Paper and Threads

I looked at traffic signs all week as I drove from home to work and back again.  Our streets are very wide and I suddently realized that 95% of the traffic signs  are along the sides of these 4-6 lane city streets and highways.  I never remember seeing half of the signs that I saw when I was patiently looking (and trying not to hit the cars in front of me).   My favorite was the yellow and black sign in the middle of this drawing - on a signpost in front of yellow and black arrows.  An undivided city street suddenly acquires a center median and all traffic needs to move to the right.  If you fail to do so, you plow into the sign and a huge row of black rubber containers!   My second favorite is the "Don't block the Box  - Fine +2 points" sign.  I wonder if our EDM members would have any clue what this sign means?

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Grids were being posted to EDM just as I was leaving to go out on Tuesday - and it seemed like the perfect answer for my daily sketch.  I started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I saw the special Ambrose Vollard exhibit and painted Derain's view across the Thames of London and a Cezanne tree from the paintings I saw.  No sketching was permitted in the exhibit - but fortunately I was able to buy postcards of these two paintings.  The garnet and gold eagle is from 500AD - and part of their jewelry collection.  The lion is from the Rembrandt drawing exhibition.

I then took a bus down 5th Ave to the bead district on 37th St. to buy beads and sequins for a group project with my Art Quilt friends.  

Next I walked down 6th Avenue to NY Book Center to get a class chedule in case I decide to take a weekend class in bookbinding (I'm going to blame Jan Allsop and her recycled books for this new interest), and then along W.25th Street to City Quilter to buy  muslin for my next baby quilt (grandchild #4 in January in London).  The Manhattan skyline is their business logo (I colored what is usually just an open line). 

Finally I ended at Talas on W. 20th St. to buy linen thread, an awl, and a bone folder to recycle a book.  I sketched the thread spool, awl, and the book I bought entitled Bookworks by Susan Doggett.

 It was a great way to sketch my day and purchases.

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These are the last London sketches that I wanted to post from our September trip.  All of the other pages of my sketchbook that I haven't scanned have drawings from our daily life with our grandchildren in my daughter's house.

Lion:  One of the recently refurbished and now uncovered lions from the center of Trafalgar square.  The tourists are still climbing all over them for photos.

Flower Cart:  A charming cart that is permanently set up along King's Road, Chelsea.  The red and blue wheels, which add charm, are just propped up against the actual cart.  While I was sitting on a small step at the corner, the only person who stopped to talk was an 8-10 year old boy who then had to catch up with his mother and brother.  He spent more time with me again on his return trip down the sidewalk - but Mom didn't seem really interested in letting him take time to ask all of his questions.

London Taxi:  I Love all of the gaily-colored London taxis, many with very interesting exteriors that are part of a total car advertisement.  This sketch was done from a photo while the taxi stopped for an instant to let off passengers.  It was only when I was drawing it that I noticed there was no light on top.

St. James Palace Guard:  We were walking by the Palace with my 3 year old grandson Henry when the guards changed shift.  I took a photo of the new guard when he got into position and then did this drawing from the photo.

Fish:  When we visited London in July, Osborne and Little Decorating Shop on King's Road had ice cream cones in their windows.  This time it was fish.  Each of the colored pieces in these drawings are separate fabric-wrapped pieces of cardboard or wood.  There were 4 types of fish as pictured here and each window had multiple fish of a single design.  I can't wait to see what their Holiday display is going to be.  I went into the store to ask permission to take a photo when I was done sketching and learned when the windows will change again.

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In May I did a quick sketch of my son and daughter-in-law's new house - an East Capital Hill row house.  They liked the sketch enough that I decided to paint it again on larger paper - and will deliver this sketch (done on 9 x 12") paper to them this week.   It was done with lots of love and best wishes for many, many happy years together in their great house.

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My husband and I enjoyed more and different museums on this second visit of 2006. 

British Library: I wanted to read an 1857 copy of a 1764 manuscript that described a prisoner exchange with the Ohio territory Indians during the French-Indian War.  My ancestor was one of the kidnapped colonists who was returned to her family during this exchange.  Only pencils are allowed in the Manuscript Reading Room, so while I was waiting to receive the manuscript, I sketched the book pillow on which all such "elderly" books must rest.  We now have British Library reader cards!

Imperial War Museum:  Our last visit was in 1970!  This time we took our 3 year old grandson who loved the interactive submarine.  We will return soon to see the Children at War (WWII) exhibit that we couldn't see easily when he was with us.

National Gallery: We visited parts of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and I decided I would like to try a copy of a simple Van Gogh painting to commemorate the visit.  I bought a postcard of this painting from the exhibit and sketched/painted it later in the day.

Somerset House-Courtauld Art Instutite:  The Raoul Dufy painting seemed like an appropriate painting to copy since the EDM challenge was to draw water and because I wanted to see how well I could mix and match paint colors. 

Somerset House-Gilbert Collection:  A medallion from the outside of the building on the River Terrace and one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry in the current Tiffany exhibit.  I wasn't sure what the rules were about sketching the jewelry, so I sketched this image from the brochure while we had lunch in the River Terrace cafe.

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I love books and bookstores, and while the big superchains really allow you to browse and read all day, I like the personal selections and recommendations of independent bookstores.   This is one of several in my neighborhood.  I also love specialty food stores, but when I looked at my favorite green grocer/food shop, the facade just wasn't as interesting as I thought.  Too many piles of fruits and vegetables on large shelves across the front and no architectural interest above the level of the awning.

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Each of these sketches was done during approximately 30 minutes and then the watercolor wash was added later.  We saw Antony and Cleopatra at the Globe Theatre Bankside and had 30 minutes to wait along the embankment - with a wonderful view of St. Paul's Cathedral across the Thames. 

The second sketch is the roofline of houses along King's Road in Chelsea - directly across from Caffe Nero where we were having coffee.

The last sketch is a row of interesting shops across from another small cafe with outdoor tables in Pimlico.  My husband can be encouraged to stop for coffee while I sketch and he does a NY Times crossword puzzle.

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When we visited London for the first time in January 1970, we were intrigued by the market at Covent Garden and loved eating lunch in the area restaurants.  We attended a performance of the Royal Ballet - one of our favorite ballet companies- and the entrance seemed to be right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the market.  In July we returned to Covent Garden on a very hot Sunday afternoon and were so disappointed.  The market was gone, it was jammed with tourists, and globalization had replaced the very English establishments with the equivalent of an American mall food court.  In September we decided to return yet again on a cool weekday afternoon for lunch and spent a very pleasant hour at Le Petit Chez Girard's court level outdoor cafe.    This was one of the views from where I sat and sketched.

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More Sketches from our recent London visit. 

Sketch 1:  Parliament and Big Ben as seen across the Waterloo Bridge from Somerset House.  They were both so far away that only a guess could be made re: the actual structure.  We visited the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Gilbert Collection Tiffany Exhibit at Somerset House - both were terrific.

Sketch 2:  Royal Hospital - designed with Royal Avenue by Christopher Wren as a home for elderly soldiers.  It is fun to see many of them walking along the streets of Chelsea in their old uniforms.

Sketch 3: A pub near Queen's Square in Bloomsbury.  We had a quick lunch at the adjacent outdoor restaurant, but the pub was much more interesting to sketch.

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When the EDM bread challenge was posted last week, I took this photo in Baker and Spice, a wonderful bakery and gourmet food shop in Chelsea, London, UK.  It would have been wonderful to spend time in the bakery, sketching and painting because the smells were wonderful, but it was hard enough even getting a photo due to the size of the space in front of the bread counter.  I love bread and the most wonderful part of moving back to New York from Texas is the incredible variety of bread that is available fresh every day within walking distance of our apartment.  I was very uncertain about painting it, but tried to stay loose and just see what happened!  The walls were actually painted the brick red color that I tried to match. 

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I have never sketched/painted water, and don't believe that my skills are up to it yet.  In addition, the only outdoor water I saw during the challenge week was the muddy brown Thames in London and it looked gross.  I did accompany my 21 month old grand daughter to her first swimming lesson at an indoor pool and decided that was going to have to be my sketch for this challenge.  You have to look really carefully to see the small patch of pool water on the bottom right!  The beautiful blue color of the water was of course due to the colors of the pool tiles and walls.

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I sketched the roofline of 3 houses on Thurlow Street, near the V and A Museum, while we stopped for a cup of coffee.  The number of fireplace chimneys on each terrace house in London is impressive and I wanted to remember the great roofline.  The sketch shows houses at #13, 11, and 9 (from left to right).  The photo shows the fronts of the same houses (L to R #9, 11, 13).

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We just returned from our second trip to London to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and two small grandchildren.  The foiled bomb plot in London occurred since our last visit so the Heathrow restrictions were now in place.  Each passenger is allowed ONE bag that is no larger than 45cm x 35 x 16 (18 in x 14 x 6.4).  No liquids or gels of any kind are permitted, even tube lipstick.  My bag contained my sketchbooks, journal, a pencil case with a pencil, eraser, and Zig Millenium pen, a book to read, my camera and card reader, jewelry, my wallet/passport, Filofax, kleenex, gum, and a comb.  My waterbrushes and watercolor paints were packed in my luggage, thus the JFK airport pen/ink sketch which I intend to leave that way as a reminder of this terrorist-shaped period in our lives.  It was amazing to me yesterday to see the large table full of confiscated items at Heathrow, and the number of passengers who arrived with 2+ carryon bags.  We heard that the restrictions will be lightened this week which is good, because we need to bring the Halloween costumes for our next visit!

 Back to work tomorrow so I will post some of my sketches from the trip slowly over the next week.

Posted by Shirley at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This Wet Canvas exercise in creativity encourages the artist to move from realistic to abstract in a series of 4 sketches.  I did it earlier this year using an image of household scissors.  This time I sketched a small art piece of seagulls that my now-grown children gave me on Mother's Day when they were children.  It now "lives" in the center of a round table in my office at work.  Each of these sketches were done quickly in my office because my day was full and I needed to do my "sketch-a-day" at work instead of at home in the evening.  Sketches 2-4 were done in a Moleskine watercolor journal with a Zig Millenium pen and Winsor-Newton tube paints in 3 colors (yellow ochre pale, Payn'es gray, and burnt sienna).

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