NY Archives - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Painting a Garden Gate

Garden Gate 7×10 Watercolor on Canson paper
©2000 Dora Sislian Themelis

The post I planned for today was thrown out of the water when I awoke to find out a watercolor landscape painting in my Etsy shop sold over the weekend. Allow me to bask in my glory for a moment.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would even get to paint on the latest work during the last few days. There was so much going on besides the usual running around. I’ve decided to change the color of the foyer of my house, and when is that going to happen? Why do I do these last minute things?

Anyway, I’ll tell you what I did to the latest painting tomorrow. Right now I have a SALE! Yay for me!

In the beginning of my watercolor journey, after the horrible intro to watercolor class a while back, I was determined to push myself to learn. The paints I was using were student grade, and the paper wasn’t much better. Besides, it was all new to me. What did I learn at that class? Nothing. Imagine my guts, taking myself to paint in watercolors en plein air? What was I thinking?

Well, I did ok. Watercolor painting is difficult enough and I had to be outside with it.

Near the end of that summer, I took my kids to Old Westbury Gardens and Mansion near my area. It’s a beautiful Gold Coast of Long Island, NY mansion and formal gardens. The gardens alone are breath taking in size and variety of flowers. The house is so large I could put my house inside the living room.

The weather that day was beautiful and we really enjoyed roaming around. While my guys looked around the garden I sat in a spot by this garden wall with it’s intricate wrought iron gate and tried to sketch the scene. I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked the outcome of this. At the time I really wanted to push myself to paint more, what did I know about process?

A few paintings are in the Etsy shop I have, along with the bead jewelry I make and some small knitted items. Etsy may not be the right venue for fine artwork, but until I get myself together with my own website, some items have a home there. Imagine my surprise when I saw a notice that I had a sale.

It’s a small work, but it will make another someone happy. I’m already thrilled, once more.

Photo for Friday

The beach at Pt. Lookout, NY in September. Is this heaven or what?

Photos for Friday

While quite obviously this snowstorm was one big kick in the butt, certain aspects of it were very beautiful. If I didn’t have to go out and shovel, it would have been spectacular, but such was not the case.
Trying to throw the snow up over the mountain we had to make to get out of our house was no fun.

As Gorgeous said, Feel the burn! Yeah, I was feeling it alright. I had a full body workout without the gym equipment. Just me against my snow shovel with Mother Nature as the personal trainer.

For a moment the sun poked itself through the clouds to shine with great warmth on my face. As if to say, Don’t worry, I’m still here.

I will be waiting.

Out on Long Island

The beauty of living where we do is the proximity to anything and everything. Nassau County is a thirty minute drive from Manhattan, unless of course, there’s parking lot traffic as I mentioned in a previous post. But it’s basically a short car ride away. You want Broadway theater? Easy to do. You want fine dining? You got it- either there in NYC or here, everywhere it’s easy to eat great food. You want to go slumming in Astoria, Queens and have great street meat on a stick? Yeah, twenty minutes (traffic excluded) and you got it! No prob. You want to see the ocean? Grab a fifteen minute drive and you’re there. Drive a little further away and you have farm country.

Notice anything similar in each excursion? Yeah, you gotta drive there. There is mass transit, but who’s taking a bus to any of these places? Nobody. Bus travel on Long Island is dismal. The other choice is the Long Island Railroad. Commuters take it to work. Problem with the L.I.R.R. is that it’s only going east to west, any points on a straight line. Can’t go north or south. No subways on Long Island. Want to drown? No. No subways crisscrossing the island. Manhattan, Queens have subways. Even parts of Queens further out near Nassau County there’s no subway stops anymore. That’s where you have to hop on the railroad. I don’t know anyone who loves the railroad. It just does it’s job and that’s it. So mostly we drive.

This weekend we met up with another couple for dinner in the fishing town of Freeport, N.Y. on the south shore of Long Island. It’s a fifteen minute drive for me. Another five minutes or so and we’re at my favorite beach, Pt. Lookout. Freeport is a really nice night out, especially if the weather is good. People come from all over the area for the freshest seafood and a busy party scene. And you could wait over an hour for a table, unless you’re real early for dinner. Think the Hamptons, but closer. Way closer. All ages mingle together to eat, drink, and party.

We had dinner on the water at Otto’s Sea Grill. The evening was warm, they had a band playing happy music outside. They have a busy raw clam bar. We watched the water for every size boat possible. Some boaters pulled up to the dock to have dinner at the restaurant. Patrons were dressed in shorts and bathing suits or dressier attire. People watching is fun too. While we were eating we watched this couple pull up in their boat, remove their bathing suits and change into t-shirt and shorts, in front of everyone having dinner on the dock! Not a care in the world.

After dinner we took a walk down the strip to the water, passing by other restaurants filled to the brim with people having a great night out. We did too.

A Day on the North Shore of Long Island

The weather here in New York is hot, hot, hot! It’s only June. I’m not complaining about the heat, no way. I’ll take it hot any day. You know what kind of winter we get here? It’s not fun, for me anyway. I can’t seem to get myself warm enough in the winter. When the summer rolls around and everyone is dragging and complaining about the heat, I’m all smiles. Yes to summer weather, every time.

So I won’t be painting in the heat of mid-day. I’ve been waiting until the sun starts going down in the afternoon. I wish I could get myself out there in the early morning, but there’s too much to do in the morning around here. I like how the light looks very early in the day. Anyway, forget it. I have to get my things done early, get out and be back by lunch time. Then the rest of the day is mine.

The Mr. was home on Sunday, rather than fishing out east. He suggested visiting a custom car show that a friend mentioned, nearby in Glen Cove . That’s the other mania: cars. Drag racing is in the blood. The Mr. and the Sons watch it on TV, talk about it, go to sanctioned events, and had/have cars they’re developing. Car people just want to look at and talk about cars, a very benign bunch. All cars, all the time. Ok, so I don’t mind it either. Unless my guys want to spend money on car parts, then I get crabby.

The car show was at a lovely shore-side park called Morgan Park, on the north shore of Long Island, so the setting was lovely. A band was playing, food and cold drinks were available, some vendors selling car stuff, and cars. Parked all over the private park were all kinds of cars as far as the eye could see. Old cars and new cars of every model, shape, size you could think of. Over the sea of shiny waxed, colorful cars and chrome, was the blue of Long Island Sound. Boats bobbed in the calm water. The sky was clear with puffy clouds and the water sparkled. Great! I love being near water so I could ignore the cars. (Except for the 1963 Buick Riviera I saw, one of my pop’s favorites. Hi Pop!)

The park was very pretty and had walking paths along the shore with this lovely, stone pergola at the end where people were fishing. Another park and museum near this one is Garvie’s Point which houses Native American artifacts and such. The area is a great place to draw or paint. Seeing the signs on the road pointing to Garvie’s Point I thought I’m going to have to visit alone one day this summer and make it an Artist’s Date.

Good idea.

Friday Photos

Last Chance at a Beach Day

Before the winter begins to chill my bones, I took the opportunity to visit the beach one last time. A couple of weeks ago we had some beautiful, warm weather. The sun was out and putting out some nice, hot rays. The air temperature was perfect and there was really no wind, which was definately a plus. Wind can be bad!

Living on Long Island, New York, offers a quick trip to the beach any time you feel like going. I can be at the beach in fifteen minutes, barring any traffic. After the summer is over, a beach jaunt is so much more relaxing. Everyone else is back at school and work. Most people have had it with the summer activities by now. Not me.

I packed up a quick lunch, ice coffee and off I went! My travel bag of watercolor paints was already in the car. I decided that I was going to paint whatever I found when I got there.

The parking lot was practically empty and so was the beach. Maybe thirty people were scattered along the shoreline. Another plus: no kids. Yes! Heaven is an empty beach on a nice day. I set up my chair and put the paints near me. Along the shore I collected some objects for my painting. I found some nice shells of different sizes and colors, and an interesting branch of driftwood.

With my camera I photographed the scenery. Who knows? Maybe I’ll paint from the photographs during the winter. I usually like to paint from life, but sometimes it’s not possible. The photos will help motivate my creativity at a time when I can’t get outside.

Settling down with my still life items, I got myself to work. I sketched a small collection of interesting shells. The inside of the shells were so colorful I decided to paint them upside down. Bits of seaweed clung to the undersides along with some hardened sand. Would my watercolor sketch do them justice? I don’t know, but the point of the day was to get my inner artist to have the chance to play with colors on a nice day.

I think it worked.