Paper and Threads

EDM Challenge #180:  I had a really difficult time with Challenge #180 - Draw Something in Your Favorite Color.  I did a Color Project after being inspired by Laura several years ago and you can see both of our many entries by going to the category list on our blogs.  How could I possible select one color when I love them all and don't consider any drawing done until I add watercolor washes.  Then one evening my son sent me a photograph of my newest grandchild Annabelle's delicious pink feet.  It was then that I decided that I had to sketch and paint them for this challenge in honor of both of my grand daughters.  Sydney lives in a pink room with pink comforters and quilts and for years seemed to only want to wear pink clothes. 

EDM Challenge #181 Draw a Trash Can:  I couldn't find any interesting trash cans to draw until I walked around a corner in my office building and saw this behemoth - in a hallway where some room renovation was being done.  I wish the colors were more interesting!

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I received this lovely award from Clare this week and was so busy that I didn't get it posted.

This morning I received an email from Lisa with this award.

I thank both of you for thinking of me - I'm honored.  I am supposed to pass each award on to 5 other blogs, but instead I would like every one of the new members who have been brave enough to share their work and blog with us to get the award.  Everyday Matters is the total sum of my art instruction and inspiration and I continue to be in awe of the talent in our group.  Thanks to everyone, and a special welcome to our new members. 

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My husband and I were married midway through medical school, but lived in Philadelphia and Chicago until we graduated.  Then I joined him for post-grad training at the University of Chicago and we moved into our very first "adult" apartment together.  It was a lovely modern apartment in one of two buildings that sat on a landscaped island in the middle of E 55th Street.  Friends used to call it carbon monoxide island because the two lanes of traffic on E55th Street separated to go around the apartment complex.

 I have only a few photos from our years there - one taken during a snowstorm when the buildings were silhouettes and the other taken of just one corner of the building showing the architecture.  I'm not pleased with my page composition, but know how I will position these images when I work more on this series.

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I didn't know that I liked J.M.W. Turner until I saw the Tate Britain "Hockney on Turner" exhibit of his watercolors last srping.  Now I'm really enjoying the Turner exhibit at the Met.  This is one of the few blockbuster exhibits at the Met in which sketching is not prohibited, so I try to quickly sketch one watercolor each time I visit and paint it later - trying to stay loose.  There are three complete rooms of watercolors interspersed among galleries full of his large oil paintings.  He has a very precise, very tight style in the early works in the first watercolor gallery. then a looser style in the second, and mere impressions of a burning Parliament in the big series of the fire in the third gallery.  Here are 4 small sketchbook paintings I did over the last few weeks.

St. Florent - le - Vieil on the River Loire: 1832

Inspired by The Burning Houses of Parliament: 1834  I originally painted this for the cover of my big Reference Photo DVD, but decided to collage it into my sketch book.

Lori and I sketched several Turner watercolors on our sketchcrawl on Saturday - and I just painted mine.

Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute, 1835

Castle Conway: 1798-1800

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My New Friend:  Last Saturday I spent 6 hours on a sketchcrawl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Lori - an Everyday Matters Yahoo art group member that I only previously knew through her blog and email.  I have thoroughly enjoyed every day spent with members from our wonderful group and love putting a face to a name - as well as holding their sketchbooks in my hand and watching them work.  We met for breakfast at a local restaurant and then escaped from the New York City heat at opening time of the Museum.  We started at the Turner exhibit - I LOVE his watercolors and this was my 3rd time to visit them this month.  We sketched from Turner and then sat at the table containing the HUGE books from the exhibit and added some water to our pencil sketches with our water brushes (only pencils are allowed in these exhibits if they even let you sketch at all!).  We were so cold by the end of the exhibit, we went up to the Sculpture Roof Garden to see the Jeff Koons sculptures and warm up.  We then toured the section featuring African, Central and South American artifacts and each sketched different masks and ceramic figures.  After lunch in the Museum cafeteria and lots more talking, we ended the day in the 19th C. European painting galleries.  I now have 6 journal pages to finish, converting quick sketches in pencil into ink/watercolor wash drawings.  Lori, who is in NYC on an art grant, still had several more days of lessons and experiences. 

A quick photo of us as we were ending our day (Lori on the left and me on the right):

My Old Friends:  After leaving Lori, my husband and I drove to my hometown in Northern NJ for dinner with my oldest friends - 4 women who I first met in elementary school.  Our 6th group member lives in Florida and we secretly were hoping that she was going to arrive and surprise us!  Even my 7th grade homeroom teacher - and our high school class advisor - joins us for these dinners!

From left to right: Judy, Me, Nora, Mary Ann, and Nancy.  Nora and her baby sister Nancy (not the Nancy pictured above) are among my most faithful blog readers and Nancy told me that she wanted to wake up yesterday morning and read about my fabulous dinner and party at their house.  Sorry Nancy, yesterday I spent hours and hours backingup our desktop/laptop computers to our new terrabyte external hard drive and never had time to upload this photo.  My only photo of Nancy was in mid-sentence so I thought she would prefer that I mentioned her instead....

Posted by Shirley at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I gathered stuff from the beach during our walks and sketched them later.  I also tried to sketch at the Snack Shack each morning when we were having our morning coffee in the nice cool breeze. 

This is a sketch of the front doors to the food area - and the same man was in his chair reading the newspaper 4 mornings in a row.

One morning we sat at a table behind an artist who was painting the ocean view in oils.  I'm not sure that he even knew that I sketched him. 

Beach Treasures: Shells and Seaweed

Every morning the beach was different.  We were amazed that the types of shells varied each day - and on our final morning there was seaweed for the first time and only smooth shell fragments and small rocks.

Seagulls and Terns kept us company on our walks.  I took lots of photos of them with my zoom lens because they wouldn't let us get very close.  The photos were used to create this page.

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We spent a long weekend in Southampton - and I used one of my recycled books as a travel sketchbook.  There were gorgeous hydrangeas in bloom everywhere and I tried a quick painting of several blooms.

We love walking on the beach and quickly established a daily routine.  Each day we took a long walk on the beach, picking up shells as we went, followed by morning coffee on the covered patio at the Snack Shack.  Just as the beach was getting hot, we were able to move into the shady, cool ocean breeze. 

A quick painting of the beach from the Snack Shack:

Shells and a sea gull feather found on the beach during our walks:

I wanted to continue figure sketching practice, but didn't have any ready models on the beach the first two days - so I sketched from an ad in a Hamptons magazine.  We definitely didn't see her on our walk!

We walked into the Village during the afternoon and from an outdoor cafe I sketched the old Southampton Town Hall building which is now Saks Fifth Avenue.

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Rachel gave me this award while I was out of town - so I'm very slow about acknowledging her kindness and posting it here.  The rules say for me to pass it on to 7 more blogs - but I am influenced and inspired in so many different ways by all of the members of EDM - that I couldn't possibly choose among all of you. 

I will continue to read the EDM Superblog and read the EDM message board morning and evening - and visit your blogs or Flick'r sites.  I always forget to look at the EDM Flick'r pool and when I do visit, I find work I've never seen before.  We are a very active group and I thank each of you for sharing your information and love of visual arts. 

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We just returned from a long weekend, mini-vacation at the beach.  I wanted to upload last week's challenge as soon as I returned home and then will more slowly post some beach sketches.  

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My husband and I were walking to our grandson's school in London to pick him up when I saw this wonderful row of 4 phone booths.  Usually they were single or in pairs in neighborhoods we visited - so I had to get this photo to later play with perspective.  And I never did!  That is my husband in the red baseball cap - waiting for me to catch up!  It was a nice challenge for me to draw this and I listened to Danny's recent Podcast while I sketched and painted it.  A good quiet Sunday afternoon.

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Our children were all in New York City several weekends ago to celebrate my birthday, Henry's 5th birthday party, and Father's Day.  Annabelle, just barely 3 months old, met her 4 New York City cousins for the first time and we tried to get yet another picture of all of our grandchildren together.  This is always a hilarious event - with 3 cameras flashing and the other adults jumping up and down to make them smile.   Sometimes the out-takes are so funny that we print them as a series.  NOT A SINGLE PHOTO is ever near-perfect.  There are many funny faces, closed eyes, fingers in mouths and noses - and the youngest one usually starts sliding sideways sometime during the event.  For the second half of the photo-shoot Callum had his thumb in his mouth and elephant in front of his face - thereby eliminating half of the 50+ photos that were rapidly taken.

 Our daughter has 3 children and my sons each have one.  From left to right:  Callum (1 1/2), Henry (5 yrs), Annabelle (almost 3 months), Robbie (almost 3), and Sydney (3 1/2).  Like most grandparents- we adore them and spend any available minute with them.

Posted by Shirley at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I'm always happy when I can post an EDM Challenge before the next one is announced.  These exercises are great for me to do and I try to stretch my skills a little with each one. 

We were on vacation when the "Sparkle Challenge" was posted and I really wanted to try to capture the light of a gem stone.  I'm not very good painting reflections and I kept looking for a big stone.  I even took a photo of the Hope diamond when we were in DC.  But then I decided to just draw a Bulgari bracelet from an advertisement and move on.

I also took photos of cute little Capitol Hill houses with flags blowing in the breeze on our trip to DC because I knew that ! couldn't draw a moving flag.  Then, at the end of my taxi ride to Union Station following my meetings, I looked up and saw the facade of the station.  I grabbed my camera, took several photos and headed inside for my train back to New York. 

I loved the Seurat Drawings Exhibit at MoMA NY and was especially fascinated with the paper (click on the Conservation button).  This is especially interesting because I don't even sketch with Conte or charcoal.  I looked up the Michallet paper and learned that the modern day equivalent is available at NY Central Art Supplies.  I bought a sheet while I was there on Saturday just to experiment with it.  I ripped it into smaller pieces and now will play with it, using Seurat's drawings as my inspiration.  Here is #1 - done with a 1/8th sheet and a Derwent Drawing pencil. 

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