Visiting Riverdale

I just got back from seeing my Mom at the hospice in New York. She’s very sick with cancer and it’ll probably be the last time I see her. Here she is with my sister and I at the hospice.

I'm in the back row left with my sister, Orrea, beside me

While there I did a little painting and sketching while she was sleeping. Here’s a sketch of my Mom, very quick, but I think it captures her likeness.

Sketch of my Mom done while she was napping

Riverdale is a nice, settled, old community in the Bronx. It had some great houses. I sketched this one while standing up and realized that my hard-backed black sketchbook is a bit too heavy to hold open with my fingers for an extended period of time. I needed to massage my left hand to get the feeling back into it when I was done. :-)

I learned a funny thing about sketching in NY. Although people were really curious as to what I was doing no one came over to ask. Some people walked close enough to try and catch a casual glimpse but no one wanted to look like they were looking. In Seattle people would have just bustled over and asked me what I was drawing. *chuckle*

House in Riverdale, NY done in pen & ink  with pencil underdrawing