Sonnenberg gardens

During the Fingerlakes Plein Air Festival there is one day where the Sonnenberg Gardens are open to the public and free. Being the cheap-o guy that I am I hurried up there for some sketching! [namiki falcon and a Lamy Safari with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape] 

Finger Lakes Plein Air

The FL Plein Air Festival is a fairly large art festival here in the finger lakes. There are 40 some juried-in artists that compete for a grand prize after painting all week. Their subjects are all taken from the finger lakes and range from creeks, to lakes, to barns, to ice cream shops. The artists travel around and set up shop in various locations and for 6 days you bump into them like a giant where's waldo book. I met a few artists and hit it off with a bunch of art-geek conversations. Keith Grunderson and Janet Howard-Fatta were two that I kept bumping in to! 

While the juried in artists are painting away there is a community quick paint event. We have 2 hours to paint and all of us are confined to a small location with a similar subject. This year was the boathouses that I paint and sketch on a weekly basis! 


I decided I should paint the boathouses without actually painting the boathouses. I found some cool buoys and set to work! 

the sketch

the final

my setup

our sketch group participants!

Plein air mini-hike

What do you do when your golf swing goes in the toilet and you don't want to meet your friends for a round? Why you go paint! 

So I grabbed my oil painting gear and headed into the woods. Onanda park "doesn't have hiking trails" but what it does have is an awesome walk into a waterfall with some more waterfalls if you are a billy goat--I had 45 pounds of painting gear on my back--so I opted to stay grounded. I eventually found a cool, flat, spot and picked out some tree roots to capture. It was an intimidating subject, but I had nothing but time in a very serene location. I even found a friend to keep me company! 

my only critic

Performances

The spring as an elementary teacher means performances. And performances mean--sketching! I would usually load up with sketching tools but for these I went minimal with usually one pen, and added the color later. A few of the performances were VERY DARK in the theater, so I had some fun drawing blind, and editing as I went (the ones with the orange background). 

[various pens probably filled with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape]

 

Plein air afternoon

It was finally a nice afternoon around here and we had a sniff of spring last week. I grabbed the plein air kit and headed out to get some practice for the Finger Lakes Plein Air festival. I was accompanied by some locals who were sharing some VERY interesting life stories. 

[w+n/gamblin oils, allaprima pochade box--custom]

sketch

round 1

final

Barnes and Noble meetup (edit)

Here are a few sketches from our most recent (and long over due) sketch meet up. 

[sailor bent nib pen and D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn gamma sketchbook-landscape--and a cookie]

Speed sketch

I went sketching with my sketching buddy--Genine on what we thought was a nice afternoon. We found some cool old industrial buildings to sketch but when we got comfy the wind made us a little chilly so we opted for a speed sketch. We had 15 minutes for inking and color! Afterwards I went back in to add some value and details! 

[LAMY Safari M nib, with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape]