Asbury Park

Over the last couple days I have been painting photographs from a recent beach trip to Asbury Park, NJ. The area of Asbury used to be very desolate, dirty, and yet still housed memories from a time of local amusements through a thriving boardwalk, ferris wheel, games, and roller coasters. For years, the boardwalk of Asbury was empty, but now after 25 years or so, shops and cafes are reappearing. I went to Asbury in hopes of seeing the new change and hopefully erase old memories of my mother telling me never to walk through, ride my bike, or even drive through parts of Asbury.. ever. It was an avoidable area that I was not allowed as a child. Anyhow, in the next posts, I plan on posting more sketches from that day and more observations.

 watercolor, 6" x 5 " Asbury Park Lounger 

Watercolor, 6" x 5" New Jersey U turn or infamous 'jug handle'

Here, I was in the car and decided to take photo of a flat piece of land with wild dandelions in the grass near an overpass. Yes, I know this isn't quite as exciting but why the hell not. New Jersey's 'jug handles' annoy the hell out of me and maybe I needed to paint away my aggression toward their idiotic reasonings. Below is my color palate inspired my Ms. Lindsay's color grid in the previous post. 

watercolor and pen, 8" x 6"

Sketched during a family talk.. Yes, that is a crab bib. 

Musicians at Crush

I went with my boyfriend, David, to Crush Wine Bar in downtown Whitefish, Montana on Tuesday night to listen to some of his comrades play jazz. I accompanied him in hopes of scoring some sketch time--lo and behold, I sought, I scored. In fact, a woman came over to watch me draw, ask me for some tips (she's a new sketcher), and to "learn techniques by watching" me. As she was leaving, she scurried over to give me her business card ("If you have a local show, please email me because I would love to see your work."). You're in luck, Tammie; I am going to have a show in July! *fingers crossed*

Color Studies

I had forgotten how wonderful color could be! I learned about "color averaging" (taking a segment and figuring out what the "average" chroma would be) when I was in Light, Color, Design at Pratt. Signor Carbone is by far the most incredible man--THANKYOUSOMUCH! I don't know HOW after that class I managed to detangle myself from this color love affair, but I'm sorely disappointed that I had. It's so wonderful to be chasing the elusive, ever-intersting, animal that is color!

-The first was a color average of two mountain goats in Glacier National Park.

-The second is of some of the woods outside of the pay-booth at the State Park where I work.

-The third is a color average of a bouquet of dying flowers.

Lauren- Friday

Today, I wanted to play with color paper and collage a drawing from the weekend. I remembered that artist Mickalene Thomas used similar ideas to create paintings. Instead of many paper scraps, she only uses pigments from acrylics and enamels to describe mood or emotion of the figure. Below, I used an old home and garden magazine that I stole from my aunt. She will never know! I tore colors from ads and then used colored pencils and ink over top to keep my previous drawing intact. 

And below is my boyrfriend, Jonathon Todd's watercolor. Wanted to throw that in there. 

Lauren- Voter Registration

Well, today I called motor vehicle center in New Jersey to ask about car registration renewal. While I was listening to the hold music for 10 minutes, I began to sketch the trees from my bedroom window on a scrap piece of paper. After the call ended, I continued to paint the landscape and added a little bit of pisaz to the scene.

Lauren- Car ride

As Jonathon and I sat in toyota plether seats, my family drove us to dinner in Hamilton, New Jersey. The sun began to set during the drive and soon created specks of light amongst any object or figure in its path. Along Jonathon's face I notices a perfect time to draw my observation.

Lauren-Buffalo

Like Lindsay, I too moved from Brooklyn into a rural area a few days ago. Yes, New Jersey doesn't come close to Rocky Mountain landscapes, but the area of East Windsor/Princeton, New Jersey is quite flat and rural. During the summer months along RT 35,  you can see small vegetable and flower stands, farmland, and apple picking advertisements. Unlike Lindsay's landscape, East Windsor has a flat landscape with a faced paced attitude. Sprouting up 40 miles of New York City will do that to a town. But the roads still are pretty empty without too many buildings, but of course the traffic is congested near rush hour. Nonetheless, the town has trees, lakes, and a great sculpture park nearby ( grounds for sculpture). 

As for the art..

Maybe I feel like this buffalo; standing in a field with small amounts of grass or feed, near a relic of old Coney Island.

Lindsay -- My New OLD Place

Lauren and I discussed doing a painting/sketch/drawing a day (1) and a response piece to what the other person has posted (2) for two pieces per post. Here are my very first posts...I think that I'm finally getting into a nice enough rhythm to post more often.



Taking from Lauren's cue, I depicted my new and OLD location. Originally from Kalispell, Montana, I am a native to this area--but after living in the hustle and bustle of New York City for the past nearly 2 years, coming back to this slow pace of life makes me see things from the eyes of a first-time visitor. This IS a small town and I'm enjoying the "lazy river" pace. A water color sketch in my 6"x12" sketchbook.



Another place that I've decided to depict is my little lunch spot at my job. I work at a State Park and have the devine pleasure of taking long breaks to sketch and soak in the natural beauty. This was a quick sketch done on my lunch break with watercolor and ink pen in my 6"x12" sketchbook.

Lauren-Falling over

Just moved to New Jersey and wanted to express my emotions through symbolic suitcases. I pictured myself as the top green suitcase leaning over the edge.