Day 270 "Lincoln & Franklin - Brooklyn" pen & ink 12 x 9

I love examining the buildings on city streets.  They cut into the sky and descend in a variety of shapes, repetitive, and varied.  There is so much detail above the ground.  It is luxurious to sit still and observe all the nooks and embellishments.  This is the corner of Lincoln and Franklin in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.  You can see how I began the drawing yesterday.  
This is my two hundred seventieth daily drawing.  Thank you for continuing to look at the world through my eyes.  

Day 267 "Gueros" 7 x 9 ink and pencils

Another image from this past weekend in Brooklyn, NY.  Yesterday I posted the view from our wait outside Gueros taco restaurant.  After we ordered, we stood outside on the street to wait for our order.  As you can see, there is a line of customers working their way to the counter, where an efficient and personable couple of employees make sure your order is just right.  We waited on the street, had a nice conversation with a couple who arrived on their bikes.   They encouraged us to wait with one of Gueros 20 ounce margaritas, especially on a hot night. There was also a young woman who came out of the deli next door (see yesterday's post), dropped a bottle of iced tea, which exploded across the sidewalk.  She sighed, picked up the scraps and moved the glass against the building on the edge of the sidewalk before she moved on.  She became the subject of intense discussion between two tables of diners on the sidewalk 20 feet from the breakage.  One table was pleased that she picked up what she could and moved the rest to the side.  The other table was disgusted by the fact that she left broken glass on the street.  The discussion was heating up and I was fully engaged in eavesdropping (hey, open air, tables on the street...).  A few minutes later, the woman came back with brown paper bag, cleaned up all the glass, and disappeared into her building to applause from the two tables of diners.  So entertaining.  
This is my two hundred sixty-seventh daily drawing.  I was fascinated by the warm interior visible beyond the outdoor diners, and the complexity of the activity indoors as well as outdoors.  I chose to only color the interior because I loved the beckoning warmth and activity.  
Thank you for continuing to look at the world through my eyes. 

"Cross Street - Clarendon" watercolor & ink 9 x 12

 

 A few weeks ago, I was painting in Boston with a friend. We parked ourselves at the intersection of Newbury and Clarendon.  It was  a gorgeous, sunny day at the end of April, and the streets were packed.  I love drawing the city, adding pedestrians who catch my eye.  The result shows sidewalks more busy than they actually were in any given moment, but you can feel the motion, the busyness; in this case with faces turned toward the sun after a long, not necessarily harsh, but certainly gray, winter.  

You can see my sketches and the beginning of color into the painting in a former blog post (link here).  Usually, I do the drawing outside, and sometimes begin adding color, but more often, I add the color from my head.  I remember the angle of the sun, and add the colors and value that work in the scene. I'm happy with the outcome, and looking forward to my next urban painting day.  

Meanwhile, you can see this painting, and two others of mine, on Memorial Day Weekend at the North River Arts Festival in Marshfield, MA.  The juried art and sculpture show is fantastic each year, and this year will be no exception.  I coordinate the jury day, so get a preview of the accepted work.  Hoping to see you on the street, Sat or Sun.  Come say "Hi".  I'll be painting outside both days, 10 - 5pm. 

"Newbury and Clarendon" in progress watercolor & ink 9 x 12

During school vacation last week, I was so glad to have the time to get into Boston for a couple of days.  The first was on Patriot's Day to watch the Marathon, which I love, especially when hanging out with my daughter, a college student nearby.  The second was a day with my painting pal, Marianne.  We took the boat in, stopped and met my husband at one of the best donut shops around, Kane's, on the corner of High and Oliver streets. Just an aside, I grew up in Canton, MA where we were blessed with Charlie's Donuts.  If you bump into anyone from Canton of a certain age and mention Charlie's they will lick their lips and you will share memories of the most memorable donuts ever.  Kane's is the closest I have ever tasted, which means they are probably as good when you factor in the romanticized memory component of the Charlies' Donut 
experience. But I digress...

Back to Boston.  We meandered across Boston, down onto Newbury Street and found a place in the sun.  I like to sketch the street, concentrating on the physical structures, and dropping down into the people on the street occassionally when someone catches my eye.  The result is often a street that looks more crowded that the day actually presented, but feels right to me because it represents the coming and going and shifts and changes and the human pageant.  I began to add watercolor later, from memory of where the sun and shade were.  
Eventually, the sun motivated us to move along.  We hung out for a while on the stone benches at the Boston Public Library and watched the human drama that Boston always provides; lots of pedestrians, business people, tourists, a drug deal happening 15 feet from us, street theater, about twenty police converging around the corner from us for reasons unknown, and the Boston Opera Guy singing beautiful arias.  My daughter came to meet us for late lunch, we wandered back into the Public Garden and did a little more drawing before heading home for the boat.   Great day!  Thanks for looking!  I'll post a final when I complete the painting soon.  See below for more photos of the work in stages.