Summer Flowers

The last day of May, the beginning of summer flowers. It's not officially summer but the last few days of rain and heat have caused the gardens in my Queens neighborhood to explode! I made a friend today, Daisy, who immigrated from Europe in the 1940s. She told me her life story, which was a little sad and heartbreaking. But she has a sparkle in her eye and her garden is lush and beautiful. She gave me flowers from her garden - roses and peonies. This post is dedicated to her.

Hat party at the royal wedding

I had to draw the parade of hats that entered Westminster Abbey. What fun - what variety! wide-brimmed, pill-box, floral, abstract, geometric, soft, wispy, feathery, ribbony and some definitely strange. It was like a scene out of My Fair Lady - very proper, pretty and wacky - very British - I  love it!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The first day of Chinese New Year is always my favorite. Chinatown becomes even more crowded than usual with revelers. But the kids steal the show. Little Chinese toddlers and babies dressed in traditional silk garments decorated with dragons frolic on Mott Street - rattling noisemakers and mimicking lion dancers, not seeming to mind the below-freezing temperature.

This was the scene in front of the Chinese Community Center on Mott Street.

Snow Days

The day after Christmas 2010 blizzard - the first of many snow storms in the East Coast. If you live here, you've probably been seeing a lot of white, or in some cases, icky gray or brown. The sun had started to come out when I made this watercolor, just as the snow died down. The plows had not come around so the snow stayed white for quite a while. The neighborhood looked so pretty. 

Hadn't drawn people in a while so I practiced a bit in the subway.   

More Shoppers

Black Friday 2010 (day after Thanksgiving)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some reportage of the Thanksgiving parade from two years ago.

Autumn at Kissena Park

I took advantage of the 60-degree weather to capture the colors of autumn at one of my favorite local destinations, Kissena Park, located in Flushing, New York. This wonderful park was once a tree farm which supplied many of the trees that now grow in the parks and neighborhoods of Queens and even in Central and Prospect Parks.

A part of the park has been preserved as a historic grove. The trees in this area were left over from the old farm and grew in linear rows in groups of 4 and 5. Some of the trees fused into multi stemmed trees, like banyans! 

Kissena Lake... 

Beehive in an oak tree. The surface looked like smooth layers of paper.

This red hawk swooped down a few feet from me and perched on a branch, then surveyed the surroundings.