Paper and Threads

Last month I spent several hours with a friend, looking at the Exhibit in the Drawing Gallery, and surveying one gallery of small terracotta sculptures from 600 BC Cypress. 

Rembrandt Van Rijn:  There was one wall of Rembrant drawings and etchings in the 2nd floor Gallery of Drawings.  These were two among many figures in an etching entitled The Hundred Guilder Print.

Cypress Sculptures:  We walked through this section and loved the many cases of small terracotta sculptures from ancient Cypress.  These were several that I really liked.  Visiting the Met and sketching from the many permanent exhibits is my very favorite way to practice drawing.  The paint was added later, although the guards never seem to comment if I use watercolor pencils and a waterbrush.

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I sketched and photographed these flowers at Wagner Park more than a week ago.   They weren't painted until we were at the beach again last week. 

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Yesterday was a gorgeous day near New York Harbor.  We had a cool breeze while sketching the model and the rest of Manhattan was really hot.    

We did 10 one minute sketches to warm up, and I actually liked one of them more than usual. 

The warm up sketches were done on newsprint with an 8B graphite pencil.  The rest were done with a General brand Sketch and Wash pencil (soluble graphite) and then finished with a Niji water brush. 

These are the 5 and 10 minute sketches.

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These are the 20 min poses:

The flowers in Wagner Park were amazing this week - probably because of the amount of rain we've had.  I'll post them after I finish the painting. 

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In addition to drawing a few of the flowers blooming in Wagner Park (Battery Park City) before Figure Al Fresco, a friend and I went for a ride on the Sea Glass Carousel which is close to the Staten Island Ferry.  It is magical, even for adults. 

Flowers in Bloom in Wagner Park:

Seaglass Carousel:  Where you ride inside gorgeous large fiberglass fish.    The fish swim in multiple directions in addition to up and down.  Search online for one of the videos to see this remarkable addition to Battery Park.

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My grand daughter Annabelle was here for a one week vacation, and in addition to other activities we saw the Maurice Sendak exhibit at The Morgan Library and Museum and the T.Rex exhibit at AMNH.  We sketched some of my favorite paintings by Sendak and the large T.Rex model at Natural History.  These are mine.

The T.Rex exhibit is a special exhibition at AMNH. It was very interesting and informative - and was one of the activities Annabelle had at the top of her list.   But if you are not a member, it is expensive paying both admission and the exhibit fee - even with a senior and child <12.  We were only going to see T.Rex, not spend the day in the museum.

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