Day at the Beach with Traffic

Living on Long Island, in lower New York State, affords those of us who enjoy the seashore, the wonderful opportunity to visit on a whim.  We live a fifteen minutes drive from the Atlantic Ocean and try to be on the water once a week in the summer.
Don’t ask me how many miles the ocean is from my house, I have no idea.  Here we measure distance by time of travel.  In fact, signs have recently been posted on our parkways that give a digital readout for drivers how many minutes it will take to get to a destination. 
I’ve visited upstate New York many times and no one there ever says how long it takes to get anywhere.  They tell you the miles and when I’d ask the minutes they’d look at me as if I had two heads.  Well, there’s no traffic upstate, unless you’re stuck behind a tractor or cows are crossing the road. 
On Long Island there’s traffic.  Serious traffic.  Parking lot traffic.  You can be stuck in traffic that, if you wanted you could get out of your car and talk to the driver behind you.  They could be passing out drinks and hors d’oeuvrs and having a party kind of traffic.  So many people descend on Long Island in the summer heading to the beaches that the fifteen minutes it usually takes me could turn into an hour of travel time.
Sometimes it gets crazy.  Sometimes the drivers get crazier than they usually are.  People start flipping out.  No one wants to be in any kind of traffic here.  Drivers can barely wait for the lousy red stop light to turn to green, how can they handle traffic?  Thing is, they can’t!
The alternative to taking the parkway to the beach is to use the local streets.  It’s nice, but that takes time too, but you sort of think it’s quicker.  It’s really not.  There’s lights, local people doing their every day thing, more cars than usual because they’re going to the beach too, but they live close enough to go locally.  And on the days that traffic is crazy on the parkway, all those same crazy people start getting off the parkway to use the streets.  Same craziness, same hour travel time.
We had a little bit of traffic this week on our way to Pt. Lookout beach.  Backed up for miles, I was trying to decide: Stay on the parkway or use the streets?  I felt that the cars were moving a bit, enough to decide to just stay on and take my chances.
Why was the traffic backed up?  Was the drawbridge up for a tall ship to go under? No.  Was there police activity (that could be horrendous)?  Nope.  Could be a huge pile-up, which did happen this week with tragic results which closed the Meadowbrook Parkway to the beach for hours.  Not this day.  No.  Two cars of drivers had pulled over the side of the road to consult their map.  Every car on the road slowed to stop and look at them.  What are they looking at?  Did everyone think they knew these people?  Did they think they were celebrities, which happens now and then?  What?  What’s with that?  What, or who, did they think they were going to see rubbernecking like that?
That’s Long Islanders, and New Yorkers, for you.  Gotta see what’s going on!

Painting From Life

Beach Day, 7×10 watercolor (c)2000
Aegina Island Harbor, 7×10 watercolor (c)2000

Painting from life can be both exciting and nerve wracking, for me anyway.  I seem to go into a trance as the action of painting and the colors of the paints hypnotize me.  I don’t see what I’m doing.  Overdoing the work with watercolors can happen before I can blink and wake up from my stupor. 

These two little paintings are the ones that were sold in my Etsy shop.  Both were painted on site.  I painted Beach Day while at my favorite Long Island beach, Pt. Lookout.  This couple were sitting in their beach chairs enjoying the day.  I guess they were having a good day, for all I know they were annoyed with each other and just sitting there.  Can you tell that I like a good story while I work?

The Greek harbor scene was painted while we were on a short day cruise to three Greek islands, Aegina, Poros, and another one that I can’t remember now.  They were all lovely and had different scenes, but at Aegina we sat at a cafe to have an icy ice cream frappe because it was so hot we couldn’t continue without something cold.  We were at the harbor and I had time to quickly draw the scene out with a bit of color.  I finished it later on, but basically had it sketched with paint right there.

When I started with watercolors I purchased a small travel set that included half pans of basic colors, small brushes, and tiny pad of watercolor paper, and a little bottle for water.  It’s like a fanny pack you can clip around your waist, but I never do that.  I added pencils and some other stuff I need for painting and it’s the perfect bring along set.

The funny thing is the paints that are included are minimal yet I do my best work using just those colors.  The palette at home has so many colors now, but I gravitate towards the ones in the travel set.  I think I should pay attention to that and maybe minimize my choices.  Whatever I do, I know I like painting from life.  I just have to try and stay in the present rather than have those out of body moments.

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. 

Point Lookout Beach, NY ©2009 Dora Sislian Themelis

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.

Shells and Seaweed ©2009 Dora Sislian Themelis
14×16 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper

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.