by Ben Appel, Avenue
Here’s to activities that don’t involve touch screens!
Thanks to Manhattan native Jake Rose, adults and children alike can spend a tech-free summer afternoon indulging their inner Picassos with a one-of-a-kind coloring book. The latest from Rose’s Color My Town series, Color The Hamptons, features stunning illustrations of cherished locales and landmarks like the Southampton Historical Museum, the Montauk Point Lighthouse and the East Hampton Library. What New Yorker wouldn’t love to bring the places that hold their favorite summer memories to life?
Rose, whose passion for architecture and photography inspired him to create the series, calls on artists from around the world to translate his photographs into beautiful line drawings for his unique coloring books, with accompanying historical descriptions.
Take Bridgehampton’s Candy Kitchen for example. Did you know that the sweetshop celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015? Or that big-time celebs such as actress Julianne Moore and singer Justin Bieber have been spotted there?
Main Beach in East Hampton, which, according to Rose, was “picked as coastal expert Stephen Leatherman’s best beach in America in 2013,” is also featured in Color The Hamptons with a beautiful illustration of children building sandcastles and grown-ups taking in the ocean views. You’ll find the LongHouse Reserve in the coloring book’s pages, too, with a unique drawing that features sculptures by Willem de Kooning, Yoko Ono and Buckminster Fuller.
Color The Hamptons is the tenth addition to the Color My Town series, which includes other titles like Upper East Side NYC, North Fork, and Sag Harbor. You can purchase the books—as well as Rose’s coloring postcards, which are perfect for the kiddos to send to Grandma and Grandpa—at colorourtown.com, or at any one of the local retailers listed on his website.