Susanna's Sketchbook

The ING New York City Marathon 2011

Yesterday was a pretty big day for my niece, Stephanie, who ran in the ING New York City Marathon for the very first time. Hurray, Stephanie! As far as I know, she is the first marathoner in our extended family which when you think about family trees and how long and wide their branches stretch, it's quite the accomplishment. Our family is just so proud of her.

I joined two members of Stephanie's running group around East 92nd Street and 5th Avenue, where the crowds weren't so deep.  Unfortunately, we missed seeing Stephanie - she's so fast! - but thankfully, Stephanie's boyfriend, Patrick, spotted us amongst the crowds so we had time to cheer for him and to snap a couple photos. That's Patrick giving us the thumbs up.

In one of the subway stations near the finish line, there was a wall with all the names of this year's marathoners. Little sticky notes and bits of paper bearing the name of those who were somehow missed were added later.

Congratulations, Stephanie and Patrick! You did it!

November 2, 2011

This is what I've been up to these days. In early September, I began a seven-week oil painting class at a local arts center. It was so nice spending every Tuesday morning in an actual painting studio with ten other students as we painted from a still life set up by our teacher or from our own photographs. This is a section of a painting that I'm currently working on. It's from a photograph that I took last year in Parc Forillon, Quebec. It's about a quarter finished. I still have to work on the sand and the water and on the sky and dark trees behind the white house. Then I'll add in the details. It's coming along slowly but surely and I gotta say, I'm hooked on oil painting now.