As typical, I cannot go to Florida without adding a palm tree to my sketchbook. This one was at the club we are working on, Boca Woods Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida. It is always great to see color since all of the trees in New England are already bare. Pilot Namiki fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Pelikan watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.
A quick trip to the beach before multiple meetings later in the day. Nestled between Fort Lauderdale and Miami is Hollywood, a classic Florida beachtown that’s enchanted visitors since the 1920’s. Hollywood Beach features a one-of-a-kind oceanfront promenade called the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk that stretches nearly two and a half miles along the Atlantic. Named one of America’s Best Beach Boardwalks by Travel + Leisure magazine, this brick-paved thoroughfare is a haven for joggers, bicyclists, roller-bladers and all who’d prefer to take in the action from the comfort of one of the countless eateries and cafés along the way. Prismacolor Art pens with Pelikan watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.
Cooks Brook Beach is located in beautiful Eastham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. The beach is located on the bay side of the cape. This is a view of the dunes at the edge of the beach just before sunset on a cloudy fall day. This was my first sketch in a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook. The paper is 2x as heavy as the Alpha sketchbook. It takes the watercolor beautifully. I bought this because Jerry’s Artarama was out of the Alpha sketchbooks. I think this will be my sketchbook in the future.
Today we visited the Truro Public Library for an Art opening sponsored by our favorite art gallery – The Addison Gallery in Orleans, Massachusetts. The opening was for “In Hopper’s Town” – Celebrating the work of contemporary artists inspired by Edward Hopper and Truro, the town he chose to build his home and to paint for decades. It was a fantastic event with wonderful artists and their works. Amazing talent. This is sketch of the library entrance as dusk was falling. I like the richness of the foreground building with the layers of colors. The scan washed out some of the depth overall, but I should have darkened the entire building more. Faber-Castell Pitt Art pens with Daniel Smith and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
A very quick sketch of a lamp and raffia pumpkin on a table in the breakfast room at the hotel I was staying at. The lamp was detailed in bronze and the pumpkins were made of stiff raffia. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s black ink in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
A view of some of the local shops in the quaint village of Orleans, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. I was sitting in the parking lot of Savvy on Main (part of the foreground sign) sketching the shops across Main Street. Lamy Safari fountain pen with Noodler’s ink and Pelikan watercolors in a 9″ x 12″ Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.
This s a quick sketch of the Sea Girt Bathing Pavilion across the street from the lighthouse. The pavilion is closed for the season. This area is on the famous Jersey Shore with a wide sandy beach running for miles and miles. Prismacolor Art Pens with Pelikan watercolors in a 9″ x 12″ Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
Another trip to New Jersey for business. Sea Girt Lighthouse in Sea Girt, New Jersey, flashed its first light December 10, 1896. The beacon, which could be seen 15 miles at sea, guided countless mariners in their journeys and contributed to the state’s economic growth and helped make sailing through local waters safer. The lighthouse was built to illuminate a blind spot midway in the 38½-mile stretch between Navesink Lighthouse (Twin Lights) to the north and Barnegat Lighthouse to the south. It also served as a landmark for nearby Sea Girt Inlet and Wreck Pond. The red brick structure with a tower rising 44 feet was the last live-in lighthouse built on the Atlantic Coast. A live-in lighthouse has the tower integrated into the living quarters. Sea Girt was equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens, which was 30 inches high. The multi-sided beehive-shape lens had a bulls-eye prism like a big magnifying glass in the middle of each side. Lamy Fountain Pen with Noodler’s black ink and Pelikan watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
Another quick sketch from the zoo. Peacock’s are beautiful animals with the iridescent feathers. The Indian peacock has iridescent blue and green plumage. The peacock “tail”, known as a “train”, consists not of tail quill feathers, but highly elongated upper tail coverts. These feathers are marked with eyespots, best seen when a peacock fans his tail. Both sexes of all species have a crest atop the head. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors with black ink work in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
Today I had a couple of hours of time between meetings in New Jersey. I headed to the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey. It is a pretty nice zoo, although growing up in Southern California I compare everything to the San Diego Zoo which is on of the best in the world. It was mid-day so many of the animals were hiding pretty well. I took some photos of the Peacock, Red Tailed Hawk and Bald Eagles. I am pretty happy with these sketches except the beak on one of the eagles make it look more like a parrot. Whenever you think of a peacock, you always think of the beautiful tail feathers, although the coloration of the head and body of the birds is amazing. Lamy fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.
A SKETCHBOOK ODYSSEY 