Paper and Threads

We're Home!  We had another wonderful visit to Paris - walking the City for miles, seeing some wonderful museum exhibits, and eating delicious meals.  I made a special sketchbook for this trip and carried it with me all day.  We were traveling with good friends, and I only sketched when we were in restaurants or exhibits, and usually in pencil - followed by pen.  Now that I am home, I will slowly paint all 15 of the sketchbook pages from photos I took.

I regularly draw a grid of 2" squares near the front of my sketchbook, one for each day of travel.  I fill those with one specific small image each day - just reminding me, in another way, of how we spent our time. 

The only sketchbook page that I painted in Paris was in the restaurant where we had our first dinner.  It was a modest neighborhood restaurant, with a wall of organic wines in front of me.

This is the longest period of time I've gone without blogging since I started my blog in 2006.  We walked 5-7 miles each day, enjoyed lovely restaurants, followed the news back home, and went to bed tired each night.  Our two longest walks, seeing everything along the way, were from (1) Notre Dame to the Arc of Triomphe and back to near Notre Dame via Pont D'Alma and (2) home from Sacre Coeur, walking around the Opera House, Place Vendome, and Faubourg St. Honore back to our street near Notre Dame.  It is so sad to see Notre Dame after the fire. 

Posted by Shirley at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We will be leaving for Paris for a short vacation, and for many years I included "Mickey" on one of the first few pages in my travel sketchbooks to Europe.  He is a character in Maurice Sendak's book In The Night Kitchen, and during the night he creates a bread dough airplane in his dream/imagination. 

When we go to Paris I also include a painting of the Eiffel Tower, on the page with all of my contact information in case my sketchbook is misplaced.  Years ago I searched the internet for images since my photos were not sufficient to draw it, and I found a tutorial.  This is complicated enough for me!

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2019/07/_we_are_going_to.php

This is my blog entry for the Paris sketchbook which I recycled/made from a Paris book - with 140 lb watercolor paper. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A group of my friends and I went to Swann Gallery for the previews of their Drawings and Prints Auction last month.  They have important representatives of 19th and 20th century artists, and we all usually draw some of them for practice.  I sketched two of my favorite artists:  Picasso and Matisse. 

Picasso Print Bacchanale:  This was one of several figures on this print, and I loved this guy!

Matissee: Odalisque print which was made based on a an earlier painting of his.  I'm never sure how much I am learning from drawing these pieces, but it is so satisfying.  It was big enough to require more than one page in my sketchbook.

Posted by Shirley at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Quarter Bound Cased-In book made with 50 sheets of copy paper - 5 folios per signature and 10 signatures:

The copy paper (grain long) was cut 6 inches in height and then folded in half to make folios.  The finished book is 6.25 inches high and 4.75 inches wide.  The book was covered with black book cloth and paste paper made with acrylic paints.  The end papers are solid black. 

My friends made the books on the left, in a group bookbinding session, and I made the book on the right. The copy paper can be used for drawing with a Sakura Pigma Micron pen.  I used the first one I made for 100 pages of ink drawings, and the size makes it easy to carry around. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is an interesting exhibit at the Folk Art Museum, Lincoln Square, in New York City.  The art is by self-taught artists and all of the items are from the collection of Audrey B. Heckler.  I sketched some of the simple images I liked from the paintings of Carlo Zinelli, Hans Kruski, and my all-time favorite - Bill Traylor (1853 - 1949).  Traylor was a slave, sharecropper, and late in life an untrained artist who painted the world around him in Montgomery Alabama.  The black drawing below is one of his.

Posted by Shirley at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)