We are at the beach again for our annual visit with friends. Each morning we take a 2 mile walk on the beach, collecting shells etc as we go. Depending on our schedule, we may stay on the beach for coffee and by then there are other people arriving. These are the sketchbook pages that I completed since our arrival. They were photographed, not scanned, and I can't "whiten" the background of the background of the pages.
This year I am exploring a new book structure each month. So far I've made coptic, long stitch, flag, and accordion books. My May bookbinding structure was s portfolio. I had some loose drawings/paintings that I wanted to put in a portfolio for safe keeping, so I chose to make it 8 X 10.5 " to fit these papers. I used the basic instructions from Alisa Golden's book Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings Structures Forms.
The cover and end papers were made from paste papers originally made in a workshop at Center for Book Arts here in New York City. The spine was made from Tex Libris book cloth.
I still practice drawing hands and feet and here are some of the recent pages I did. Some are from photos and others from observing my feet!
One of my favorite Spring and Fall Art Events is the Impressionist and Modern Art Auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's in New York City. As was written in the New York Times last Friday, "Before the Gavel Falls, It's All Free to Look At." The paintings, drawings and sculptures that are being offered for sale at these auctions. are usually going from one private owner to another - meaning that most are infrequently seen by the public.
My husband and I loved the preview at Christies, and they have wonderful audio descriptions of 8 major works on their website at this link.
http://www.christies.com/sales/impressionist-modern-new-york-may-2013/evening-sale.aspx
I love ballet, ballet classes, and Degas for his many paintings, drawings, and sculptures of ballet dancers. This one is beautiful - much more sophisticated in its rendering than many in the collection of bronzes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I stood quietly, off-to-the-side, and sketched her, enjoying my brief minutes with her beauty. The sculpture is 16" high and 21 5/8 inches long. The estimated sale price is $600,000-800,000. I will be able to look at the final sale price after the auction, but no information about her new home will be available.
I made it to figure drawing again in April - and really enjoyed the jazz, the glass of wine and one of the models. The other one not so much.
Here are a few of my drawings from the evening. The male model is really tall and skinny and he extends his arms, legs, and fingers (which must be 12 inches long) in every short pose. These are therefore incredibly challenging and I find I have to focus on a smaller part of him to get anything drawn during these 2 minute warm-ups.
Here is an Uninspired 5 minute Pose by the Woman Model
And a 10 minute Pose by Him:
And Finally a 20 minute Pose by Him. I couldn't capture the way he had his legs crossed over each other, he was bearing weight equally between his legs and had both knees slightly bent. Yikes! So I moved on and did a slightly different half-body view of him for the remaining minutes.
