Paper and Threads

This is my only sketch from an entire 3 day weekend!  But I have a great excuse!  Our Family went to Philadelphia this past weekend for a very special wedding.  

Even though the groom is the grandson of my husband's first cousin, they are the family who we spend major holidays with, including all Thanksgivings since 1989!  The wedding couple both graduated from medical school on Friday afternoon and that evening was the start of a weekend full of celebratory activities.  Ari will begin his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago next month - the program that I trained at beginning in 1969!

Our children were there and we took advantage of the occasion to get a family photo.  It is rare to have everyone together without our grandchildren, and dressed up.  They are very close to the groom and his older brother - and we adore both of their wives.  And, both families were thrilled - making it a joyous event. 

Only one of our grandchildren was there, and my husband and I took care of him Saturday AM.  Since they live in DC, this was a fabulous babysitting gig for us!  Here is William gazing at his giant new giraffe. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I finished painting the sketchbook page I did in honor of Charlie's 3 day visit.  More details are in the previous blog post.

Today I walked to 3 galleries to see their current exhibits and quickly sketched a few details from one of Paul Klee's Bauhaus prints.  The lady in profile captured my attention as soon as I saw the print and I had to return to sketch her quickly with my dreaded Pentel Pocket Brush Pen!  The print was from 1925 and it was in one of 3 exhibits that I really enjoyed. 

These were the exhibits - all within 10 blocks of each other on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan: 

Paul Klee - The Bauhaus Years at the Dickinson Gallery. 19 E. 66th St from May 3-June 14, 2013

Munch and German Expressionism  at David Tunick, Inc. 19 E. 66th St. from May 7 - May 20, 2013

George Grosz (Watercolor Paintings) at Soufer Gallery.  1015 Madison Ave from April 23- June 14, 2013.

Posted by Shirley at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I hope that Mothers everywhere had a wonderful Mothers' Day. 

Being a mother makes me so happy, and being a grandmother is equally wonderful. We have 3 adult children who we adore, and now 8 grandchildren (ages 7 mos to 9). 

Our youngest child, Rachel, stayed at home to raise her 3 children after graduating from Columbia College and Columbia Business School.  When her youngest child started kindergarten, she started plans for a new business for online consignment and sale of designer furniture and home decor.  That business is now fully launched and we are all so proud of her.   

Please look at the website for Viyet and see what amazing things you can buy for your home or apartment - and you can now have it shipped throughout the United States.  Even if you are not ready to buy furniture, just look at the wonderful photography and enjoy the designs.

This weekend my husband and I cared for our youngest grandchild, and having him here over Mother's Day was a very special treat.  I got to give him his "just finished" hand quilted baby quilt, and yesterday we spent the afternoon walking him around Central Park.  The quilt colors were selected to match the colors in his room!

He seemed to like it! 

Taking care of a 7 month old Friday-Sunday while his Dad (in the gray shirt), Mom, and two big brothers went to Florida, meant that I had no time to finish my sketches.  I worked on a page of his favorite "chew toys," but never finished painting it.  But we had a wonderful time and my sketchbook will wait for another day!

Posted by Shirley at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I am exploring a different classic bookbinding structure each month in 2013.  My coptic, long stitch, and flag books can be seen here.

This month I made two accordion books using paste papers for the covers.  They measure approximately 5.5 X 7.5" and have two different kinds of paper for the concertina.  The first one I made has an 80 lb paper and the second one has 140 lb watercolor paper.

These Are the Front Covers:

I typed out notes about accordion books and the methods that I used - and collaged them in Book 1.  Here you can see 6 pages of notes. 

And here are several pages that I included regarding my methods. 

This month I am going to make portfolios.  Although I usually draw and paint in handmade watercolor sketchbooks, I do have some loose paintings and would love portfolios in sizes that will be perfect for them.

Posted by Shirley at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of my favorite Spring and Fall Art Events is the Impressionist and Modern Art Auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's in New York City.  As was written in the New York Times last Friday, "Before the Gavel Falls, It's All Free to Look At."  The paintings, drawings and sculptures that are being offered for sale at these auctions. are usually going from one private owner to another - meaning that most are infrequently seen by the public. 

My husband and I loved the preview at Christies, and they have wonderful audio descriptions of 8 major works on their website at this link. 

http://www.christies.com/sales/impressionist-modern-new-york-may-2013/evening-sale.aspx

I love ballet, ballet classes, and Degas for his many paintings, drawings, and sculptures of ballet dancers.  This one is beautiful - much more sophisticated in its rendering than many in the collection of bronzes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I stood quietly, off-to-the-side, and sketched her, enjoying my brief minutes with her beauty.  The sculpture is 16" high and 21 5/8 inches long.  The estimated sale price is $600,000-800,000.  I will be able to look at the final sale price after the auction, but no information about her new home will be available.

Posted by Shirley at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I made it to figure drawing again in April - and really enjoyed the jazz, the glass of wine and one of the models.  The other one not so much. 

Here are a few of my drawings from the evening.  The male model is really tall and skinny and he extends his arms, legs, and fingers (which must be 12 inches long) in every short pose.  These are therefore incredibly challenging and I find I have to focus on a smaller part of him to get anything drawn during these 2 minute warm-ups.

Here is an Uninspired 5 minute Pose by the Woman Model

And a 10 minute Pose by Him:

And Finally a 20 minute Pose by Him.  I couldn't capture the way he had his legs crossed over each other, he was bearing weight equally between his legs and had both knees slightly bent.  Yikes!  So I moved on and did a slightly different half-body view of him for the remaining minutes.

Posted by Shirley at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several weeks ago I asked for ideas for my daily sketches because I was bored with the possibilities during the last days of winter. 

Irene Brady suggested looking at animal webcams and sent me the link for an eagle nest.  While watching it, I snapped a phpto and then sketched one of the parents feeding a baby.  Thanks Irene.

I also went back to my first sketchbook (started in 1998), and looked at a few of my early sketches.  Everything was sketched in pen and no watercolor paint was added until almost the end of sketchbook 3 (2008). 

In 1998 I sketched many Picasso ceramics at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - all in black pen.  I loved the shapes and decided to redraw them and paint them wet-in-wet with watercolor.

I also challenged myself to draw the Don Quixote image from one of the Picasso plates with my "hated" Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.

Posted by Shirley at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week I met with my artist friends and made more gelli prints.  As mentioned before, I don't love acrylic paint, so I tried cheap tube watercolors for some of the prints.  I already posted one watercolor gelli print with daffodils painted over it with WN gouache.  Today I wanted to experiment with different types of pens over both watercolor and acrylic gelli prints.

This is a print made with watercolor.  I resized my graphite drawing from "Live Figure Drawing" at the Society of Illustrators, printed it out on copy paper, and then transferred the image to my gelli print with carbon paper.  Finally, I used a dip pen with a Speedball 5B nib to "draw" the figure on the print.  The ink did not disturb the watercolor ar all and drawing was very easy. 

Teri recommended Sharpie Paint, Souffle, or Glaze pens for drawing over acrylic.  Since I wanted only a black pen, I tried both the Sharpie oil-based and water-based Paint Pens over two acrylic gelli prints.  I transferred my earlier drawings using the method outlined above. 

The first figure was drawn with the oil-based pen and the second with the water-based pen.  Both were easy to draw and the pen seemed completely unaffected by drawing over acrylic paint.  Can you tell that I ruined many previous pens (in my ignorance) by trying to draw or write over acrylic paint?

I'm not sure where this series is going, but it might be fun to collage some of these types of prints in an accordion book.

Posted by Shirley at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Benedicte, Pat and I went to the Surrealist Drawing Exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum right before it closed.  They had an amazingly thorough presentation - the artists that played with surrealism and the techniques that were used.

I arrived early and sketched a woman reading while waiting for the doors to open.  In the exhibit I quickly sketched a Picasso woman who was in one corner of his drawing and a Miro square that I wanted to remember for my "visual language project."  The exhibit stretched over two big galleries - lots to see and read without doing more drawing. 

Degas and his painting of Miss La La at the Circus was in the upstairs gallery.  There was information about the circus in Paris, preliminary drawings and paintings, the big painting and works by other artists who also painted the circus.  I loved the shape of a clown in a lithograph by Henry Gabriel Ibels and sketched a portion of the print.  But then I had to go find Pat and Benedicte, who still hadn't come upstairs, because I wanted to leave time to see the American Watercolor Society Show at Salmagundi.  Both of these exhibits closed Sunday. 

I love the annual watercolor show and enjoyed it again tremendously.  It is hard for me to fathom how accomplished artists can make such amazing paintings!  A real inspiration, but not a realistic goal!

Posted by Shirley at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)