Paper and Threads

Thursday morning I met my art friends Teri and Judy at the National Museum of the American Indian - NYC branch - to see and sketch in two exhibits.  Preston Singletary, a glass artist, uses symbols from his Tlingit Native American heritage and the pieces are magnificent.  I chose to draw these two glass sculptures because of the legends.

The first is the story of the Raven and the Sun.  This is the end of the story: ....as the beautiful ball of light reached him, the Raven captured it in his beak!  Moving his powerful wings, he burst through the smokehole in the roof of the house, and escaped into the darkness with his stolen treasure.  And that is how light came into the universe. 

My second drawing was of an Oystercatcher Rattle - used by the shamans for healing.  The writing on the journal page, taken from a quote in the exhibit says: "In the old days things were made for a purpose, and there was a story and maybe even a dance that went along with it."  This sculpture represents the oystercatcher bird, and on his back we see the shaman, the seducer, and probably a goat.  These figures are very symbolic in this story.

The other exhibit we saw was Small Spirits: Dolls from the National Museum of the American Indian.  I sketched one doll while at the exhibit and the second from a museum photo because I couldn't get the mother and child out of my mind.

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I was in Washington DC this week for a meeting, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and there were pansies and daffodils seen everywhere.  I'm definitely yearning for spring! 

Here is a quick pansy sketch - which I painted with watercolor pencils.

During part of my meeting I doodled to stay focused and here are some of the images that I sketched.  The many positions of the microphones are endlessly fascinating.  I think I posted a whole page of them from this meeting last year.

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Yesterday my friend Teri and I had a full day of Art and Quilts - and here is one painting and one photo of the highlights.

At 9:30 AM I was one of only several dozen people in the new German Expressionism exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and I sketched this beautiful sculpture.  It was the final day of the Members' Preview Days and they opened 1 hour before the museum opened.  It is a fabulous exhibit and I will return several times to see it, learn more, and copy the Masters.

After exploring several other venues at Fashion Institute of Technology and a Gallery and Lunch in Chelsea, we ended the day at a special 6 day exhibit sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum and made possible by Joanna S. Rose who funded the exhibit of 651 of her red and white quilts for 6 days at the Park Avenue Armory as a gift to the city of New York.  It is impossible to describe the impact of the number of quilts and the artistic installation in this enormous 55,000 square foot space. 

Martha Stewart said "

"Two days ago, I went to the most incredible display of quilts that I have ever seen.  My TV crew joined me at the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Avenue (between 66^th and 67^th Street), in New York City to see the American Folk Art Museum’s presentation of “Infinite Variety:  Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts.”  Joanna Rose, a New York quilt collector, has a collection of more than 1,300 quilts but she really wanted to put her entire collection of red and white quilts on public display, all 651 of them and no two alike!  If at all possible, I urge you to see this exhibit, which runs through March 30^th.  It’s simply breath taking!  And please tune into my television show on Monday on Hallmark Channel, to see the segment about the quilts that we shot at the Armory."

This is one of my photos, but you can read about the exhibit and see slide shows here and here and here.

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I'm obsessed by Cezanne's drawing studies for his 5 Card Player paintings.  I went back to the current Card Player exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art early on Saturday morning and sketched two more of the drawings.  I'm slowly working my way around the galleries!

The original drawing is done without color, but I couldn't resist a little watercolor wash.

The watercolor wash in this drawing is based on Cezanne's painting of the original drawing.

I love drawing from the Masters and seek out drawings to copy as part of my self-education.  I hope to get back to the exhibit and spend another hour finishing the drawings before it closes.

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Another evening of figure drawing at the Society of Illustrators.  This was a fun evening because my art buddy Teri met my book group friend Istar for the first time and they had so many things to talk about during dinner and our breaks.

There were two models for each pose (one standing and one sitting) - starting with ten 2 minute poses for warm up, then four 5 min., two ten minute, and finally three 20 minute poses.  Throughout the 3 hours, two musicians played and I sipped a glass of wine.  During the final pose, the models always pose together - by then we should be able to handle two models in 20 minutes.  

I used a 9B graphite pencil for the first drawing and watercolor pencil (Burnt Siena and then Chestnut) for the second and third drawings.  Last night I wasn't in the mood to fuss with faces, so we need to imagine them.  The woman model reminded me of Botticelli's venus and my skills just couldn't capture her beauty. 

My current sketchbook doesn't fit on my scanner, so these are photos.

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