Sketches fron Alive on 25 #3

John and I don’t get to the Eastern part of Long Island too much, although I occasionally teach classes at the art school in Riverhead.  Riverhead is another town on Long Island that is doing that slow crawl of revival.  It’s a nice place to visit and sketch. 

They do a street fair similar to Patchogue’s Alive After Five and they call theirs Alive on 25, which is the number of the NY state highway that Riverhead calls their Main Street.   

New York is dotted with hamlets and villages along state routes and I highly recommend going out of the way to find them.  They are places to sketch.

Last evening, at Alive on 25, there was a model arranged for us to sketch.  There was also an antique car show that I would have loved to sketch instead, but we were already committed to sketching the model.  Oh well, maybe another time.

Below there are two sketches of the model, I did more but I liked these two the best.  I also did a “rogue” sketch of the sculpture on the grounds of the East End Arts complex….I say “rogue” because I took a lot of liberties with this sketch and just had fun with it.

Enjoy!


Today’s sketch

When I leave the studio to sketch or paint “in the wild,” I never know what adventures I will find, with whom I will have a conversation, what events I will stumble on, or what wildlife I will encounter.

Today I left the studio to go to a neighboring village to sketch.  I found an alley that was shared by two businesses, one a cafe, the other a gift boutique.  This gave me the ability to sit in one place while sketching the other.  As I was sketching, people chatted around me.  At the end of the alley was a man who worked at the business on the left, conversing with someone I couldn’t see.  He was the perfect subject so I sketched him quickly, noting the placement of objects surrounding him so that when he moved, I could continue without him.  That plan worked!

As I was sketching, two cars collided right in my field of vision.  It looked like one car pulled out of their parking spot into the path of another car. It was a little unnerving.  There was a loud crash and I walked to the end of the alley and there was a young man who was a little upset apparently that the other lady pulled out in front of him.  There were two ladies in the other car so one can only surmise that they were chattering away and missed seeing the young man and his car.  I am glad everyone seemed ok. 

 I went back to finish my sketch and then I popped into my friend’s shop afterward to show her and my other friend my freebies from the Urban Sketching Symposium in Chicago.  Now to rustle up some lunch…..

Sketches from the past few days

Here are a few days of sketches that I haven’t posted yet….

John and I went to the Hambletonian on Saturday at the Meadowlands.  I did a few sketches but I liked this one the best because it shows the old Meadowlands Grandstand.  Not sure why they had to build a new one but the Jets/Giants new Met Life stadium is right behind it.

BTW, for those uninformed, the Hambletonian is the harness racing equivalent to the Kentucky Derby.


Sketches done this evening while watching a Beatles cover band at the Common Ground in Sayville.


The next couple of “sketches” were done from one sketch that I used and cut a template to create a jellyfish garland….JELLY!!!!


I also created another garland and hung it in my family room….



This next sketch was a “liquid” object exercise…the paper was torn and I drew the bike to conform to the ripped paper….

Alive After Five Week #3

Our model yesterday, Stephanie, at Alive After Five, was very good.  She came equipped with a goth outfit and black lacy umbrella.  Her poses were so amazing that she stopped people who were passing by, and they paused to watch us sketch.  Normally they stroll by and don’t even glance our way.  Stephanie didn’t have a snake, her personality and outfit caught people’s eye.

We requested 2, 5 and some 10 minute poses.  She was very good and came up with some great poses, even down to exaggerating her fingers.   I just read an article about contrapposto, which means “counter-posture” in Italian, and Stephanie pulled some contrappostro poses off naturally, with ease. I was delighted that I was able to sketch these poses just after reading about them in.

Here are the sketches from last evening, you can tell the amount of time that I had per sketch by the amount of detail….

This one below, is a classic example of contrapposto….the torso is going in the opposite direction as the hips….the body counter balances itself to adjust the weight of the pose.

Some more sketches from the USk Symposium in Chicago

These sketches were loose or in different sketchbooks from my last posts…

This first sketch was done in my morning pages as I was waiting for my flight for Chicago.  I got up so early that I had to do my morning routine at the airport.  There was another flight boarding at my gate.  These folks were going to Punta Cana.   I was sitiing at a table sipping my Starbucks latte and I could see the Punta Cana folks sitting on the runway so I sketched their plane…..and I wondered who was going to the Dominican Republic in the summer?  It’s not hot enough here at home?


The next two sketches:

An ATC that I did on the final day of the symposium, and the sketch on the left is in my moleskine travelers notebook….this one was my plane at Kennedy.  I stamped the page so it would look a little like a passport. 

The ATC is one of two that I did Saturday afternoon….I traded the other one with another sketcher who was from Tel Aviv.  

Here is a sketch I did of a flag in the business area of Chicago…


The two sketches below were done at O’Hare before I boarded my plane….

Urban Sketcher Symposium Final Day’s Sketches

This morning, I sketched the top of the Congress Hotel.  It’s a cool sign and it glows brightly when lit in the evening and I enjoyed the challenge of sketching it this morning.

Then I moved on to sketch Lake Michigan.  I couldn’t leave Chicago without sketching the lake!  I was surprised how green it looked, like the Carribbean.  It was bustling with activity.

The Goodman Center has been our home away from home these past few days.  I took a few minutes to sketch this before I ran off to join the rest of the artists at our final sketching spot.

I have a few more quick sketches that I did that I will post tomorrow. Overall, it was a great experience.’

Urban sketchers Symposium Day 2

The sketch subject below is on Congress Pkwy just East of Michigan Ave.  This sculpture is beautiful.  It is designed as a trellis for vines so that her skirt will fill out with plant life…so far, she just has a few leaves.


I moved on to the Plaza where the native American sculpture was holding court.   My friends were focused on his “six pack” butt.  

The Buckingham Fountain


The London House…..in Chicago……oookay.  I had to rush through the end of this one because I had run out of time….

International Urban sketchers Symposium – Chicago Days 1 & 2

So here I am in Chicago, sketching with 575 other artists from 34 countries around the world.

I am sitting at Congress and Michigan Ave while I am typing this, before I start another sketch.

Here are a few photos of some of the sketches that I did.  I am meeting people from all over the world and this is a totally awesome experience.



Sketches from Memorial Ceremony

There is a group in the Patchogue area that maintains Lakeview Cemetery on Main Street.  It is an old historical cemetery and comprises (historians believe) 5 separate cemetaries of various faiths.  

The committee has been restoring and maintaining the graves.  There are several graves of significance which were being commemorated on Wednesday.  At the turn of the century, there were a couple of shipwrecks where bodies were retrieved from storms.  These sailors were give a resting place at Lakeview cemetary.  They were not locals. They were from New England…. These days, the bodies would be transported home, back in the late 1800’s, they were lucky when kind benevolent souls gave them a resting place.

The Memorial Ceremony was for these sailors and the locals that died in relation to rescue attempts during the storms that sunk the ships they were on.  (They weren’t even going far by today’s standards, Maine or Boston to Maryland or vice versa). I was amazed that they knew the names of these sailors.

There was a special iron work piece made to beautify the site and that was also being dedicated during the ceremony to those that lost their lives.  These sketches were done during the ceremony.