Sketching Chinatown on Saturday, May 10th

I was a bit of a tail-end Charlie on Saturday not having realized Chinatown had been scrubbed and we were to do a portrait party uptown instead.  Happily, when I got to the corner of Mott and Canal the sky was clearing and it was a great day to sketch.

This is a statue of Confucius just in front of Confucius Towers.  The plaque on front discusses the Ta Tung (Great Harmony) which is an harmonious world that would arise when people conducted themselves properly and the state was well led.

I sat across the street under an awning from the sun to try and capture the colorful busyness of Chinatown shops selling just about everything.

This is Kim Lau Square with a monument to Americans of Chinese ancestry that died in WW II.  Behind the statue is Chatham Towers, a boxy, angular building that reminded me of the Habitat Building at Expo 67 in Montreal.

Finally, some of the sketchers joined me on Mott and Bayard just as the rain came and we sketched under a restaurant awning.  When the rain let up we went on to Columbus Park at Mulberry and Bayard where we watched Tai Chi practice.  Around us were men playing cards and Chinese chess, while families sat and relaxed on their weekend.

Jim W.

A portrait is ....

FROM OUR SATURDAY PORTRAIT PARTY - March 10, 2014

John Singer Sargent apparently had no love of doing portraits.  He purportedly said, " Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend."

The weather forecast promised, not only rain, but thunderstorms this past Saturday.  We sat indoors in screaming sunshine sketching one another.  It did rain and there were even thunderstorms, but they happened well after we were done.  Virgil said - "Fortune favors the bold."  Call me a weenie.

With apologies for the misread weather and hoping not to lose any friends  - here are portraits of  Sunil, Alison, Lance and Swami (clockwise from the upper left)

This past Saturday was Swami's last day sketching with us before he leaves for Germany and eventually returns to India.  I was thinking of this when I put the frame around the drawing of him.  It's been great having him with us these last few months.

I got so caught up trying to find someone to take our picture that I didn't notice that Alison had left for a moment - so she's not in this group picture.

Punta Cana

My very first sketch during vacation in Punta Cana DR. I used watercolor kit and Sharpie fine point. It was definitely different than painting off a picture. I was laying down by the pool w/ very limited area to position my palette, water, etc. But somehow I felt... free, lines and color didn't have to be exact match to "pictures".
The sun light was changing, clouds were moving... and I just took it as it came... can't wait to do it again :)

Btw, hello, my name is Sherry, I will be meeting all of you for the first time this Sat.

Come Sketch at NYC Moleskine Stores

This weekend, if you're near SoHo or Columbus Circle, come join us for "City Stories" at the Moleskine Store. It will be a day of sketching, tips and demonstrations led by NYC Urban Sketchers. Sketches will be exhibited at the store and free Moleskine sketch albums will be given to those who register.  For more info see Moleskine City Stories

Washington Heights and George Washington Bridge – May 17, 2014

Washington Heights in the northern end of Manhattan is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed in 1776 at the highest point of Manhattan by Continental Army troops. General George Washington selected this strategic high point as his base of operations during the Revolutionary War.

We will start the sketch in Bennett Park, a neighborhood gem, built on the site of Fort Washington. The fort’s former contours are still outlined by granite paving in the southern portion of park. The park features an outcropping of Manhattan schist which is the highest natural point in Manhattan (267.75 feet above sea level, identified by a stone marker) and the Hudson View Gardens apartment complex on the west side of the park, representing a relatively early example of Tudor design in the city, predating Tudor City in Manhattan.

From the Bennett Park we will walk down the sloping Pinehurst Avenue and 181st Street (a walk which New York Times says “echoes” of Montmartre) down to a small terrace perched at the end of 181st Street with a fantastic view of the George Washington Bridge (which is by the way the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge) and the Palisades. We will spend another hour or so here before moving on for lunch.

After lunch we will move to the original inspiration for this trip – The Little Red Lighthouse, Manhattan’s only remaining lighthouse and the main character of Hildegarde H. Swift’s 1942 children’s classic, “The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.”

The lighthouse, built in 1880 and moved to Jeffrey’s Hook in 1921, warned ships away from the shore as they made their way down the narrow channel between New York and New Jersey. However, when construction of the great George Washington Bridge was completed in 1931, the lights of the bridge’s 600-foot towers overwhelmed the little lighthouse, and according to the book, made him feel small and unimportant. But at the end of the story, the bridge reassures the lighthouse that it is still needed to guide boats which are unable to see the lights high atop the bridge. The story became so popular that when the lighthouse was slated for demolition in 1951, thousands of children started a nationwide campaign to save it. Thanks in part to their efforts, the lighthouse is now under the ownership of NYC Parks & Recreation.

I have to admit that this particular juxtaposition of large and small, new and old seems very charming to me and makes me smile. I hope it will make you smile too! (Svetlana)

DETAILS:

10:00am       Meet in Bennett Park by the cannon in the center (the park is small and it should be easy to find one another)

11:00am       Move down Pinehurst Ave and 181st St to the overlook terrace (located at the corner of 1380 Riverside Drive)

12:30pm       Lunch at Le Cheile (839 West 181st St at Cabrini Boulevard)

1:30pm         Walk to the lighthouse (formally known as Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse). The walk will take approximately 15 min and the path is slightly tricky. Therefore, a map is provided below.

Sketch with us all day or select the portion you want.  

If you can’t find us

call Mark at 973-809-9128 or Svetlana at 917-698-5833

There are no fees or attendance taken. All drawing skill levels are welcome.

New York City Urban Sketchers: Portrait Party, May 10th

New York City Urban Sketchers:

Portrait Party, May 10th: 10 minutes per portrait. I kind of mashed my together because I was on the last pages of my sketchbook.

Portrait Party, May 10th

10 minutes per portrait. 6" x 8". Charcoal.