RAMBLING  SKETCHER

My two specialties: people who are reading and people who are sleeping on the subway. Extra points when they are sitting next to each other! This is my 6:30 AM wake-up sketch.

On 45th and 9th there is a magical place called Schmackary's. It is full of all different kinds of cookies (my favorites include Choconut Chip, Caramel Apple Crisp, Oatmeal Scotchie, and Red Velvet), great atmosphere, good music, and happy people. It's one of the best places to go for dessert before or after a show, and every once in a while I kill some time there between things I have to do in midtown! And while I have a cookie (or a kitchen sink bar...also amazing), I sket

This Saturday, NYC Urban Sketchers met at Grand Central. Sadly I missed the first half, after spending over an hour waiting in the post office to pick up a package. But I did a warm-up sketch of a man on the train to the event! Then when I arrived in time for lunch, I ate my pizza in about half a second and proceeded to watercolor a bit of the dining concourse. I decided to use perylene green after being reminded of it doing a project at work this week. I love how it mixes wi

As I've previously mentioned, I studied abroad in London in 2009. When I spent two weeks in Italy for spring break, I took enough photos to keep me watercoloring for a good, long time! The one below is a watercolor I did in 2012 of one of my very favorite photos. It's currently hanging on the wall facing me as I type, so it's been on my mind! I was too busy to sketch the beautiful snow scenes this week (though I'll be working from some photos of the blizzard soon, I hope!) so

Ok, technically it was AFTER the blizzard. I spent the actual blizzard in my apartment, avoiding the snow and attempting to be productive (to mixed success). The following day I ventured into the world, and on the subway saw this man with two large bouquets of roses and lilies. A welcome sight, given the weather!

This semester I've gotten a teaching job at a University in New Jersey, teaching scene painting on Friday mornings! I'm very excited for the opportunity, but less excited for the commute. Because of train times, to get there in time to set up for my 8:30 AM class, I have to be out the door a little before 6 AM. The silver lining to this is that the commute provides for a ton of sketching opportunities! Here are some from the commute Thursday (I was doing prep work for my firs

This summer I was lucky enough to spend a 6 weeks (in two week chunks scattered throughout the season) working at Goodspeed in East Haddam, CT. The weather was beautiful when I was visiting in August, perfect for sketching outside! The company housing I was kept in while there was conveniently a thirty second walk from a bench with perfect views of both the opera house and the adorable restaurant next door. I also enjoyed talking to passers-by, of which there were many thanks

Still dreaming of warm days in the park, I wanted to share one of my favorite sketches to date! My Mom and I share this as a favorite view from the park. This one was sketched sitting on one of the huge boulders by the baseball fields in the south west corner of the park, in an hour. I had finished work and was coming through Manhattan at around five, so I decided to take a detour, probably persuaded by the very warm weather we were having (it definitely didn't feel like Sept

The past couple of weeks I've found myself working in south Jersey, working at a shop that has been putting us up in a hotel. Tonight I got dinner at the restaurant/cafe/bar thing in my hotel, and sketched it while I waited for my food (and to be honest, finished the sketch long after my food was gone!).

Sometimes you work in South Jersey. And sometimes, you find yourself with an unexpected weekend you thought you'd be working through. So what's a girl to do, but take the train into Philadelphia with a friend for the day? We went to the Barnes Foundation, a museum neither of us had been to before. Containing art (lots of impressionists!), ironwork and furniture collected between 1914 and 1951, the museum is set up wonderfully. The rooms containing the collection feel like thr