May 15th:  Last week I bought a book entitled Seurat to Matisse: Drawing in France at the Strand book store in Manhattan.  It was an exhibit book published by MoMA in 1974 and part of a big batch of unsold books that now were for sale and just being shelved.  It was $3.95 in 1974 and $0.48 for me! I love sketching from Master drawings and just did my first one from this book.  Matisse did a very simple line drawing - I added watercolor washes.

Here is another recent drawing that I did from Egon Schiele's painting of his sister Gertie.  The styles are so very different and yet I had fun doing both of them.

May 16th:  Another ballet class and another in my series of dancers.  After class I pick up post-card advertisements for upcoming performances from the ballet studio for my inspiration and quickly sketch the dancers while I have a Diet Snapple Tea and kill some time before I need to pick up my grandson at nursery school.

 There is a new Superheroes Exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art - part original movie costumes and part fashion from the major designers inspired by the Superheroes.  My grand daughter Sydney and I saw it Saturday morning when we went to play with the Museum computers in the Education Center and she loved Clark Kent who morphed into Superman - and then back to Clark Kent, so we had to go back with brother Henry the next morning.  They were so cute - such little people in that big Museum.  All of my grandchildren learned how to walk better in the Temple of Dendur and regularly throw pennies into the pools there and the fountain in the new Greek and Roman Galleries.  This is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to spend time with them when they are staying with us during really cold or awful weather in the city. 

I moved from my second childhood home to a college dormitory.  This is the 3rd in my "My Homes" series.  I lived in this specific dormitory for two years, an adjacent identical dorm in the same quad for one year, and then up on the hill in a modern dorm for my 4th year.  We had to live in the dorms or at home and had very stringent curfews.   No boys were allowed beyond the living room.  When my children went to college both sexes shared bathrooms and had rooms on the same floor - quite a change.

I drew the bottom of the dormitory facade before I realized that I didn't leave any room for hedges - or the tree  - and my transparent watercolors couldn't possibly fix my error.  Only the first floor had an interesting floor plan and I lived on the second and then third floors, so I stopped here. 

This is my year to practice drawing faces - and I alternate between photos and works by other artists.  Yesterday was complicated - with Grandparents' Day at nursery school for 3 of my grandchildren and then work.  Because of an evening program at work I didn't get home until 9PM and while watching the last episode of Medium for the year, I turned to Leonardo for inspiration.  This drawing is in the Uffizi (and on my postcard!).  The face is too long, but before I started sketching daily in Jan. 2006, I probably wouldn't have even tried this sketch.  I am putting all figure and face sketches in my second recycled book which is dedicated to this 2008 goal.  The first book for figures and faces was a recycled Michaelangelo sonnet book in which I incorporated some of the original pages of his drawings.  This is a book entitled Painting Made Easy.  The original pages left among the watercolor paper folios don't provide the same inspiration!

EDM Challenge #169 Draw a Piece of Cake: This loose interpretation of the challenge was done the last day of April and never posted because of the Every Day in May Challenge which started the next day.  So I uploaded it now with EDM Challenge #170.

EDM Challenge #170  Draw a Zipper:  This is a still unused Swarovski crystal zipper.  Each zipper tooth has a rhinestone set into it creating a single line of rhinestones when the zipper is closed.  I wish I could have captured the sparkle in paint, but that is totally beyond my skills!

We had a weekend filled with grandchildren - all 4 who live in NYC on Friday and my daughter's 3 children for the whole weekend.  When the two oldest are here overnight (ages 4 and 3), we try to have at least one movie night to allow them to stay up late and see a favorite classic movie from our children's childhood.  This Saturday night it was Pete's Dragon - released in 1977.  Elliott, a flying dragon, helps children in trouble.   In the movie he protects the orphaned Pete and helps him find a new family - tranforming the town of Passamaquoddie in the process.

Yesterday was so busy that I made two really quick drawings on small pieces of watercolor paper I keep for "emergencies" in my purse notebook, painted them at home this AM, and collaged them into my sketchbook.  The fish was one of a line of small, wall-mounted, fountains in a restaurant and the chandelier was one of several in the lobby of the theater.  Since I sketch every day but usually only post several sketches per week, you're now seeing all of my journal pages - the good, the bad, and the ugly - in order to participate in Every Day in May.

I had time after my ballet class this morning to sketch/paint before I picked up Sydney and Robbie at their nursery school.  The ballet studio has many advertisements for dance programs and classes and I usually manage to find one photo that inspires me.  While I type this, Robbie (2 1/2) is taking his nap and Sydney (3 1/2) is watching our videotape of the Mary Martin Peter Pan Broadway show for the umpteenth time.  But when I pulled out my sketchbook to scan the pages, she asked if she could watch Peter Pan AND paint at the same time!  She will be here with us for the next two nights, so I think we'll do lots of painting and coloring. 

I had a wonderful relaxing day and can add my daily sketchbook page today when it was done rather than waiting to upload it tomorrow.  Today my sketchbook is more a visual journal because I had a leisurely lunch outdoors across from the Jefferson Market Courthouse between ordering a camera at B and H and browsing and buying art books at The Strand.

I had a long day at work, followed by Book Group at my apartment, so this sketch was done in 5-10 minutes while I made morning coffee in my office.  Commiting to a daily sketch since January 1, 2007, I frequently have to do something really quickly in the morning.  Most weekdays I sketch during my quiet time at home in evening.  The brass pig has been with us for more than 20 years - maybe closer to 30, and I can't believe that I've not sketched him yet!

I did another 2 page journal spread in my House series for my sketches yesterday and today.  My father built this house with the help of my mother's brothers and some friends - in a rural community approximately 20 miles from New York City.  We moved in one week after I finished 3rd grade and I lived there until I graduated from high school - plus 4 college summers.  As I was writing this I realized that I have lived in my NYC apartment longer than I lived in my childhood home - a surprising realization. 

I left out the trees on the front lawn because it wasn't possible to see the house.  Maybe next winter I'll resketch this house from a winter photo and add the bare trees.  Snow and trees are still challenges for me!

Next I plan to sketch the college dorm where I lived for 2 of my 4 years.

Martha, of Trumpetvine Travels, spent the day with my husband and me in New York.  Christies and Sothebys, the big auction houses, are previewing the art for the Impressionism and Modern art auctions next week and there is fabulous art to be seen at both places.  Martha and I wandered all of the galleries sketching small pieces of paintings and sculptures - just creating journal pages to reflect our experience.  Over lunch we shared our most recent sketchbooks and then returned to my apartment for wine and a little watercolor painting.

The only picture of us, as we set off on the subway, is blurred because I had the flash off in preparation for the galleries - but it is better than nothing:

I'm constantly amazed how people from all over the US - and the world - are meeting to sketch because of the EDM community.  These are the four journal pages that I filled while walking through all of the galleries - the first two at Christies and the second two at Sotheby's.  Martha said that she would post her sketches when she returns to California.

This large tin rooster is one of many sold at the Eastern Market  Weekend Flea Market in Washington DC.  The vendor says that they sell as soon as he gets another one from the artist in Mexico.  I saw it early in the morning when walking through several weeks ago, but it was sold by the time I went back to sketch it.  The following week my son emailed me a photo of the rooster proudly guarding a home on the lawn on 12th Street.  They have so much character - rusted tin and all!

When linking to my previous "Museum Visits" posting  I realized that I never uploaded my painted version of the  Card Players.  I will plan a return visit to the Met to sketch it again in January 2009 (paints not allowed).

I debated whether to participate in this challenge again this year.  I sketch everyday, but last year in May uploaded each sketch instead of just posting a sketchbook page several times each week.  It definitely was more time consuming and I had to force myself to remain free in my choice of subject each day instead of worrying about "a published piece."  I finally decided that it might be good for me to again post each day's journal page - they certainly are reflective of a very eclectic art interest and maybe I can break through the "performance anxiety" a little more.

Yesterday I painted a sketch of a townhouse that I love.  You can see it from one of the upper floor exhibit galleries on the north side of MoMA - and it is breathtakingly beautiful nestled among two rather plain and uninteresting buildings.  I sketched it from the MoMA gallery window earlier this year in my daily Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and posted it with sketches from several museum visits.  But I wanted to have a sketch in my NYC "travel" sketchbook as well.  The first sketch was done "live" and very quickly.  The second was done from several photos that I have.

The first page was done while I wandered through many bead stores in the Garment District with a friend.  I loved some of the designs.

We picked Robbie and Sydney up at Nursey School on Friday and took them to the Central Park Toy Boat Pond to play.  There were many remote control sailboats on the pond so I sketched one as it passed by.  Sydney found a one inch rubber charm of a summer "flip-flop" and she played with it for part of the afternoon.