THURSDAY, May 9, 2024: Westchester Sketchers at St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, Mt. Vernon

Suggested by Marilyn Varley

Visiting Saint Paul's Church is a journey back in time with many stories of how the site, and surrounding area, has changed over the years.

 This 18th-century church, located at 897 South Columbus Avenue in Mount Vernon, is one of New York's oldest parishes (1665-1980). It was used as a hospital following the important Revolutionary War Battle at Pell's Point in 1776, and was the scene of various military developments for the next six years. The church stood at the edge of Eastchester village green, the site of the "Great Election" (1733), which raised the issues of Freedom of Religion and Press. Visitors are able to tour both the church and the cemetery, and it is recommended that they view a short, introductory film depicting the history of the site and view exhibits in the museum. 

The adjoining cemetery contains burials dating from 1704. Among notable individuals buried in the churchyard are one of the Army surgeons (Dr. Charles S. Taft) who attended President Lincoln at Ford's Theater in 1865, a leading Broadway actress (Minnie DuPree) of the early 20th century, a prominent Hudson River School landscape painter (Edward Gay), and Rebecca Turner, a woman born into slavery in 1781, who achieved freedom in 1810 and lived in the shadows of the church until age 93 -- a local elementary school has been re-named in her honor.

The current feature exhibition in the museum is: "The Emergence of a National Historic Site: St. Paul's Between the World Wars."

DETAILS

DATE: THURSDAY, May 9, 2024.

START TIME: 10:00 AM. Please arrive on time for a brief tour.

LOCATION:  St. Paul's Church National Historic Site 897 South Columbus Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY 10550 Phone: 914 667-4116

DIRECTIONS: https://www.nps.gov/sapa/planyourvisit/directions.htm

PARKING: There is free parking on site.

Lunch and/or Show and Tell: 12:30 PM.  We won't be able to eat inside the church. If weather permits we can have lunch outdoors.  If not, we will have Show and Tell inside and then break for lunch on our own.

NOTES: 

• Bring water and your lunch or a snack. 
• Bring a stool for more sketching options.

Please RSVP to Cathy Gutterman at westchester@nycurbansketchers.org

Looking for us? 

Call/text: Cathy at (914) 625-0766 or Marianne at914-355-6507. 

Carol Fabricatore - Watercolor and Gouache Painting workshop June 1, 2024

 

Workshop with Carol Fabricatore 

Watercolor and Gouache Painting

When: Jule 1, 2024 rain date of June 2
Where: We will meet at Central Park Conservatory Garden located between 104 and 105th Street and 5th Avenue. Meet outside the front Vanderbilt Gates.
How to sign up: Click Here

Carol Fabricatore is an award-winning artist who received an MFA at the School of Visual Arts. She has taught at SVA since 1994. She has had several artist residencies in the US and Mexico and participated in many exhibits in New York, New Jersey, Connecticutt and France. To learn more about Carol and her work, see her website: carolfabricatore.com or Instagram: @cfabricatore

This workshop will focus on different techniques, from intermediate to more advanced, using watercolor and gouache together. Attention will be paid to creating vibrant, rich color, and applying it in transparent watercolor first, then layering, and finally building gouache over it. 

More details, to sign up and supply information at the event page here:

Weekday Sketchers at Nivola Horses Wednesday

An Urban Sketchers Bedtime Tale

Once upon a time there was a herd of horses designed by the artist Constantino Nivola who lived happily on the Upper West Side in a public space by the Stephen Wise Towers. Then one day some evil vandals lopped off their muzzles. There they sat for years and years, disfigured and silent until there was a water main break.  The plaza that they sat on had to be ripped up but the construction crew, instead of carefully removing them, cut off all their legs and carted them away, leaving their little stumps on the plaza. 

So sad ....  But like all good stories, this has a happy ending,  This caused an outcry from art historians and the Italian museum dedicated to Nivola's work and a promise was made to restore the horses.  Of course it took years longer than planned, but they are now repaired and installed where they belong, waiting for us to capture their images in our sketch books!

Join us this week to pay homage to these little horses and celebrate a hidden gem of art hiding in plain sight on the Upper West Side.

Additional sketching sites are available in the West Side Community Garden across the street. Another nearby sketch site is the beautiful cast iron bridge, known as the Gothic Bridge, is only one block away in Central Park.

For information about the horses and the restoration, click here: https://www.curbed.com/2022/03/costantino-nivola-wise-towers-horse-sculpture-repair-conservation.html

Questions, comments and RSVP directly to merylrgreenblatt@gmail.com

DO NOT respond to this email as you inquiry will go to a "dead letter" file. 

DATE:  WEDNESDAY MAY 8. 2024

STARTING TIME: 10:30 AM

LOCATION: STEPHEN WISE TOWERS

                        117 WEST 90TH STREET

                        Between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves

TRANSPORTATON: B, C to 86th Street

                                    Walk north to 90th Street and West to the address

NOTES

RSVP directly to Meryl Greenblatt merylrgreenblatt@gmail.com

Looking for us? Call or text Meryl at ‭(646) 248-9362‬

Bring a stool

There are no facilities at the site.  Bring water and food as needed

There are bathrooms at the Trader Joes on Columbus Ave

Gothic Bridge 

SATURDAY: Sketch Fifth Avenue Blooms

 

Fifth Avenue Blooms!

​

Event Suggested by Helene Lacaille

New York’s most fashionable street is in full bloom.  “Fifth Avenue Blooms” is a walkable floral experience - a veritable river of flowers on the Big Apple's most iconic street.  The flower walk extends from 50th Street up to 60th by the entrance to the park.  Capture the essence of spring in New York City.

Our Morning Meeting Spot

DETAILS:

WHAT:  We will be sketching Fifth Avenue Blooms.  The event takes place on Fifth Avenue between E. 50 near St. Patrick's Cathedral, and extends north up to 60th Street by the entrance to Central Park.  Sketch what you like in that area.  Anyone sketching on Fifth Avenue is likely to be an Urban Sketchers.  (see map below)

WHEN:   We’ll be there from  10:00 AM until 3 PM on Saturday, May 4th, 2024 

WHERE:  We will meet at 630 Fifth Avenue, by the statue of Atlas Holding the World.  It's located across the street from Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

LUNCH:  12:00 Noon.  We'll meet at the tiny Pocket Park located at 3 East 53 Street.

AFTERNOON:  1 PM - Back to sketching on Fifth Avenue.

Show and Tell:   3:00 PM.  Meet by the (The Pulitzer) fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel. We’ll share our drawings, tell art stories and discuss our art supplies.  (I’m just guessing about the second two items, but we’ll definitely do the first.)  

(In case the weather becomes uncomfortable, our back-up S&T location will be the public space at 550 Madison Avenue (between 55-56th Streets on Madison Ave)

NOTE:

-  Bring a stool - it gives you so many more options.  

Can't find us?  

Call or Text Mark - 973-809-9128

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

SATURDAY, May 4, 2024: Westchester Sketchers at the Larchmont Library for Plein Air Drawing Event

The Westchester Division of the NYC Urban Sketchers has teamed up with the Larchmont Public Library to provide a fun and relaxing drawing event ‘en plein air’ or ‘in the open air.’  This this event is meant to be an opportunity for people to relax, create art and make new friends.

At 10 AM there will be a quick meet and greet on the front lawn of the Library. From there, participants will choose a spot on the lawn (or anywhere around the building) and begin sketching/drawing their surrounding scenery. The group will break for lunch at 12:30 PM and reconvene at 1 PM for a Show and Tell to share what everyone has created thus far. After that, everyone is welcome to continue sketching at their leisure until 3pm.

DETAILS

DATE: SATURDAY, May 4, 2024; Rain date: May 18, 2024

START TIME: 10:00 AM at the library lawn.

LOCATION:  Larchmont Library, 121 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont, NY 

DIRECTIONS: https://larchmontlibrary.org/directions/

By TRAIN (From Grand Central Terminal, NYC):
Take the Metro-North New Haven line to the Larchmont Station.  The Library is less than a mile's walk from the Larchmont station.  (Walk on Chatsworth until you reach Post Road.  Turn right.  Larchmont Avenue is your next left).  If you need a ride from the Station, please call Marianne to arrange for pick-up.

PARKING: While parking is metered in Larchmont, you can drive east (towards the water) on Larchmont Ave and look for a spot further down from Elm Street where metered parking ends.   

Lunch: 12:30 PM.  Llunch on the Library lawn followed by Show and Tell. 

NOTES: 

• Bring water and your lunch or a snack, or pick something up from nearby eateries on Boston Post Road or Chatsworth Ave. 
• Bring a stool for more sketching options.
• Event announcement: https://larchmont.librarycalendar.com/event/plein-air-drawing-event-nyc-urban-sketchers-8326

Please RSVP to Cathy Gutterman at westchester@nycurbansketchers.org

Looking for us? 

Call/text: Cathy at (914) 625-0766 or Marianne at914-355-6507. 

Weekday Sketchers Sketch Animal Sculptures in Central Park

Central Park has everything, even animals that play instruments and dance!

This week we will celebrate the animals statues in Central Park, both realistic and imaginative.  We will gather by the Delacorte Clock where whimsical animals dance with instruments at all hours of the day.  Nearby are more animals both realistic and whimsical that can be our models.  For those who want to go a bit farther afield there is Baltho the Dog and The Hunt. as well as the storybook animals that surround Alice and Hans Christian Anderson near the boat pond.  And let's not miss the wonderful entrance gate to the Children's zoo. 

Questions, comments and RSVP directly to President@nycurbansketchers.org. 

DO NOT respond to this email as you inquiry will go to a "dead letter" file. 

DATE:  WEDNESDAY  MAY 1, 2024

STARTING TIME: 10:30 AM

LOCATION:  Central Park DELACORTE CLOCK

                        NEAR THE Central Park ZOO

                        EAST SIDE OF THE PARK NEAR 64TH STREET

TRANSPORTATION:  N, R, W Train to 59th Street/ 5th Ave

Children's Zoo

Alice in Wonderland

Hans Christian Anderson

NOTES

• Please RSVP directly to Raylie Dunkel at President@nycurbansketchers.org
• Looking for us? Call or Text Raylie at 201-273-0445
• Bathrooms and water are available
• Plenty of benches but bring a stool for best sight lines

Baltho

The Hunt

Panther

 

SATURDAY: Sketch the Other Garden

 

I've never thought of it until now, but we have a Big Three in NYC, . . . in Botanical terms.  We have three absolutely wonderful gardens, one in Brooklyn, which we visited last week, one in Queens, where we're having our summer picnic, and of course the really big one in the Bronx - the New York City Botanical Garden.

Everything has its season and after a bleak winter, this is the time to be out in nature recording its beauty.  The garden is large, but to keep things simple our base of operations will be at the entrance to the  Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. That's the big greenhouse. It's the largest Victorian-style glasshouse in the United States.  We'll meet there for lunch and we'll meet there again for our Show and Tell.  

DETAILS

What:   We’ll be sketching at New York Botanical Garden

Where:   The Garden is located at 2900 Southern Blvd.  We will meet at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory - Greenhouse

When:  The Garden opens at 10:00 AM on Saturday, April 27, 2024.  

Cost:  

• Adults: $35
• Students (with valid ID)/Seniors (65+): $31
• New York City Resident Grounds Access Pass - $15

Lunch:  12:00 PM -  Noon Meet back at the Greenhouse where we'll dine al fresco.  Bring your own food, or purchase at the Pine Tree Café.  

Afternoon:  1:00 PM - Back to our art!

Show and Tell:  3:00 PM -  Meet at the Greenhouse where we can share our drawings and talk at the end of the day. 

NOTE:

-      Bring a stool if you have one, it gives you more options. 

Please obey the guards about where stools can be used. 

If you can’t find us

call or text Mark at 973-809-9128

There are no fees.   All drawing skill levels are welcome.