Goodbye Red Baron

First off, this was a sad week because we buried my father. 

Last weekend, at my father’s bedside I lamely spoke to him about how the grandkids and great-grandbaby were doing.  I expressed sorrow about time lost but I am grateful that I was able to good-bye.  We both loved to read and I regret that he and I won’t be able to share our excitement that the Dark Tower is finally coming to the theater.  He won’t see my grandbaby grow up. There are many things he won’t be here for anymore. 

My dad’s hobby was flying model airplanes.  When I was younger, he had this awesome plane he made that was called the Red Baron.  He accidentally crashed it and made many more after, but that one was my favorite.  His airplane friends thought he was building another Red Baron when he had the stroke.  I have a Red Baron Kite hanging at home that I fell in love with because it was that last link before my parents divorced.

This was a sketch done in Patchogue of a little egg shaped Fiat.  My husband calls them “softballs.  ” Every time he sees one he puffs air towards it like he’s blowing out a candle….like that puff of air will blow it away.  We always laugh when he does that.  I thought this sketch was fitting for today because of that touch of red.

Goodbye Dad.

Last but not least….

This sketch was the final sketch for this sketchbook.  It was a humid day and we found a shady pavilion on the East side of the causeway.  I saw this Jeep in front of me with an open hatch and sketched it. They had a lot of stuff in that car.  The trash can blocked part of my view so I was like “what the heck?, why not?” And added it.  The family was actually to the left and I could have fudged it by adding them but I liked the “mystery” of the hatch being open and unattended.  They were parked under the causeway which is why there is a shadow there.  Our car was in the shade as well, a few spots to the left. 

This is just one sketchbook that I used while in Florida.  My goal was to finish this one and I did.  I have two more sketchbooks with sketches in them from my time in Florida and I will be posting some sketches from them as well.

Another sketch from Stuart, FL

Here is another sketch that I did from the waterfront park in Downtown Stuart.  It’s blissfully quiet this time of year.  I like that there are lots of different types of tropical palms and plants, there were lizards running around, and the ibis who was a little “put out” that we took over the picnic table that he was using.  He came running back when we left.  Lol!

Sketching while boating

While we were in south Florida, we visited with my sister and her family.   She and her husband had gotten a new boat and invited us to come out for a ride.  We stopped at a sandbar and I sketched this while sitting on the front of the boat.  There were storms around us but it wasn’t raining where we were. Later the storms moved out and it cooled a bit. Overall it was a nice day spent with family.

After the rain

This sketch was done after a storm was clearing out.  The sun was setting and color was just starting to pop before the sun set.  I was lucky with the timing of the evening color happening just as I was adding the watercolor.

These are the same sail boats that I have been sketching, from a different perspective.

Rainy sketch and a rescue

This sketch was done from under the causeway.  The skies had opened up but we weren’t affected because we were parked under the bridge.  There were a couple of sailboats on the water.

People live in these boats.  We tried to imagine living in a boat during a storm like this.  It rained so hard that you couldn’t see the power plant or the Fort Pierce causeway.

As the rain let up, we noticed people going out onto the pier and pointing at the water.  We couldn’t see anything at first. Police started to show up and they walked to the pier in long yellow raincoats.  Then a fire truck came, and other emergency vehicles.  John said he saw something in the water….we didn’t get out of the car because it was still raining.  We couldn’t figure out what was in the water because of the waves and rain.

More first responders showed up….then a police boat.  The police boat slowly moved through the water.  We saw it stop, then we saw activity.  It looked like there was a dinghy in the water, floating away from us.  The police boat came back to the pier and two men got off, soaking wet.  They were waiting for something, we couldn’t see what they were looking at.  An ambulance pulled up.  The EMT’s pulled their equipment down to the pier and they came back with what looked to be a woman.  The two men walked toward their cars.  The EMT took the woman away and the police boat searched the water a bit then retrieved the boat and tied it up at the pier.

Not sure what happened but we did overhear one of the gentlemen say that they were holding the woman’s head above the water.  I guess we’ll never know the whole story but that’s the story behind this sketch…..