Window Boxes

One last one from our brief Nantucket get away. This was a quick 30 minute sketch. The window boxes are gorgeous and everywhere on the island. Everyone is so different from the next one. Bright colors, a multitude of species and many different greens. The flower boxes are even more amazing in the springtime when they are planted with colorful bulbs and greens that seem even more vibrant after a New England winter. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors in a 8″ x 12″ Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.

2015-09-13 Nantucket window box

Quickies

Another couple of quick value studies from Nantucket. As a challenge to try to be quicker and looser. I made a limit of 12-15 minutes for each of these sketches. They are still pretty tight, but there is a looseness to them. The top one is a view from the ferry terminal looking back at a couple of cottages on the piers over the water. The second is of a marina building that had a garage shop with large doors on the front and rear that opened to the view and harbor just outside the doors. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s black ink in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

2015-09-12 Quickies

From the Bean

Another early morning sketch. It poured rain last night so there is nowhere outside to sit and sketch where it is dry. This is the view from The Bean coffee shop. I sat at the window counter and sketched the view across India Street. Classic New England Architecture is everywhere in this town and on the island. We leave later today and it has been a fantastic trip. Faber-Castell Pitt pens with Holbein watercolors in an Alpha Series Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

2015-09-11 From the Bean

Boat House and Grennan Bearit

Another beautiful morning on Nantucket. Up early just after sunrise for this sketch as the fog was lifting. The Boat House and Grennan Bearit are 2 rental cottages on North Wharf on the Nantucket Boat Basin. Nantucket is so a quintessential New England with all of the cottages and buildings in grey weathered shingle buildings with white trim right on the water. I sketched this Plein Air and added the color later due to the 100% humidity and I knew the watercolor would never dry. Holbein watercolors with black fine pens in a Alpha Series Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

2015-09-10 North Wharf Nantucket

Rosa Rugosa

Summer on Cape Cod is wonderful with the sight and smell of the Sea Roses (Rosa Rugosa). Rosa Rugosa is a suckering shrub which develops new plants from the roots and forms dense thickets with stems densely covered in numerous short, straight prickles. The flowers are pleasantly scented, dark pink to white with somewhat wrinkled petals; flowering occurs throughout the summer on the cape. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-09-02 Rosa Rugosa

Highland Light

The Highland Light (previously known as Cape Cod Light is an active lighthouse on the Cape Cod National Seashore in North Truro, Massachusetts. It is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Cape Cod. The park and lighthouse area owned by the National Park Service. The present location of the lighthouse is not the original site. It was in danger of falling down the cliff due to beach erosion, so the structure was moved 450 feet (140 m) to the west. The move was accomplished  over a period of 18 days in July, 1996. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodlers Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-08-31 Highland Light

Times Square – NYC

Times Square is a major commercial intersection and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventy Avenue, and stretching from West 42nd Street to West 47th Street. Brightly adorned with billboards and advertisements, Times Square is sometimes referred to as The Crossroads of the World, The Center of the Universe, the heart of The Great White Way, and the “heart of the world”. One of the world’s busiest pedestrian intersections, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world’s entertainment industry.

2015-08-28 Times Square

1913 Lewisohn Building – New York CIty

A detailed view of the building that our client is moving into the ground floor. In 1893 the Mendelssohn Glee Club, a group of all-male singers, moved into their grand new concert venue, Mendelssohn Hall at 119 West 40th Street. Lewisohn had received a building loan of $1.1 million from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to erect a skyscraper on the site of the Hall. The proposed 22-story structure that would stretch through the block from West 40th Street to 41st Street. While the architects refrained from over-embellishing the bulk of the structure, they added Gothic touches to the upper-most and lower floors; most striking being the carved figures along the fourth story cornice. The sculptures, dressed in medieval garb, all sit with their ankles crossed under Gothic terra cotta canopies. Each is a detailed allegory – Exploration holds a globe and compass, Industry has a large gear and Learning reads an open book, for instance. Faber-Castell Pitt black pens with Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-08-27 1913 Lewisohn Building

Bryant Park – New York City

More work travel and it is to New York City this time. A beautiful morning sitting in the Paris bistro chairs watching people on their way to work and a Tai Chi group A beautiful shaded oasis in the city. Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre privately managed public park located in the New York City located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd In Midtown. Although technically the Main Branch of the New York Public Library is located within the park, effectively it forms the park’s functional eastern boundary, making Sixth Avenue the park’s primary entrance. Bryant Park is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library’s stacks. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Pelikan watercolors in a Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-08-26 Bryant Park

Iggy’s Doughboys and Chowder House

Today we had our company summer party at Iggy’s Doughboys and Chowder House at Oakland Beach in Warwick, Rhode Island. We recently designed a new structure adjacent to the classic beach stand. Iggy’s Doughboys and Chowder house is one of Rhode Island’s famous landmarks as well as the oldest beach stand in RI. It was built in 1924. The building has survived two major hurricanes and was standing on its original structure until it was renovated in 2008. The beach stand was originally called Gus’s. Gaetano Gravino worked at Gus’s and in 1989 he purchased the beach stand. Great time, camaraderie and plenty of food. Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s ink and Holbein watercolors in an Alpha series Stillman and Birn Sketchbook.

2015-08-21 Iggys