RAMBLING  SKETCHER

A couple of months ago I did this great little commission, which happened to be a lovely addition to my Broadway nocturne collection! This one is of the Neil Simon theatre, while Angels and America was occupying it.

Sometimes when you're strapped for time, but have your sketching stuff and golden hour is hitting the Flatiron Building juuuuust right, you have to stop and sketch it. It's basically a law. You may have noticed, it's one of my favorite things to paint in Manhattan (see "related posts"). I realized very early on I didn't have my pencil with me, so I had to go direct to watercolor which I appreciate as a challenge but in actual practice really don't care for. Here it worked out

Sometimes you have some time to kill between work and meeting up with friends. So you head to Washington Square Park, randomly run into another friend because that happens with surprising frequency in a city of 8 million people, and then use your remaining time to do a super quick sketch of the arch! The Empire State Building can be seen within the arch. I mostly was hoping it wouldn't start to rain (it didn't), but was leaning against the fountain and the spray that happened

Sometimes, I get to work on commissions I'm REALLY excited about. This was one of those times. They were destined to be a Christmas and graduation present from a grandmother to her granddaughter who would be graduating from Princeton in the spring and will be working at Goldman Sachs in the fall. Princeton holds a place in my heart from my summer working at the now-defunct New Jersey Opera (which was based on campus). I was able to use one of my favorite photos (of my favorit

Back in June I was lucky enough to yet again see one of my favorite bands, Common Jack, in concert. Common Jack was opening for Kuinka, who I wasn't familiar with (I didn't even spotify them beforehand!) but quickly fell in love with. I basically have had their songs "Gold," "Curious Hands," and "Howl" stuck on repeat in my head and I am FINE with it! I managed to sketch John of Common Jack (who happens to be a buddy from college) and each member of Kuinka during their respec

I LOVE a good bookstore. New, used, whatever. Any bookstore. I love seeing all the cover designs (I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I'm an artist. It basically comes with the territory), reading the backs, and flipping through the pages. Here are two recent paintings I've done of some of my favorite bookstores! First up: the Strand. 10/10 most likely place for you to find me if I have time to kill near Union Square. I'm likely up in the art section,

After seeing the last movie of the summer in Bryant Park last year during my artist residency, I knew I wanted to make it to at least one this year! So, when I heard they were showing A League of Their Own (an old family favorite!) I invited some of my best gals and we decided to go! Because I'm me, I obviously had to sketch it. Me and Erin got in early to put down two blankets when the lawn opened (my first time participating in the mad dash to get a place on the lawn!). I d

Why yes, I am months behind in blogging. Time to finally tell you about my birthday sketchwalk! I decided the way I wanted to spend the day was by seeing movies and sketching. In the morning I went to see Ocean's 8 with my sister (it combined my love of heist movies with my love of all of the amazing women they cast!), and then I went on a sketchcrawl of some of my favorite places in New York. I started with my favorite view in Central Park, looking back at the buildings alon

Last day of the symposium! This means one final workshop, our last sketchwalk, and closing ceremonies. My final workshop was "Gouache like a Child" with Maru Godas. Gouache is an opaque watercolor medium, which I don't work in often. The point of the workshop is to just take what you like from the scene around you and include it, to worry less about scale, and color, and just have fun. And we did! I'm missing one painting I did as a warm-up that I'll post later should it turn

The Friday of symposium is always a big one: two workshops! And I FINALLY managed a morning sketch of sunlit fog on the bridge. And then, because I'm an overachiever, I did a second morning sketch right across the street from the Alfandega (our "hub" where we meet for morning announcements and before all workshops). First workshop of the day was with Ian Fennelly. I found out that his workshop was sold out within 5 minutes of registration opening, so I felt extra lucky to get