Urban Sketchers

Check out www.UrbanSketchers.com to see what the rest of the world of sketchers are doing. It's an awesome site and some of the sketches are amazing.

Wednesday Sketch Evening May 5 at 6:00 - BYOC

Our next sketch evening will be next Wednesday at 6PM, at the end of Roe Ave (Aka Lt Healey Blvd), in Patchogue, weather permitting. If it rains, it's been suggested we go to the Starbucks on Sunrise or the Borders on Sunrise. We'll decide as we get closer to next Wednesday and see what the weather will be like, we can just sketch from our cars on Roe, as well.

Roe Ave is accessed the same way as Pine Neck Avenue, it's the next road down, by way of South County Road. You take Roe all the way down to the end, by the bay.

This evening was a little chilly and windy, but it felt warmer than last week. The folks that attended this evening had some great ideas for sites to sketch!

Wednesday Sketch Evening April 28 at 6:00 - BYOC

Our next sketch evening will be next Wednesday at 6. We moved it up so folks can come out to sketch and still make the SBAA meeting up the road at 7:15.

We will be heading back to Pine Neck Boat ramp, weather permitting.

NOTE: Pine Neck Avenue is off of South Country Road. Take Pine Neck Avenue all the way to the dead end, where the steel road barrier ends the road and you are almost in the bay (haha), the entrance to the boat ramp is on your right. You have to go all the way down to the road barrier to see the entrance, you can't see it until you are on top of the steel barrier.

I will be posting a little map shortly.

World Wide SketchCrawl #26 is May 15th !!!

May 15th is the next Sketch Crawl. What is a Sketch Crawl? Well you can find out more at www.sketchcrawl.com, but in a nut shell, it is a movement to encourage artists to get out and sketch. Sketch Crawls are organized so that artists around the world will get out on a day dedicated to sketching.

Patchogue Sketch Club will be participating in Sketch Crawl #26. Stay tuned for more info to come.

Wednesday Sketch Evening April 21 at 6:30 - BYOC

This Wednesday we'll be at the Pine Neck Boat Launch at the end of Pine Neck Avenue, in Patchogue, just off South Country Road. You need to be on South Country Road to make the turn onto Pine Neck Avenue.

If you know where the Swan Bakery, Deli and Cleaners are at the end of South Country Road in Patchogue, Pine Neck Avenue is the last though road to the water on your left before you hit the light at Main Street. The Robo Car Wash is across from the Swan Bakery on the Main Street side of the bakery, so if you pass Pine Neck, you'll be back out on Main Street with the Robo Wash on your right. If you see the Robo Wash, you missed the turn.

If you are coming east down Main Street toward East Patchogue, the South Country Road split will be on your right at the Swan Cleaners....again if you pass the Robo Wash on your left, you missed your turn to South Country Road.

Follow Pine Neck Avenue all the way to the dead end and turn right into the parking area. If the gate is closed, we'll park on the street and walk in.

Bring your own chair and remember to dress warm in case it cools down quick.

How's your Myelin? by Robert Genn

When I first read this, I thought, what the heck is Myelin and how do you pronounce that? Myelin is something that insulates the "wiring" in our nerve fibers. The more you have, the better.

More Myelin makes us better artists, if I read this right. Practice makes perfect, like Jessamina says in our bellydancing class, the more moves you do repetitively, the more muscle memory you will have and easier performing the moves will be....

Practice makes perfect....so pull out those sketchbooks and practice practice practice....

To Read this letter online and to maybe give your insight on energetic and intense learning as a way of getting to the "sweet spot" of demonstrable talent, please visit Robert's site and leave your comments. Live comments are welcome. You can also send your illustratable remarks directly to Robert at

rgenn@saraphina.com. (The above paragraph was quoted directly from Robert's letter)...

You can also click on the Painters Keys link on Links in the column to the right.

Sketch Night, Wednesday April 21st, 6:30PM

Folks, We will have our next Sketch Night on Wednesday the 21st at 6:30PM. We won't be posting a place yet as we will be watching the weather to see weather we need to be indoors or if we can get out and sketch.

Words of Wisdom from Robert Genn

I subscribe to a biweekly newsletter from a Canadian Artist, Robert Genn, who writes for the artistic community. His biweekly letters help inspire and push those of us who read them to achieve higher levels in our art. He sends emails of encouragement that help the student as well as the accomplished artist. He brings people together as an artistic think tank, some of the letters he sends us, has us pondering all sorts of cool stuff. Some of it is everyday art challenges, like what some of us do with a failed painting, and some of it is a journaling expression as he visits other corners of this planet.

Students subscribe to these biweekly emails, but master artists read them as well. It's like when you look up in the sky at the stars to ponder that beauty and vastness and wonder when we will make Contact with other life. Robert does this with many of his emails. We get in touch with a larger community of artists that we would never have access to ordinarily.

I encourage you all to subscribe to the Painters Keys. You can go to www.painterskeys.com, the link is on the sidebar and let the emails come to you.

I will be posting some of my favorites to this Blog, with Bob's permission, of course.

Sketch Night

Sketch night last week was a nice gathering. It got a little chilly but we had an enthusiastic group that was eager to get together and sketch. We gathered on Main Street in Patchogue and sketched the Church by the theater. The church had some interesting patterns in its structure that made it fun to put down on paper.

We are looking to post an evening this week, possible Thursday, stayed tuned.

Contact Number for this Evening

Contact Cell Phone Number for this evening:

609-937-2691

The Sketchbook of the Month Club

The Art House COOP, which you can access by visiting www.arthousecoop.com, has a club where you can sign up and create monthly sketchbooks to submit to them. They are trying to create a permanent library of sketchbooks that can be accessed by anyone.

The monthly project is similar to the bigger project but without the stress of filling a larger book The monthly project will have a theme and you will have two months to fill up these smaller books that have less pages than their original format.

Here is an opportunity to get noticed with your sketches!

Wednesday Sketch Evening April 6 at 6:30 - BYOC

It's supposed to be nice tomorrow. Let's meet by the Patchogue Theater on Main Street at 6:30. We'll sketch until we lose the light.

Don't forget that it cools down quickly in the Spring so bring a jacket or a sweater.

BYOC is Bring Your Own Chair if you want to sit while you sketch.

Basic supplies are a pencil and sketch book, but if you want to use watercolors or watercolor pencils, don't forget to bring water and a container for your brushes.

Afterwards, we can assemble over coffee.

Weather looks nice this week!!

I am looking to assemble one evening this week, Wednesday around 6:30 is looking nice and warm so far.

Check back between now and Wednesday to see where.

If 6:30 isn't a good time, show up when you can, we aren't going to "sketch and run" so whatever time you can make it is fine.