Paper and Threads

More Pre - Venice Sketchbook Pages

2012-05-14T10:56:48Z

Last summer, the Morgan Library and Museum had a great exhibit about "Lists." I was really intrigued by a sketchbook list of one artist's packing for a trip. You can see the watercolor page here on the museum website.

So I decided that I needed to try it - and had a great deal of fun drawing and painting the items going into my suitcase or being worn on the airplane. I think his trip was shorter than mine. But then again, men probably pack less than women.

I'm always guided by my suitcase - and must fit everything I take to wear in a 24" suitcase - including my small leather backpack. Of course my art supplies, camera, book, etc go into my small carryon. I don't even take a separate purse - a leftover from the year we traveled back and forth to London regularly when all carry-on bags were SEVERELY limited.

I'm going to try to post to my blog from Venice, but we still don't know whether we will have WiFi access.

Venice 2012

2012-05-11T10:38:58Z

We will be leaving for our Venice vacation within the next few days. I'm obviously very excited to be returning there to celebrate yet another wedding anniversary with my husband and friends.

I recycled a book called Italian Dreams this winter and posted a tutorial for bookbinding on this blog. And I did some watercolor paintings from photos from my 2002 trip to Venice to get my brain, eyes, and fingers ready for my travel sketchbook.

This week I started to put entries into my travel sketchbook. I love to have pages already done by the time we arrive, making it easier to just continue filling the book.

The first page is a tribute to Mari Le Glatin Keis. Here are the powerful ideas that I took from her book and added to my first page.

The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook

Sketching is not about doing "good" drawings or paintings. It is about being in the moment, about putting aside expectations and judgment and letting the hand record what the eyes see with whatever tool you have available.

It is not the aesthetic. It is only about the experience!

Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to be fully in the moment.

In sketching, there is no expectation, no performance, no good or bad. There is just the pure pleasure of describing life as it is. Trust yourself and play. Behind every page , there is a moment, an emotion. No matter how "good" or realistic your rendering is, a simple line or color will bring you right back in the moment. You will be able to see, hear, feel, and smell....Instead of saying "I like this page," I say, "I loved this day."

Mari Le Glatin Keis

My second page shows pencils, pens, easers and brushes in my pencil case.

My third page is a sample of the watercolors I will have with me:

1. My small palette of Winsor Newton paints. This palette is small enough to fit into my small backpack or can stay in the apartment and used there.

2. My Daler Rowney travel watercolor set which easily fits into a pocket.

3. My 20 selected watercolor pencils which I can carry in a light, flat zipper pencil case - and use in museums where pens may be prohibited.

I am going to try to post some entries during our trip, but we won't know about the quality of our wifi connection until we arrive.

Venice Preview Sketches #14, 15, and 16

2012-05-07T15:56:06Z

I made an accordion-folded watercolor "sketchbook" for me to practice sketching scenes in Venice before our trip and these 3 pages complete my Venice Previews. All of the sketches were done from photos that I took in 2002, before I started to keep sketchbooks or travel journals.

A blog reader said that they would like to know what my experience is like - after arriving in Venice - based on my preliminary sketchbook painting. Even before I leave, I feel as if I have more confidence in my ability to paint water and the crumbling texture of the plaster over brick walls of the buildings. I also know how difficult it is to make accurate drawings of the ornate columns on the most famous buildings. But most importantly, I have a wonderful sense of freedom because I will always have these 16 journal paintings that will be part of my Venice experience - and I will now be more spontaneous and sketch my daily sights and experiences, "in the moment."

San Maggiore from Piazza San Marco:

Details - Ca' D'Oro

A Random Canal, Tower Photo I took: Maybe I'll recognize the Tower when we arrive in Venice

Drawings From Christie's Impressionist/Modern Auction

2012-05-05T13:21:35Z

I found several drawings that I loved at the Christie's Auction Preview last week and was also able to photograph them. It is almost my favorite part of the previews - the room full of works on paper which are 90% drawings.

I loved this Van Gogh charcoal drawing and and just knew that I wanted to draw it.

But I have NEVER used charcoal! I hate the feeling of my charcoal pencils on paper and never even tried the sticks/vines. This posed a dilemma - but I discovered that a 6B charcoal pencil was soft enough not to make my teeth vibrate. So I took a very small piece of my watercolor paper (4" x 7", 140 lb soft press) and did a quick sketch just to see if I could quickly capture the image. I used a large graphite blending tool - probably incorrectly - for shading!

THIS DRAWING SOLD AT AUCTION ON MAY 2ND FOR $722, 500 - DOUBLE THE AUCTION ESTIMATE THAT WAS PRINTED ON THE CARD!

This is a Matisse that I'm saving for a rainy day drawing:

THIS DRAWING SOLD AT AUCTION ON MAY 2ND FOR $122,500.

My Love Affair With Cezanne's Cardplayers

2012-05-02T12:11:43Z

There are many, many museums in the city and I love to visit the art museums to see the exhibits and sketch from the Masters. We saw a Leon Kossoff drawing exhibit at the National Gallery in London (2007) and I was impressed with his return visits to sketch the same few works by Masters many times during his career.

I thought it might be fun to try this, in part to see how my art skills evolve and how my familiarity with the painting may change my drawing over time. On my first visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2008, I sat in front of Cezanne's Card Players and sketched it.

I sketched it annually and then sketched many of the preparatory paintings in a big 2011 Cardplayer exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Cezanne did 5 oil paintings of the Cardplayers - one with 5 figures, one with 4 (owned by the Met), and 3 with two figures. The 2011 exhibit at the Met was unable to reunite all 5, but there were many preparatory drawings and paintings of individual figures. I sketched some of them on 3 occasions.

I was thrilled to learn that a previously unseen preparatory watercolor of Paulin Paulet, a gardener from Cezanne's family estate, was being auctioned at Christie's NY by a private collector. He is the only figure that appears in all 5 paintings. There was a full page picture of the painting in the NY Times on Friday and I painted it in my sketchbook.

On Saturday, at the auction preview, while many people were viewing the painting, I sketched the head again with a watercolor pencil. I may never get the head tilted like Cezanne!

And then waited until I could get an angle for a photo without reflections of the spotlights.

Last night this watercolor sold for $19.1 million dollars!!

April Figure Drawing at the Society of Illustrators

2012-04-27T14:26:32Z

This week was my monthly visit to the Society of Illustrators for figure drawing. I love the event, but can't seem to get there more than once per month. There are 2 models and live music and a bar! What more could I want? More time in my life to do everything that I would like to do!

This post will have 2 five minute, 2 ten minute, and 2 twenty minute sketches. The black and white sketches were done with a 9B graphite pencil, the color sketches were done with watercolor pencils and then brushed with water in a Niji waterbrush. The first 4 images were scanned. The last two were photgraphed because of the size of the paper.

This year I read a very interesting book about figure drawing, Peter Steinhart, Undressed Art, or Why We Draw. Although I see this book in stores, I rarely see it mentioned in art blogs. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in drawing, especially from live models. It is much more a historical perspective and source of inspiration, than a how-to book.

Win a Copy of Gwen Diehn's Book or One of Her Butter Sketchbooks

2012-04-25T01:35:48Z

Lark Crafts is doing a giveaway of a copy of Gwen Diehn's new book - The Complete Decorated journal: A Compendium of Journaling Techniques. This is a new bind- up/re-editioning of Decorated Page and Decorated Journal. In addition to the two original books, there are 13 artist profiles and other new content. Decorated Page and Decorated Journal were my bibles as I started my first sketchbooks.

Go to the link below to get the details, and YOU may be the lucky winner! They're also giving away a little butter box journal that Gwen is making for them. The picture below is from a book published in Spain (Use a Book by Elisa Pellicani: Barcelona: Consulta Libri Progetti, 2011) that the butter box book appeared in a few months ago. Gwen made this particular butter box book from a cookie box, but it's the same design, size, etc.

SO if you'd like to win either of these books, go to the link below and do what they tell you to do!

http://www.larkcrafts.com/uncategorized/gwen-diehns-butter-box-journal-giveaway/#.T5cx4cQpG24.blogger
Gwen Diehn's Butter Box Journal Giveaway « Lark Crafts Lark Crafts

Still Drawing Faces

2012-04-24T00:16:05Z

I started drawing 100 Faces several years ago as part of Carla Sonheim's book Drawing Lab. I forget about them sometimes, but recently started carrying my cards and supplies with me again when I'm going to be out and about. Here are the latest 6 - all done in classes or seminars.

Gay Kraeger posted a video this week on How to Paint a 20 Second Face. Here is the link to her video:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaykraeger/6951556124/

And here is my painting:

Three Wonderful Days in One Week With My Art Buddies

2012-04-21T15:30:21Z

This was an unusual week for Sketchcrawls with my NYC Artist friends.

April 13: Pat, Benedicte, Melly, and I gallery-hopped in Chelsea - each picking out 1-2 galleries to peruse. Gwen Diehn was supposed to join us, but she had a foot problem and rescheduled our day together after the weekend.

We loved an Adolph Gottlieb monograph at Pace Gallery (but not the more recent paintings of bursts) and decided to get together to learn more about his pictographs and to play with and extend his techniques. I loved the huge B & W Nick Brandt African animal photos at Hasted Kraeutler Gallery and stayed behind to sketch several of his elephants. You can see 23 of the photos here.

April 16: We took Gwen on her first walk on the Highline - and after lunch found a beautiful place to sit, talk, and sketch. This is the first time we saw Gwen since the publication of her new book - The Complete Decorated Journal: a Compendium of Journaling Techniques - which is an expanded combination of her Decorated Page and Decorated Journal. Pat, Benedicte, Melly, and I are 4 of the new Artist Profiles added to the book. Here is a photo of me, Pat, Teri, Benedicte, and Gwen.

Pat, Gwen and I sketched the same roofline with a quintessential NYC water tower.

April 18: Judy, Pat, Benedicte and I met for brunch and the tours of the Whitney collection. My friend Gail was the docent for the 3rd Floor tour of the Biennial, but we also dropped into tours by other docents on floors 5 and 2. While waiting for the tour to start, I sketched several Alexander Calder figures from his massive piece called The Circus which is currently on display on the 5th floor. The link only shows a small portion of this piece.

I love having local friends with similar interests - both art on paper and textiles. And as I've said before, I would never have met most of them without connecting through our blogs.

Sketching Daily

2012-04-18T12:15:00Z

There are periodic projects re: daily sketching on the websites/blogs that I follow. As a new Everyday Matters (EDM) online art group member, (Jan 2006) I committed to drawing/painting daily as a method to improve my skills and continue to learn. While it was a wonderful decision, and I now have a big body of work and many wonderful memories captured in sketches in a big row of sketchbooks on my shelf, sometimes it is hard to decide what to draw on otherwise uneventful days.

I sketched so many things in my apartment, that I sometimes wander around trying to get inspired. This week, a blog post of a fellow EDM member, was all about this lack of inspiration as she commits to 365 days of drawing.

My Current Solution for this Lack of Inspiration:

Readers of this blog may remember that I was obsessed with the Museum of Modern Art Print Studio from late January through early March this year, and created small pamphlet bound collage books each time that I was there. You can see those blogposts here and here. On the last afternoon I was there, I sorted through my leftover copies from the Reanimation Library and collected all of the unused figure drawings. I made a book I called "Draw Me" and then used it at home for figure drawing practice.

Then I selected unused artists' drawings of people and glued them on pages in a another "Draw Me" book that I will eventually bind with a pamphlet stitch. I keep this booklet near my drawing space and now I have some wonderful drawings/paintings that I can try to recreate to improve my own art skills. Unfortunately, I have no information about the original artists - most of these were book illustrations without attribution.

Book Cover: Collage

Drawings: Original and my drawing (with type of pencil listed underneath)

Robert Cleveland Parker - Mary Ethel Sheffield

2012-04-15T22:51:02Z

This is the third of 4 blog posts in which I will outline information about one of my 4 grandparents and their ancestral line.

I started doing family research (genealogy) in 2000, using old fashioned methods. I went back generation by generation using records on microfilm at the National Archives branch in NYC, the New York Public Library, and the NY Muncipal Archives - and obtained birth, marriage, death, census, passenger list, and naturalization documents for each ancestor. After several years and many generations, I reached brick walls in each line, due to lack of existing records. In the process I met distant cousins through genealogy message boards, and became friends and co-researchers with many of them.

I recently read that CURRENT genealogic researchers rarely use Genealogy message boards, but instead "google" names of interest, so blogs are now the most important method of making connections. I therefore decided I would post information on each of my 4 ancestral lines here on my blog - which is usually used to share my art and textile passions. This will be an extra post each month.

My father was born in Virginia and lived there and in West Virginia until he was a young man. He then moved North to New Jersey and several years later met and married my mother. I barely knew my "Southern" relatives, but since learned that my Paternal Grandfather's ancestors arrived in America early enough to include Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers and even a child kidnaped in the French-Indian War and returned 7 years later in a prisoner exchange at Fort Pitt.

My grandparents, Robert Cleveland Parker and Mary Ethel Sheffield. met in Washington Co. Virginia and eloped to be married in Bristol TN.

Cleve Parker was born in Ashe Co. NC to Thomas Jefferson Parker and Rachel Alice Graybeal.

Tom's parents were John Parker and Elizabeth Fair and this is as far as I can trace the Parker line. I have US census information for John and Elizabeth from 1850 (Johnson Co. TN) to their deaths in Ashe Co. NC. I researched all of the Wilkes and Ashe Co Parker Families from 1800 to 1840 and I'm looking for proof that John was the son of David Parker from Wilkes Co. NC. I have no other information on Elizabeth Fair.

Rachel's parents were Jacob Graybeal and Rachel Catherine Shoun. The Shoun family lived in Johnson Co. TN, adjacent to Ashe Co NC. Other names in her family: Andrew Shoun, Elizabeth Powell, Leonard Shoun, Barbary Slemp.

Jacob's parents were Peter Graybeal Jr. and Mary Burkett and his grandparents were Peter Graybeal Sr. and Christina Wampler. I did lots of research on Christina Wampler and have copies of original reports of her kidnapping as a child in PA by the Delaware Indians in 1757 and return in 1764 as part of a big prisoner exchange arranged by Lt. Henry Bouquet for General Gage - head of the British Forces in America during the French-Indian War. She and Peter probably married in Maryland and then settled in Ashe Co. NC.

I would be delighted to exchange information with other researchers of any of these families.

Doodling Sketchbook

2012-04-14T13:32:38Z

I doodled alot when I was a student in middle school and high school. And then I stopped almost completely. After that I drew images for my children, or for applique quilt patterns, but rarely did I just fill up pages with random spontaneous doodles. I'm sure that it is a wonderful creative technique and I'm fascinated enough by recent discoveries in neuroscience to realize that filling up parts of my brain with these random images must have some effect on creativity in general.

I'm reading Jonah Lehrer's new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, which is all about the newest neuroscience data on creativity and especially "aha" moments. This makes me wonder what is really happening in my brain as I pay more attention to doodling sessions.

I visit my Mother weekly at her retirement complex and during the cold weather we take long walks inside the complex and sit for an hour talking. I now carry a doodle sketchbook and a dozen watercolor pencils and either sketch what I see, or just fill a page with doodles. I use an old, previously unused spiral journal with toned paper - and never think about wasting paper. I couldn't do this freely on good watercolor paper.

This page was done on a cold winter day - sitting in front of a fireplace.

These next 3 were done by spontaneously doodling. I have no idea why there are birds on almost every page (I just uploaded 3 of many weekly pages in my journal). I am not a bird lover and only draw sea gulls when we are walking on the beach.

Venice Sketches #12 and 13

2012-04-10T18:28:49Z

I'm still sketching Venice scenes from my old photos in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Venice. Painting canal water and showing the texture/decay of building surfaces are scarey to me, so I worked on both of those watercolor painting skills in these two paintings.

I started this project with two 30 inch strips of watercolor paper that I folded into accordion booklets. Since I didn't carry any image over the folds, I'm now planning to cut each strip into two folios and bind these sketches into a small book with 4 folios and 16 pages. This will be the first time that I sketch/paint first and bind into a book later. I may decide that it is the perfect method for travel sketching.

The first 4 sketches and the accordion booklet can be seen here.

Playing with Wet On Wet Watercolor

2012-04-07T01:27:11Z

There is a huge amount that I don't know about painting with watercolor and I periodically try to play with some techniques to improve my skills. This week I scanned the book Wet On Wet Watercolor Painting by Ewa Karpinska and then painted - flooding my 140 lb watercolor paper with water.

Here are the 4 samples - each made by dropping in two colors while the surface was very wet. I loved tilting the paper and watching the pigment flow. As the paper dried, I added a few paint lines and tried to mop up a little color.

New York street planters are filled with Spring flowers this month and I sketched tulips and daffodils while walking to the post office. I painted the flowers and let them dry overnight. The following day I thoroughly wet the backgrounds with water and dropped in a few colors.

I really enjoyed the lack of control painting with very wet paper and will continue to explore how to use more water to achieve effects I want. Next: Time to paint canal water in Venice for practice!

The End of the Old, the Beginning of the New

2012-04-03T19:06:17Z

I finished my last sketchbook with two pages of heads drawn during classes at Columbia University. The first page was done on a paper napkin with a ball point pen while we discussed Chekhov short stories. The second page of sketches are of Professor de Bary, a very elderly Emeritus Professor of Chinese Studies - who is incredibly sharp. I loved the opportunity to draw him while he appeared to be asleep, but he remembered more of the panel discussion comments than I did when he lifted up his head.

I barely finished making my new watercolor sketchbook in time to continue with my daily sketches. The bookcloth was made with soy wax and a potato masher as resist and thickened Procion MX dyes. The sketchbook is a 6 signature book with Fabriano Artistico Soft Press 140 lb paper and Canson Mi Tientes end papers.

The first page is a drawing of my watercolor palettes. I have fun starting some of the sketchbooks with my paint palette even though I add and/or change paints infrequently.