Paper and Threads

Last week I was immersed in Khaled Hosseini's book A Thousand Splendid Suns for 2 days.   The story is set against 30 years of war in Afghanistan and when I chose my daily sketch for each day, I was inspired to look for something that would capture some of the images from my reading.  I searched news articles and photos of mujahideen and sketched one of the members of a group photo.

On the second day I searched for photos of women walking in the streets in their burqas and painted one of them.

As I post these, the US is increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan and I can't imagine what the next phase of life is going to be like for these people, especially the women.

Posted by Shirley at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm still enjoying my friend Bunny's photos from her recent trip to India and using them for inspiration for my figure drawing practice at least weekly.  Here are 3 more paintings.  In the first one, it appears as if this young boy was posing for a single photo.  The second one appears to be a market.  The vendor has two children playing on the ground next to her.  The 3rd is one figure from a group photo.  I was very drawn to this image as I was in the middle of rereading Khalid Hosseini's second book A Thousand Splendid Suns and the two women in the story were in burqas whenever they left their home.  Although this is not a classic burqa, I was drawn to this figure walking along the street and just had to draw and paint her image.  Next week - mujahideen and women in blue burqas from Afghani photos I'm collecting from the web.

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I need hand drawing practice so much, that I did two drawings of hands with thumbs.   But I found myself smiling much of the time, remembering that my 4 year old grand daughter Sydney called them "flums" not very long ago.  We all took every opportunity we could to have her say it, especially her 5 year old brother Henry who thought it was adorable because she was so earnest.

Posted by Shirley at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

My son called today to tell me that Annabelle (now almost 1) discivered her Rouse Mouse (singular of Rice Mice) this week and now needs it taken from the shelf and given to her everytime she is lifted out of her crib.  He went searching for more information on the origin of these mice and asked why I didn't have any photos of the two newest ones on my blog.  Just coincidentally, we're having dinner tonight with the person who gave me the Rice Mice book when my children were young.

Both of these mice have long suede tails and embroidered eyes for safety.   Annabelle's pink mouse was made from fabric used for the quilt I made for her for Christmas.  Callum's mouse is made from fabric leftover from an earlier quilting project and the turquoise and apple green color matches his room.

My earlier post about Christmas Rice Mice and a picture of the book appears here.

Posted by Shirley at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I still love doing the EDM Challenges 3+ years after joining.  They always take me out of my comfort zone in some way, and at least give me a fun project for one of my daily sketches each week.  We were away during challenge #212, which somehow always means that I fall further behind.  But now I can post the last three weeks and begin anew.

 My Washington DC grand daughter and her Mommy

My very uninteresting microwave.  Our kids think we were the last family in town to buy one when they were growing up and this was recently passed on to us by one of them when our last one died.

I started quilting when we lived in San Antonio, TX almost 30 years ago.  There was a resurgence of interest in quilting right after the US bicentential, and I was working full time, had 3 small children, and loved to make things.  I always worked with fabric, so it was the perfect "new passion" for me - allowing me to carry around small pieces of a big project and make otherwise boring soccer practices, swim meets, or car pool waiting more enjoyable.  They loved the quilts and pillows that I made for them and now I'm making them for their children.  These are the tools in my basket as I hand quilt (belatedly) a wedding quilt for one of my sons.

Posted by Shirley at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

 I practice drawing figures from Mark Smith's book The Nude Figure: A Visual Reference for Artists.  Sometime after I retire, I'm hoping to find time to go to one of the many places with live models here in New York City.  For now, this is a great way for me to draw figures using different mediums.  These were both drawn with colored pencil.

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This morning I met 5 wonderful women, who all like to sketch, draw, and paint, for our first group sketchcrawl.  I met Susan in a watercolor bookbinding class.  I met Kathleen, Jane, and Annie in Danny Gregory's Visual Journaling class this fall, and I met Deborah through the Everyday Matters group.   

We spent the first hour in the Greek and Roman galleries where I sketched the head of a Hercules statue from 68=79 AD.  Although it can't be seen very well, he has a lion's face on his head and the rest of the lion skin draped and tied over his shoulders.

We then moved to the current Drawing Exhibit for the next hour and I sketched from 2 Delacroix Moroccan drawings and a reclining nude by La Fosse.

The black line is the gap between the signatures in the watercolor journal I made - and even intensive glueing of the spine and tight stitching doesn't prevent it. 

All of the drawings were made with a combination of light wash graphite and Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.  They are my solution for only being able to sketch with pencil at the Met.

We finished with a leisurely lunch at the Central Park Boat House patio restaurant because it was such a warm, sunny day in New York City.  We were a very excited and compatible group and decided over lunch that we would meet monthly - to sketch and share some blogging, bookbinding, and art skills and resources. 

Posted by Shirley at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We just returned from a short trip to Washington, DC - part business and part pleasure.  Our youngest grandchild lives there and I have a dedicated sketchbook to use each day that we are with her.  Annabelle will be one at the end of this month - and we don't see enough of her!

Saturday afternoon we went to the new Capitol Visitor's Center to see the space.  We didn't have time to look at Exhibition Hall, but the main area is wonderful!  There are many statues, but the cast of the Statue of Freedom which sits on top of the Capitol Dome is the most important one.  Here is her head - and an eagle logo found on many of the items in the Gift Shop.

Annabelle pulls herself up on everything and is cruising an entire room very quickly.  These are quick sketches of her in her PJs.

There was alot of snow when we woke up on Monday morning.  We kept Annabelle home from Day Care to play with us while my son and daughter-in-law went to work.  She loves playing with the Noah's Ark and animals that she received as an early birthday present, so it was immortalized on this page.

We all love her really warm winter hat and she looks really cute in it.  We're sad that it probably won't fit her next winter.

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