bellport in the morning to do one last painting. "The Lane" is a small courtyard next to Costello's Cafe. I was originally going to do mostly dark shades behind the gate to make it pop, but then these two ladies came along and sat down. How could I resist? This is 8 x 10 and is also hanging in the show.

Here I am set up on the street in Bellport.

As you can see, cars love to block my view when I'm painting. lol

Paint the Great South Bay 2015 - Part III

Friday started off as a rainy day...not what you want for a paint out. By noon it had stopped raining so I decided to meet two friends over by the water in Mastic. We were all set up working away at our easels when I saw a "plop" and then another "plop" in the water in front of my. Luckily I turned my paper support over immediately because it started to rain heavily. I ran to the car and put the painting inside. By the time I got back to my easel my palette was filled with water. I dumped the water out, but I swear my Windsor Green may never dry out. My friend, Marlene, was painting with pastels so she immediately covered those up and put them in her car. Apparently if pastels get wet they turn to dust when they dry. Lorraine had just done a wash in her sky and now had drops of rain making blooms. Here is Lorraine putting up an umbrella a little late.

Here is what the sky looked like. Would you have worried? LOL

After the rain stopped we all got back to work...this time I had my umbrella up.

Here is my finished painting. (8 x 10) This painting also went into the show.

Paint the Great South Bay 2015 - Part II

Thursday was the second day of the plein air event, "Paint the Great South Bay." The gallery where we are hosting  the show is in Bellport, so I decided to spent my day there doing local scenes. There is a house that I sketched several years ago that I always wanted to go back and do a painting of....and now was my chance. I set up my easel and materials across the street from the house and painted away for about 2 1/2 hours. The woman in the house came out twice to her car that was parked in the driveway and then a third time drove out of the driveway and right past me. Wouldn't you at least wave to a person who is obviously painting your house? It seemed strange.

Here is my 8 x 10 painting titled "South Shore Charm." This is one of the pieces that I ended up putting into the show.

Here it is on the easel with the house behind it.

My friend from SBAA came by to take photos for our organization of the artists she could find. (We were all posting our locations on the Facebook page for Paint the Great South Bay. Here is the photo Michele DiPaolo took of me.

I stopped at the Paper Cup Studio in town to eat my lunch and cool off. It was a hot, humid day! Then I headed out to do a second painting. This is also 8 x 10 and is of one of the local restaurants...Porters. Because this was in town it was more difficult to sketch because cars kept coming and parking in front of it. We could only put in 3 paintings, so this one is not in the show.

Paint the Great South Bay 2015 - Part I

I signed up to take part in a plein air event called "Paint the Great South Bay" being sponsored by SBAA, one of my local art groups. I think we had about 32 artists participating. This was the second year this has been held and I participated last year too. We could paint beginning on Wednesday and ending on Saturday. Each artist would be able to hang 2/3 paintings at the gallery at the end of the show.

The rules were to paint en plein air somewhere on the south shore of Long Island between Islip to the west and Mastic to the east and south of Sunrise Highway. It gave us a large area to find locations and after having my papers stamped for the event I met several other artists at Smith Point Beach on Wednesday evening. A few of us painted from the decks of the ranger's station which was empty at the time. It afforded a good aerial view of the beach in both directions. I was facing west, so the setting sun was in my eyes. In addition, the mosquitoes must have thought the Off I sprayed on my body was something delicious. I now have bites the size of Texas. LOL But we persevered. Here is the painting I did. This is about 7 x 10.

Here are a few photos from that evening.

My painting against the setting sun.

Watching the sun going down.

Gina Lento painting from the deck.

Mary Jane painting.

Getting darker as the mosquitoes increased.

Here are links to the paintings I did last year.
http://watercolorsbyjoan2.blogspot.com/2014/08/paint-great-south-bay-part-1.html

and
http://watercolorsbyjoan2.blogspot.com/2014/08/paint-great-south-bay-part-2.html

Tomorrow I'll post more from Paint the Great South Bay.

Arboretum Water View

My plein air group PALS met at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale this week. It was hot so I looked for a shady place along the water.

Twins

I bought lobsters for dinner the other day. There were four of them but I only sketched two. They make good models.

Beach Sketches

I'm still keeping my pens busy at the beach.

Flower Pot

I haven't painted flowers since the spring and I thought I would do one of the pots of flowers on my patio.

Somehow I got caught up in everyone else's blogs yesterday and forgot to post on mine. LOL

This is a companion piece that goes with the farm stand sketch in the previous post. After sketching the stand itself I asked the vendor if it would be alright if I stood in the booth and sketched some of the produce. I told him I would move out of the way if there were customers who needed to get to my spot. I wouldn't want to interfere with his business. He told me not to worry about it but not to leave before letting him see the sketches. He did like them and was flattered when I told him I had sketched his booth the last time I had gone to the Sayville Farmers Market last year.

Red beets, leeks
green and purple peppers, flowers

Saville Farmers Market

On Saturday I went to the local farmers market to sketch...and then to purchase some veggies. I've sketched this particular booth before. I guess because they have the biggest and most colorful display there. It was hot and I found a bit of shade under a very scrawny tree. 

Beach Ink Sketches

I am still having fun sketching people at the beach directly in ink.

Dogs Night Out

Tonight the town of Bellport had a fun event called "Dogs Night Out." There was a parade of pooches along South Country Rd that were available for adoption. The businesses were having raffles and auctions to benefit the Brookhaven Animal Shelter and help raise awareness for Clear the Shelters Day on Saturday when free adoptions will be available. In addition I think everyone from Bellport came into town with their own dog/dogs all primped and fluffed to visit all their neighbors. Outside the Paper Cup Studio where my sketches are on display several of us sat and tried to sketch some of the pooches. They move around a LOT!!!

I finally gave up and did one dog with several people who were waiting for the pooch parade to start.

Hummus

My friend was having work done on her car today, so I picked her up when she dropped off her car and we had about 2 hours before she needed to go back and get her car. We drove around the local area looking for something to sketch where we would be sitting in the shade. We found this restaurant with the colorful umbrellas outside.

Lighthouse View from Captree

Today I wanted to do a view of the Fire Island Lighthouse. I decided to stop at Captree State Park and paint it from across the water. This is 5 x 7.

Sophia

It was a rainy day here in NY so I didn't get out plein air painting! I did some cleaning...well, a lot of cleaning and then worked on a commission. Luckily my portrait group met tonight so I was able to do something new. Sophia was our model tonight.

Once again I did the quick one last and like that one better.