There was a tussle in the studio this week. Between me and my painting of a lovely red cyclamen plant. No matter what I did the painting just wouldn't come out right. Even after I made pencil studies of the tricky parts and then tried again. And again. It was a good fight but finally I'd had enough. Win some lose some. So why am I telling you this? Because if you're following my blog there's a good chance you're interested in the life of a painter. And let me tell you, there are humbling moments to spare. But they're nothing to get excited or discouraged about. No, I just do my best and move on to the next, and try to learn from the experience. Each and every painting is another step toward mastery. Even if it's a turkey.

But that left me without a new painting to post. Fortunately I found three sketches in my Pandemic Summer of 2020 Stash that had somehow never made it onto the blog. And why was that? Because I was trying to grow as an artist and had been exploring new techniques. And my experiments didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped for and imagined. But really, what does it matter? So what if they've got a few flaws, they're still mementos of an extraordinary summer of my life. My life that just whizzes by.

As you might expect during an epidemic, I didn't wander far from home for these sketches. The first two were within a few blocks of my NYC apartment. The third was on a hot, sunny afternoon in Central Park's Conservancy Garden. I didn't get to paint outdoors as much as I do most summers, but I didn't spend the entire season indoors either. Here's the proof.

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I'm so lucky to have found a wonderful sketching group, The New York City Urban Sketchers. It's the local branch of an ever-growing circle of sketchers from around the world. In normal times we meet weekly to sketch on location at various sites throughout the city. I love sketching with my buddies, and visiting places that I wouldn't necessarily think of going on my own. 

But what do we do during a pandemic, when it's impossible to meet in person? Well, we do what other groups do, we go virtual. With teleconferences. And we temporarily break the organization's rules about working onsite from direct observation. Okay, so it's not strictly "urban sketching". But it's our way of keeping our community together and staying sane during crazy times.

So, what can you sketch online? There's a great big world out there, and the possibilities are endless. We just pick a spot somewhere and find some street views and photos to sketch from. We've "met" in Florence, Amsterdam, Las Vegas and Newport, RI, among other places. We've traveled to zoos and museums. We've kept out of trouble and had some good times. Safely. And together! Well, sort of.

For these events I've been favoring a brush pen with watercolor on hot press, which is a smooth watercolor paper. It allows me to work quickly in our limited time. My absolute favorite pen is an inexpensive Pentel pocket brush pen. It's waterproof, has a brush tip that flows oh so smoothly, and I can easily draw a thick or thin line. Just ordered one in a sepia tone. Can't wait to try it.

One of the cool things about going out painting with friends is that they take you to places you wouldn't necessarily think of going on your own. My dear friend and fellow artist Shawne Cooper loves to paint  in the East Village, so several times last summer I met up with her there. I'm fascinated by any greenery that manages to hang tough in this concrete and asphalt city. So I gravitated to the trees and flowers while Shawne painted mom and pop storefronts nearby. 

The East Village is a colorful neighborhood with quite a few community gardens. These gardens are green oases built with sweat equity out of rubble-filled empty lots. They struggle with city bureaucracy and encroaching real estate developers to remain in existence. But exist they do. So far, anyway. And their existence contributes joy, creativity and beauty to the neighborhood, making it a much more livable place. I wish we had a few community gardens in my neighborhood!

El Sol Brillante Jr Garden (above) seems to be the little brother of a larger community garden, El Sol Brillante, both on East 12th Street. Would love to paint the bigger one next summer. 

On our walk through the neighborhood I was enchanted by a sunflower beautifying the block in its elegant reach for the sun. Naturally I had to paint it. While I was working a resident came out to say hello and see what I was up to. Turns out she's one of the gardeners at El Sol Brillante! She said she decided to grow this mini garden when the tree that had been there died at the end of its natural lifespan. I was told by another neighbor that this gardener makes everything she touches magical and green. Aren't we lucky to have such beneficent wizards in the world? 

Here are two more summertime watercolors that I painted on the streets of New York City.

The first was at lovely Gramercy Park, an exclusive green oasis that you're not allowed into unless you happen to be a posh neighbor with a pricey key. Since I'm not, I wandered around to the southern perimeter. There I saw the afternoon light cascading over a planter filled with red flowers. My camping stool sidewalk perch was in the cheap seats but the view was beautiful nonetheless. 

The second sketch was done on another landmark block. This time at Hunter's Point, a section of Long Island City in Queens. I was struck by the contrast between the old Victorian brownstones and the towering new construction going up all around them. Life is change.