Paper and Threads

We rented one specific apartment twice, each time for one week, almost 10 years apart.  I wasn't keeping a travel sketchbook in February 2005, so I have hundreds of photos of Paris over 35 years, but no sketches.  I adore this apartment, which is located on Ile de La Cite, just several buildings away from Pont Neuf.  All 6 windows at the end of my arrow face the Right Bank.

I decided to do a travel sketchbook page for  Kate's class - before we move on to Lesson 3 - and immediately thought of this photo from our last visit.  It was the only time that we were in Paris when it snowed - a very magical time.

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All of our family were together for Thanksgiving this year.  We try, whenever all of our grandchildren are present, to get a group photo.  This usually leads to many cameras flashing and lots of laughter - and a huge number of "out takes."  This is the best of the ones that I took.

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This is a very busy week in our household - my husband and I do all of the cooking for family and friends on Thanksgiving (20 adults this year) and we're not getting any younger.  This year, we moved the venue to my daughter Rachel's apartment, but that meant that we were caterers - a new challenge.  But we didn't need to set up the apartment which was a wonderful help.  It was the year when all 3 of our children and their families were with us.  We have several hours of champagne with 7 hor d'oeuvres, then soup, salad, turkey, sausage stuffing, fresh baked bread, etc, etc, 

Tuesday: I bought great carrots to use for our soup and decided to sketch them while cooking. 

Wednesday:  I used fresh lime juice for a recipe and cut up all of the mushrooms for soup - and sketched and painted both of these while taking a break from cooking.

Thursday:  The day was a whirlwind, and after the guests left and the children were asleep, I sketched and painted my 2 year old grandson's stuffed flamingo.  He loves flamingos and entertains us constantly by assuming a one-legged flamingo pose and flapping his wings.  When my daughter came in the morning to pick us up with all of the food, he was hugging the flamingo and shared it briefly with me.  I would like to make this into a Christmas ornament this year for his stocking so none of us will forget this great stage.

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Yesterday my husband and I went to our grand daughter's pre-K class to talk about our ancestry.  All of our parents were born in the United States.  All of my husband's grandparents were born in Belorus and emigrated to the US from 1900-1908.  My grandparents and 5 of my great grandparents, were born here.  But my great grandmother, the only one I knew, was born in County Armagh, Ireland and moved here alone, following her fiancee, in 1887.  She was a really cute, very elderly woman when I was a child - somewhat deaf and never without her black cane.  

Here is a picture of Annie Ballance which was taken upon her arrival in New York City.  When I researched our family, I found her passenger list, which recorded 2 pieces of baggage - both of which I now own.

This is a picture of Sydney standing near the largest of her steamer trunks, which is in our apartment.  I scraped off the paper cover and stained both trunks 50 and 30 years ago - and have moved them from place to place since then.  This trunk has a wallpaper lining and glass top filled with family photos.  All of the quilts I made that are no longer in use are carefully folded inside.

I was delighted to finally paint both trunks as part of my journal page from yesterday - reflecting our visit to Syd's class.

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I love strolling on Madison Avenue, past the windows of the famous designer boutiques.  But Madison Ave also has its share of street vendors, and as I walked up on Friday, I sketched their wares and the street decoration that has already been added to the lamposts for Christmas.

When I carry my sketchbook and pencil case, I also carry this artist grade travel set of watercolors by Daler-Rowney, but half the time I draw when I'm out and then paint using my regular Winsor-Newton palette at home.  I plan to replace these paints with my palette, but never do...maybe next year.  The size and shape of this travel set is wonderful - and the mixing areas include the flat areas and 4 deep end wells.

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I am currently taking Kate Johnson's "Keeping an Artist's Journal" on-line class, so I will probably upload daily journal pages more frequently to my blog because I need to also upload them to our class Flickr pool to share with Kate and my classmates.

Tueday:  Busy Day, so I sketched my lecturer at the New York Public Library Tuesday evening.  I did have paints with me, but felt very conspicuous the way the seats were set up.  I decided not to finish painting her as I experiment with different ways to compose my artist journal pages. 

Wednesday:  Melanie Testa and 3 other art buddies played with Melanie's method of tracing images from our journals, painting them, painting a background on WC paper in our journals, and then gluing the two layers together.  These were sea gull images from my summer vacation journal - and a link to the original journal image from my blog in June 2009.  Her method is described in an article she wrote in the May-June 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

Thursday: Two leaves I picked up from the sidewalk when walking home from nursery school with 4 of our grandchildren.  They were sketched and painted when I came home from babysitting last night.  I have no idea what kind of trees they are, but every autumn I find a few of these gorgeous patterned leaves on New York sidewalks!

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Kate Johnson's "Keeping an Artist's Journal" class started yesterday and the first lesson covers the basics:  Exploring what YOU want and expect from this class, plus practical matters like materials and supplies.  For one of our first exercises, I need to decide what I want from my journal and the class, and plan what will go into my journal. 

I keep a daily visual journal and since January 2006 completed at least one journal page per day.  Some of these pages were in themed journals, i.e. vacation travel sketchbooks or figure drawing practice.  But most daily drawings/paintings are in my chronologic sketchbooks - with dated pages.  The contents of each page vary considerably - from personal moments recorded, to Everyday Matter challenges, to drawing or painting practice.  Journals 1-7 are Aquabee spiral Globetrotters - purchased because they were inexpensive and therefore I wasn't afraid to mess them up.  But the paper wasn't ideal for water media, and I moved to the large Moleskine watercolor journal (pink band) as soon as it was available (journals 8-17).  But I hated the landscape format of the book and Moleskine was polite, but not moveable, when I emailed them multiple times to see if they could make it in a portrait format.  So I took a weekend codex bookbinding class and now use journals that I make.  They are approximately 6" wide by 8" tall and contain 6 signatures, 48 pages, of Fabriano 140 lb, soft press watercolor paper (journals 18-26 - which is the current one).  They have paper backed book cloth on the outside which is very sturdy. I took the photograph on some fabric that I just painted with corn dextrin resist and thickened procion MX dyes.  One of my goals is to paper-back some of this cloth to see how easy it is to use as book cloth.

Here is the inside of my current journal, beginning with the double page spread showing my journal, palette, and current art tools.  This will be the first page for Kate's class, but before it is over, I will be using Volume 27.

This is the first half of the drawing, showing my journal and current palette.  I use 3 triads of primary colors to mix watercolors that I want - plus a few miscellaneous extras.  I also have a small commercial travel watercolor kit made by Daler-Rowney which has different colors.

I just realized that I mislabeled the brown on the right which is burnt umber - the burnt sienna is in the bottom triad on the left with yellow ochre and Payne's gray.

This is the second half of the spread, showing my leather pencil case and examples of the tools I carry in it.  I have only one, sepia tone, watercolor pencil in my daily pencil case.  The other 39 are in a separate pouch, which I take only when I can't use wet media - for example at my neighbor the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

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Last night was my 3rd figure drawing session at the Society of Illustrators in New York City and I came home with 19 sketches, even though I really didn't like one of the two models.  This was a new experience and I had to convince myself that I didn't need to like the model or their poses - it was all an opportunity to practice drawing.

The standard format is 10 two minute poses, 4 five minute poses, 2 ten minute poses, and 3 twenty minute poses, with breaks, over 3 hours.  I'm posting one from each group.

This is the other model - small, really skinny, shaved head except for a circle of bright yellow short hair in a circle on the top of her head.  However, it was the contorted positions that she took which I didn't like, except this one.

I loved the setting, really enjoyed the live piano and double bass music throughout the evening, and appreciated the glass of red wine while sketching.

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EDM Challenge #246:  Draw a Pair of Gloves: 

I love my black shearling mittens, especially when it is really cold in New York City.  But they just looked like two black blobs on my journal page, so I sketched my black leather gloves instead.

EDM Challenge #247:  Draw Something Creepy

Approximately once each year our local TV channel shows footage from surveillance cameras in fast food restaurants - and after the restaurant is closed, the camera captures the image of rats in the kitchen.  It really creeps me out - and also makes sure that I never visit that fast food chain - because of course I can't remember which branch it was in this big city.

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I signed up for Kate Johnson's Visual Journaling Class and I'm trying to focus my sketches on my daily activities for several weeks.

I sketched and painted a detail from a beautiful stained class window at the Museum of the City of New York during a visit there this week.   

The following day we took care of our newest grandchild and I sketched his "lovey" - a British Jellycat animal called Scrumpty Elly.  My daughter-in-law takes his picture with this animal every month to see Zach's growth.  I sketched him with my non-permanent Varsity pen and then just wet the elephant to create the color.

I made two new codex watercolor journals this week, and while I had my bookbinding equipment out, I made two watercolor pamphlet style journals with waste watercolor paper from a few recent recycled books.  One of them is a gift for a friend, the other may be the perfect watercolor booklet for my grand daughter.

Today we took our oldest grandchild to the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert and I had approximately 10 minutes before the lights went down to quickly sketch the stage.  Henry and I talked about the colors so I could remember them until I got home.

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Here are 3 more journal pages - I'm on a roll!

I love watching Project Runway and periodically like to sketch the winning design the evening that I watch it.  Here is the oversized sweater and paper-bag waste pants by Althea that all of the women judges wanted to wear, right then.

The following day I thought alot about my own love of design and specifically two outfits that I made when I was a senior in college.  The one on the left is a suede suit that I made with 5 skins that my boyfriend of the time gave me for my birthday.  I had enough suede to make the skirt and front panels of the jacket.  The jacket sleeves, back, and front button panel were made from a wool-silk tweed blend that matched the suede.  The dress on the left was made as a final exam in a semester long flat pattern design course that I took (after my premed requirements were done and I was already admitted to medical school).  I selected a dress from a NYTimes newspaper advertisement and made the pattern and then the dress from a green wool tweed.  The top was a blouson style and the skirt had a deep inverted pleat and slant pockets.  I don't have photos of either design - amazing now that I have 10 photos of everything with my digital camera.

Yesterday my husband and I went to the Fall Impressionist and Modern Previews at Christies and Sotheby's Auction Houses in New York City - one of our favorite semi-annual activities.  We start at Christies, then have lunch at Dos Caminos and end at Sothebys - and in the process see well over 500 pieces of art that will be auctioned on Nov 3rd and 4th.  I loved a work on paper by George Grosz and sketched a detail from it - a man's head. 

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