COLORED PENCIL

In today's post I'm going to add a few of my colored pencil works.  Like other colored pencil artists often do I've come to term them "paintings" for lack of a better way to describe them.  Hope you enjoy them!

"Winter Boat"   14" X 11"   Colored Pencil

I am enthralled with the beauty of the Eastern end of Long Island, NY, particularly what we call the North Fork of Long Island.  Although most people enjoy the area in the summer I also like to be out there in the winter when it's still and filled with solitude.  One such day I happened on this boat frozen into the salt water in a small cove off Peconic Bay.  I loved the colors, the biting cold air, and the stillness of this scene and decided to photograph it so that I could try to capture all of these things in a painting as best as I could and then paint it in a nice warm studio!  

"Autumn Sailboat"   18" X 9"   Colored Pencil

I revisited the same area that the idea for the above winter boat painting was done much later that same year to enjoy the fall foliage.  At that time this sail boat was tied at the dock.  The white of the boat was in such stark contrast to the beautiful colored leaves behind it that I decided it would make a good painting.  Gee, those colors were beautiful!  

"Stony Brook Cove"   14" X 23"   Colored Pencil

These boats were a part of this little cove for many years.  They resided in the Stony Brook area of Long Island, another place that I dearly love, and have spent many, many hours in.  These boats always intrigued me stoically floating in high tide, and sitting in the mud during low tide, during every season year after year.  One day I decided I just had to paint these rowboats that had become a landmark of the area.  About a year after I finished the painting two of the boats disappeared and the other broke apart in a bad storm.  I was so glad I was able to capture what had become a lost bit of the area's history.  Sadly, I sold this painting soon after I created it and now wish I hadn't.  

"Stony Brook Gamecock Cottage"   4.5" X 13"   Colored Pencil

This painting was done in the same general area as the one above it near my home on LI, NY.  It's a landmark and part of the history of the area.  It was used as an old fishing cottage in the early 1900's.

"Stony Brook Village Doorway"   10" X 8"   Colored Pencil

The above painting was also done in the same area.  There is a quaint little Village up the hill and across from the water that is always filled with flowers during the warm months.

"North Fork Farm Stand"   14" X 25"   Colored Pencil

I did the above painting from a photograph I took while on a drive along the North Fork of the East End of Long Island, NY.  The farm stands are always beautiful during the warm months.  They begin by selling all sorts of flats and hanging baskets of flowers, next they are filled with LI summer produce, and they end the season with pumpkins, pies and corn stalks.  

"North Fork Farm Stand II"   14 X 25"   Colored Pencil

This is another farm stand further down the road on the same day.  Heading out that way is a big pass-time on Long Island.

A Dear Departed Friend

"Sunday Morning"   24" X 18"   Watercolor

This is a painting of my cherished friend, Diane.  Sadly, she died at the age of 43.  It was much too early an age to lose such a special friend.  We had so much in common.  We both have/had chronic hereditary illnesses, although it was not the same illness for each of us.  Diane watched her mother suffer and die from her illness while she was still a child, and I as a young mother watched my father suffer and die from the illness I inherited from him.  This made for a very special bond between Diane and I.

On a brighter note before we knew we were ill we worked together for several years when we were young single women just out of high school.  We certainly had lots of fun doing it, too.  Then, as newly married women we commuted daily together in her old 1958 chevy to that same job and lived, one above the other, with our young husbands in the same apartment complex.  Many a times we had to stop and refill her radiator on the way to work, but you can bet we had lots of laughs on those drives.  We continued on through our 20s and 30s together, having sons the same age and sharing each other's joys and sorrows.  I guess you could say we grew up together.

I still have this painting and we often hang it in our home.  It's one of my husband's favorites.  I like to think of it as a reminder of her in the good days, before our illnesses took over our lives and our bodies.

The Lace Tablecloth   20" X 15"   Watercolor

The painting above is one I gave to Diane as a "just because you're you" gift back in those good days that I spoke of earlier in this post.  

January 18th, 2011, First Entry

On this date I began my very first blog here on this page.  As I continued to add to it I soon realized that the first post in a blog becomes the last page of the blog.  So, I've eliminated what I wrote here that first time, because it wound up no longer making any sense.

Instead I'll just say to myself:  "Hey, I learned something here, which only goes to show that you really can teach an old dog new tricks!  And, to everyone else I'll just say a hearty thank you for looking in, I truly hope you enjoyed yourself, and...

"Sunset"   9" X 13"   Watercolor

THE END!