Caught on camera

My very talented friend took some awesome pictures while we were celebrating our 40th birthdays in Montreal, Canada. It isn't often I get pictures of me actually creating artwork--it's a little hard to take a selfie while sketching! Thanks Scott!

Marine Center--Ponce Inlet

What a better way to spend an afternoon in Florida during the August humidity than indoors! We headed over to the Marine Science Center for an afternoon of underwater creatures and injured turtles. This place is an adorable space with a lot of aquatic creatures awaiting the return to the wild. Not only were there some gigantic loggerhead turtles but there was an awesome octopus and a creepy eel! 

[LAMY Safari, medium nib, w/Rohrer & Klingner Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook-softcover]

Plein Air--Ganondagan

We got up at an obscenely early time for a sunday and went painting/photo-bug-hunting at a near by Native American Community/Museum. They have some great hiking trails and grasslands open to the public--which coincidentally for my fiancee--contain a ton of creepy crawly spiders for her to take pictures of. Meanwhile, I can set up the ole easel and paint away! 

[oil paint on gessoboard panel, W+N oil paints on an allaprimapochade.com box]

ITALIA!

bought a new TWSBI pen at Stilograhica! 

I am not sure where to begin! I was in Italy for 13 days and had my Stillman and Birn, Beta, softcover sketchbook to fill. So below will be some sketches from that journey! 

NYS Transportation museum (7-10-16)

I met my sketching buddy out for a nice outing at the NYS Transportation museum. Which is basically like you grandfathers attic but much larger and filled with train stuff. It's such a weird experience and a great sketching location. 

(the green tint on the one photo is from the very odd skylights in the larger room--not a tinted sketchbook)

[Laloran sketchbook (http://laloranstore.bigcartel.com), with some various pens I obtained from jet pens and D+S watercolors]

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!