Paper and Threads

I love the drop-in figure drawing sessions at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.  Two models that pose together, wine and snacks, and live music for 3 hours.  My classes at Fashion Institute of Technology precluded my usual monthly visit during this past year, but I hope to go each month during the summer.

I sketched both of these models previously and was happy to draw them again.  My dear friend Sara joins me for a June session each year when she and her husband are visiting us at the beach and then in the City.  Here are 3 of my sketches - all done with a washable graphite pencil (Sketch and Wash from General).  Each page represents 20 minutes of drawing done on 12 X 18" sheets of watercolor paper.

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We just returned from our vacation in Martha's Vineyard.  What a beautiful island - especially "up-island" where our friends live.   We loved walking on Philbin beach, and one morning I took a series of photos of cormorants sitting on a rock in the water.  One of them, posted previously, had them sitting in a row.  I wanted them for my sketchbook - and here they are:

I was amazed at the color of the shells on Red Beach around Menemsha Pond and found this large whelk that was the color of the clay that gives the beach its name.  There is even a jingle shell that is permanently attached - which is one of the characteristics of "jingles." 

There are 4 lighthouses on the Vineyard and one on Chappaquidick Island.  This is the Gayhead Lighthouse that is above Philbin Beach. 

There is a wonderful shadowbox with bugs and a big spider in our friends guest bathroom.  I love to sketch bugs from life, even dead ones.  So I examined them all and chose this one for my sketchbook. 

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We are visiting friends in Aquinnah, on Martha's Vineyard.  We were here once before 20 years ago, but now have the opportunity to see much more of this beautiful island.

These photos were taken on Philbin beach, on a walk from the entrance to the Gayhead Cliffs where we could see the lighthouse high above us. 

As we walked on the beach , we spotted these cormorants on one of the huge ocean rocks.  I snapped many photos, as we slowly and quietly approached them.  This was the last one before they suddenly flew away. 

I am busy drawing a map and painting a variety of things around the house.  We spend lots of time sitting on the porch watching 4 bird feeders that attract up to 8 goldfinches at once, blue jays, cardinals, and chickadees.  And the fuschia hanging plant is in bloom and is gorgeous!  These are sketchbook photos, not scans.

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I am devoting this blog post to the recent opening of the 9/11 Memorial Museum - with only one small drawing that I did there on June 9th for my daily sketchbook.

The following description of the  9/11 Memorial Museum was taken from the website:

https://www.911memorial.org/ 

"The 9/11 Memorial Museum opened on May 21, 2014. It is located beneath the
Memorial plaza. Visitors enter the Memorial Museum through a pavilion where two
steel “tridents”— remnants of the North Tower’s façade — stand in the building’s atrium.
The main exhibition space is located seven stories below the 9/11 Memorial at the
bedrock foundations of the World Trade Center. The Museum offers displays of
artifacts from the WTC and 9/11 attacks, interactive exhibitions, contemplative areas,
and programs that convey individual and collective stories relating the experiences
of survivors, responders, area residents and eyewitnesses. A memorial exhibition
honors the individual victims of the attacks." 

The museum is the low building behind the row of trees, between the Memorial pools that were created in the foot prints of the North and South Towers.   

As soon as you enter the building you begin to descend stairs and ramps, past two of the original girders from the North Tower and adjacent to the Vesey St. stairway  down which many of the survivors fled from the area.

I loved seeing artwork that was created to commemorate the event and the victims, including a 60 foot quilt that contains photos of the victims from both Towers,  the Pentagon, and the Flight that crashed in Shanksville PA.

 This tall ceramic urn, which was created by a University of Minnesota Professor and contains the names of

all of the Victims.

Vehicles damaged on 9/11 make up some of the artifacts within the museum.

The bottom level, at the end of the ramps, has one wall which remains from the "bathtub" that was part of the foundation of the North Tower.

This area also contains a girder from the site of destruction

- and the main historical account of 9/11, the cleanup, and the building of the Memorial and Museum.  The main exhibit is very well done will take several visits to look carefully at all of the photos, videos, and other displays.

Posted by Shirley at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our Meetup Sketching Group met here from 11AM-2PM last Saturday.  The weather was gorgeous and it would be hard to find a more breathtaking urban scene.   This is lower Manhattan - with the ferry terminals to the left and the new World Trade Center Tower to the right.

 We love our yellow taxis so much that even our water taxis are yellow.

The Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge - from the Promenade.

I did this painting during our Meetup.  I sketched and then met with the whole group to share our sketches.  I then painted my sketch with watercolors and met again to share our sketches.

This is an 11 X 14" piece of watercolor paper to which I glued a piece of the New York City Subway Map.  After the glue dried, I painted a thin layer of Golden Absorbent Ground over the map.  It is a wonderful surface for graphite and watercolor.  I have used this technique before for smaller pieces, and decided it would be perfect for the NYC skyline from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

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