New England Sketchpad

We traveled up to New England in November and I didn't get a chance to put our little tour up.  We went up really only for a long weekend.  Even though it was the middle of NOVEMBER, we had balmy 50 degree, sunny days, and the trees were still GORGEOUS! Here are a few pages from my little Moleskine sketchpad.  Remember, these are really fast sketches - just to preserve memories.  First pic - what else?  The plane's engine!

Our plane had a layover in Washington, DC.  When we took off for Connecticut, our plane flew directly over the Pentagon!  It quite took me by surprise as the pilot made a pretty sharp turn as we were ascending and, looking straight down, I saw it was directly below us!  And I do mean directly, probably only two or three thousand feet!  That's not the building I'd ever expect to fly over at that altitude!

This sketch probably took me about a minute.  From memory of course, since we were only over it for a split second.

 This one, while difficult to read, chronicles a day my son and I had while my hubby was working.  We toured half of Connecticut in the rental car with really vague Mapquest maps.  It was pretty easy to see all we did considering the size of the state... :)

Nothing special or particularly beautiful about this page, but it's useful.  Started in Wallingford, drove up to Hartford, through some seriously beautiful, hilly, rocky country down to Old Lyme.  I did a previous article about the Impressionist artists' colony there, on the Lieutenant River.

We had lunch in a popular and very bustling cafe and asked an old couple about destinations driving westward along the coast.  They told us about a famous bookstore where authors begin their book signing journey, kicking off their tours there.  Of course we stopped!  Make several other stops along the coast and walked out to the Sound once.  Turning north, we sidestepped a bit to take a quick driving tour of Yale University.  The place reeks of old money and the buildings are some of the loveliest I've seen this side of the Big Pond.

The following day, the three of us drove down into New York State.  One stop we made was at the Eli Whitney Museum, which just happened to be what our son was studying in school at that time.  We also had a very enjoyable hike through the sun-dappled yellow-leafed woods on museum grounds.

 Note the sticker from the Florence Griswold Museum - the art colony.  My books are always a depository for found stickers.

Along the way we stopped at a wildlife refuge right on Long Island Sound and hiked all over the place.  Very enjoyable.

Can't go to New England without having lobster!  Now you KNOW I draw fast, because I wanted to eat this lady!  Actually, I did eat first, THEN set up the shells for a sketch.  This particular one was indeed a she - filled with bright green roe, which were also delicious.

Here are more ticket stubs and things I gessoed in for memory's sake.

We finished our day quite far into the night at this little Italian restaurant.  Yes, I did the name backwards as it was on a window and that's the way I saw it from our table.

All in all, it was a really nice trip, and this little sketchpad helps me preserve the memories.