Paper and Threads

Pat, Benedicte and I went to Chelsea on Wednesday to see more art exhibits, including two Picasso exhibits.  Pace Gallery had more of Picasso and Jacqueline art, in addition to other pieces.  I sketched there and added paint at home.  The two Pace Picasso exhibits were extraordinary!  So glad I was able to see both of them.

Picasso used Delacroix's Women of Algiers painting for inspiration and created several paintings based on the Delacroix.  This was a small painting, but wonderfully complex and colorful.

I loved the position of the naked woman on the floor, but mangled her legs while sketching her.     

We also went to the Gagosian exhibit:  Picasso and the Camera.  They are a very different type of gallery.  They took our bags away from us as soon as we arrived.  And when I made a mark on the press release copy they were distributing, a guard pounced on me within 5 seconds and told me "no sketching allowed."  We later questioned the staff and learned that IPads were allowed for drawing.  There was one simple nude painting we liked and Pat made a quick sketch on her iPad and then found the image online.  This is her!

Posted by Shirley at 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is Picasso month for me - one of my favorite artists because of his line - and obviously his amazing creativity and range.  I spent all day Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my friends Benedicte, Pat, and Teri, seeing 4 new exhibits, and we started with the Lauder Cubism exhibit.  It was amazing!  And the cards beside each piece were extremely educational.  I loved this piece and sketched it in the exhibit - adding paint at home.

Yesterday Pat, Benedicte. and I met at Pace Gallery on E. 57th St for the Picasso and Jacqueline exhibit - before we went gallery-hopping and eventually spent the afternoon at the Toulouse-Lautrec-inspired Figure Drawing session.  I chose 2 Picasso linocuts of Jacqueline to draw, because of the lines.

Today we are going to Chelsea to continue our Gallery visits, beginning with the 2 new Picasso exhibits there.  New York City has so many art exhibits and activities this month - into January - that it would be possible to schedule wonderful activities everyday.  But I have too much sewing to do for our family Christmas ornaments, presents etc,  that choices must be made! 

Posted by Shirley at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

 Another Workshop Associated with the Beyond the Cut-Outs MoMA Matisse Studio:

"Artist Sarah Crowner references Matisse's work on set design by creating a large-scale, boldly colored curtain. In a daylong, interactive workshop, participants are invited to consider their surroundings and make cut-outs that reflect the geometry of New York City’s rich urban setting. The curtain is brought to life as a dynamic backdrop that integrates the individual cut-outs into a single decorative composition, unveiled at the end of the workshop as participants parade their collective design through the space. " 

My friends Pat and Ken were with me last week at this Open Studio Event - and within the space of 4 hours, a group of us decorated a 45 foot wide and 12 foot long multicolored curtain.  The  goal was to create collages that were inspired by Matisse to create a Cityscape, and we had many B and W photos of New York City and many Matisse art books to use as inspiration.

It was great fun to translate photos into shapes that were simplified silhouettes.  We had black Heat and Bond fusible fabric, and as we created each series of collages, the MoMA education team ironed them in place.  Here are 5 that I made from photos and one from several Matisse collage shapes.   

After 4 hours, the MoMA team lifted the curtain and carried it to the balcony overlooking the Open Studio, and here is the end product.

It was a wonderful project - and the team who guided us and did lots of ironing looks appropriately excited.  The curtain is currently folded up and will be brought out again sometime in the future. 

Posted by Shirley at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My blog post today recounts two museum experiences this week.  The Neue Galerie is exhibiting Egon Schiele drawings and paintings, and I love to draw his figures, even the tortured looking ones.  This figure was drawn over a prepainted page.  When I'm away from home, I use up the extra liquid watercolor paint so I can close the palette by brushing it on sketchbook pages, starting on the last page of my watercolor sketchbook.

At the very beginning of the exhibit I was really attracted to the very clean lines of this portrait of Karl Otten, and went back to try to capture it for myself.   Someday soon I may return to the exhibit just to draw several pages of Schiele hands!

MoMA has a Toulouse-Lautrec Print exhibit that doesn't end until March.  This month they announced twice monthly figure drawing sessions associated with the exhibit and the first model and the props really captured the Café Society that Toulouse-Lautrec loved.  While I was waiting for the session to begin, I made a quick sketch from the artist book on my table on another prepainted page.

I'm posting the first few and last few figure drawings that I did.  The one on the right was a one minute warm-up and the only one I sketched with her form-fitting, one-shoulder black knit dress with very long fringe and black bootie.

In the one on the left you can see her long black gloves and the tulle fascinator she wore on her head.

There were café props - cocktails, champagne, hats, cane, boa to name a few.  These were the last few drawings I did - each not more than 5 minutes.  The Art Educator really structured the experience - and the 90 minutes moved along very quickly.  The museum will continue these sessions twice monthly through March.

3.  

4.  

Posted by Shirley at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I love figure drawing, and I wanted to draw some figures, channeling Matisse.  There is a Beyond the Cut-Outs Studio at the Museum of Modern Art every afternoon except Tuesday, so I am trying to build my stash of figures that I can turn into cutouts for collage when I attend.  Here are three sketchbook pages.

I need to "deliberately practice" drawing hands and feet - and I keep a sketchbook just for that purpose.  The poses at the figure drawing sessions are never long enough for me to concentrate on hands, so I clip photos from magazines and use those.  I'm HOPING that someday this work will pay off.

Posted by Shirley at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)