A local resident commissioned me to paint an 11x14 watercolor of the downtown Stamford area. I did two versions in slightly different styles: one in watercolor with some watercolor pencil details and the other in an ink-over-watercolor technique.

Here's version 1:



And here's version 2:



I rarely paint the same scene twice, so this was an interesting experience. The second one felt more spontaneous - it was as if my hand had "learned" the structure of the scene.

The resident chose version 1. Which style do you prefer?

... we did not use milk crates to steady ourselves on the ice. We just balanced on our blades and figured it out. Apparently today's kids need walker-style skate trainers, makeshift milk-crate towers lashed together with wire ties, and all kinds of other aids. Sigh. It was much more fun to sketch at Washington Trust Community Skating Center in Westerly, RI, than to dodge their crates.

It was so warm over Christmas that I sat on the bench outside Bank Square Books to capture the downtown Mystic scene.

Selected a bunch of sketches and paintings I'd done in and around Mystic, Connecticut, over the years to create a 2015 calendar on Shutterfly. Got two of them made as gifts for M.'s mom and grandmother. It was really easy to create, and the printing and paper quality are excellent.

Small paintings of downtown Stamford, CT, from my original photos.

Sept. 20 was a lovely (though breezy) day for the Walk2End Alzheimer's at Ocean Beach Park in New London. As we waited for it to get underway, I sketched a yoga class on the beach and then the pavilions and event tents.

Saturday: A leisurely float in our kayaks along the Saugatuck River in Westport. There were lots of paddleboarders about, and scullers.








Sunday: Mingling with the horsey set at Greenwich Polo Club. The last time we'd gone to a polo match was in Saratoga. Figured it would be interesting to attend one right here in backcountry Greenwich.

Many spectators were decked out in full regalia, complete with hubcap-sized hats; others were there mainly to enjoy the perfect weather while relaxing on a picnic blanket.



Yes, this guy's velveteen jacket was really that amazing hot pink. You could not miss him. If you were meeting friends in the crowd, you could have told them to meet you at the dude with the awesome jacket. They would have known exactly what you meant.



It's hard to sketch polo players as they thunder past you mid-chukker.



Next time we'll bring food and some friends. And a dog wearing a rep tie.

My mixed media works "Off the Menu" and "Rain Date" have been accepted into the Rowayton Arts Center's Focus Under 40 juried exhibition. Please stop by the opening reception, 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, June 1.

Took the kayaks out for the first time this season. We paddled farther than usual around our peninsula, getting quite close to Stamford Harbor Ledge Lighthouse. Next time I'll have to take the anchor with me so I can sketch it. As it was a clear day, we could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

M. towed me on the way back so I could sketch.



Long Island Sound provided all the water I needed -- but I had to be careful not to lose my brush in the drink!

Title TBD - abstraction of boats in Rowayton, Connecticut. From an original photo. Acrylic on board, 16x16.

This painting has been on and off my easel since 2011. I'm calling it done.

We're often in Mystic, CT, for Thanksgiving, and on the Friday and Saturday afterward we like to trawl nearby towns to start our holiday shopping. Sometimes Wickford, RI, or Niantic, CT, are in the mix, but this year we stayed a little closer -- downtown Mystic, of course, but also Westerly, RI, and Water Street in Stonington, CT. Sketched this from a bench outside a shop, wearing a warm coat and fingerless gloves.

At Mystic Seaport's Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous. Sadly several vessels couldn't make it, we learned, due to bad weather in the region a few days prior.

Here's another plein air acrylic painting done in Rowayton -- it wasn't an easy one, as the paint dried fast, there were bugs, I kicked my water container over, etc.... touched it up a bit later in the studio. I still think I'll eventually like this medium for plein air work -- I just have to learn it better (and possibly upgrade to slightly better quality paint).

Also participated in my first Quick Draw on June 8, during Jersey Central Art Studios' Paint the Town Cranford 2013 event. Note to self (and others): leave lots of extra time to arrive and scout out a location! We ambitiously thought we'd stop by my office in Secaucus to get all my belongings first (we're moving to a flexible hoteling-only workspace at EY this month) before heading to Cranford to get set up. Due to a blockage on the Saw Mill Parkway, we ended up seeing all of Yonkers stoplight by stoplight and barely made it to Cranford in time. I chose a view and squeaked something out in the two-hour timeframe allotted, but I'm not even going to show you what I painted -- it's destined to be gessoed into oblivion!

Plein air watercolor has always appealed to me -- it's the minimalism of the kit required, I suppose, and the spontaneity of the medium. However, I've always admired plein air work in other media -- oil, acrylic and pastel alike.

So when I saw that Pacific Northwest-based artist Annie Howell Adams was teaching a daylong workshop titled Fauving up the Landscape here at Rowayton Arts Center, I signed up and persuaded a friend to do the same. Figured it was a good opportunity to try a new medium and learn from an expert.

The week of the workshop, things got very busy at work. I hadn't had time to shop for supplies, so I hastily put together a bag the night before, noting with despair that I was missing some key materials -- to wit, decent canvases and a tube of alizarin crimson.

Since I wanted to meet my friend before the start of class, M. and I left the house early. On the way we saw a sign for an estate sale, so we decided on a quick detour.

"Looking for anything in particular?" asked the lady at the cashier's desk in the foyer of the estate-sale house.

"Nah, just stopping by on the way to a painting class at Rowayton Arts Center down the road," I said.

The woman brightened. "Oh, you should definitely check out the art supplies downstairs -- my aunt used to take classes there, too!"

She wasn't kidding. Her late aunt had certainly taken her hobby seriously. In 10 minutes I amassed a boxload of prime art supplies - including, by coincidence, the very items I needed for the class. New canvases? Hog-bristle brushes in various sizes? Check! Alizarin crimson acrylic paint? Check! What were the odds? Armed with my finds, I headed off to the workshop feeling very lucky indeed.

Annie, the instructor, was lovely -- so down-to-earth and such a fount of information. She shared her palette layout and did a demo outdoors showing how to mix colors. She often sketches on her canvas with black gesso before glazing with medium and adding layers of oil on top. Here's an illustration of this technique on her blog.

I love that she's unabashedly passionate about creating art in all kinds of media; so many artists these days confine themselves to a certain type of work and even limit their range of subject matter, all to keep galleries happy and establish a signature style. Yawn.

So - how did I make out? I found that my watercolor setup worked just as well for acrylic: I filled an AquaTote collapsible fabric water bucket and set it on my folding stool. On the portable easel was the butcher tray, which held paper towels, a few paint tubes and a rectangle of palette paper secured with mini spring clamps.

The sun and breeze that day meant that paint dried very fast. Next time I'll bring a spray mister to keep my paint wet. I mostly used a limited palette of a warm and a cool version of each primary, plus white, with no browns or black.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially as I'd never painted outdoors with acrylics before. And I'd like to think that the beloved aunt, whose materials I used for the painting, would have been happy to see her paints, canvases and brushes live on.

Bodega's takeout menu, with its fab truck logo, just *begs* to be sketched on. I love the challenge of incorporating existing graphics into the sketch. Drew the goings-on in the kitchen a few weeks ago during breaks between dinner courses. Used colored pencil instead of watercolor with the ink drawing because of the thin paper. Just looking at the menu is making me dream of their brussels sprouts, the cazuela with quinoa, the kale salad -- yum!

On Saturday I participated in the 38th Worldwide SketchCrawl. I wasn't able to meet up with the NYC group in the morning but ended up doing a daylong dual-state crawl.

I started off with a quick sketch over breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien in Stamford before going to a few local garage sales.



At one of them I scored a set of unused watercolor pencils, among other art supplies, so I brought them along with me to my next stop -- Brooklyn, New York, where I met my friend Alison. We had lunch and sketched each other. Then I sketched the expansive view from her window, with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the distance:



We went up a few flights of stairs to the roof, where we enjoyed breathtaking views of the sunset over Brooklyn and Manhattan. I quickly sketched two views before my fingers began to freeze:





When we went back down to warm up, I drew her daughter practicing piano (finally broke out those watercolor pencils):



Around 6:15 I headed back to Connecticut so I could catch The Sig Brothers playing at Coalhouse Pizza in Stamford -- got a prime seat right in front of the band so I could draw them as M. and I enjoyed the music:



The next Worldwide SketchCrawl will be on Saturday, April 13. Mark your calendar and join in the fun!

Nothing says holiday like a blast of salty spray from the Sound! As usual, we packed up our presents and drove off to Mystic, Connecticut, on the Eve of Christmas Eve, to spend the holiday at M.'s family's waterfront cottage.

This year, we went to the 57th annual Mystic Seaport Community Carol Sing, benefiting the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center. Everyone gathered at the Seaport's Anchor Circle to sing popular Christmas carols (with the aid of helpful booklets to remind us of the more obscure verses).

 



On Christmas Eve, we went bowling at Spare Time in Groton, with my sister-in-law and her family. We started that tradition a few years ago. She and I often take our knitting projects, but this time I took the sketchbook along, determined to capture something of the action.



I find it's really hard to draw people bowling. The experienced bowlers contort themselves into an odd stance when they release the ball -- right arm just so in front; right leg curving behind the left, toe grazing the ground -- and in a second it's over. Yes, they do it over and over again, which should be helpful, but I still haven't quite mastered the pose.





In the evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. It's a smallish, intimate church, and the service included lots of singing, which I enjoyed. The musicians were in the back behind the pews, so I had to crane my neck around to draw them.



We were all given paper stars (gifts for the child in the manger) so I promptly used mine as a stencil to add some interest to the page. I was also fascinated by the people lighting the glass hurricane lamps next to the pews -- but I couldn't sketch them properly as they moved so quickly.



Speaking of things that move fast -- M.'s parents recently got a King Charles spaniel. She's a bundle of puppy energy, so I was only able to get a few quick sketches of her in during the holiday. Perhaps she'll nap more when she's older. :) Hope everyone had a good holiday!