Paper and Threads

I love to draw, and I frequently copy the Masters in order to improve my ability to "see."  My FIT Professor sent an email attachment of Raphael's painting of Magdalena for us to draw in on graphite, charcoal or Conte as homework.  I was at the Met Delacroix painting exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art again yesterday and sketched another watercolor from his Morocco series.  Here are both of my drawings.  I will add a little watercolor to the Delacroix drawing, but in the museum can only work in pencil.

Raphael: Portrait of Magdalena Strozzi Doni (oil on panel circa 1506)  Drawn by me with Wolff's Carbon Pencil.

Delacroix:  Portrait of Schmareck, Tanner at Tangier (Watercolor with red and black chalk on paper 1832).  Drawn by me with graphite. 

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Saturday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the Urban Sketchers:  It was the perfect day to sketch indoors in New York City and we started the morning in the American Wing, even though it was partially closed in preparation of a later event.  I sketched two of the sculptures. 

I also went to see the exhibit "Art of the Native Americans" and sketched a few masks that were made in Alaska between 1870 and 1900.

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Homework:  Our Professor emailed us a copy of the Titian Painting "Danae" and asked us to draw and shade the figure using the painted image as reference.  We had to preserve the proportions of the painting, but could choose to leave out the background.  I'm beginning to be more comfortable using General's Extra Soft Charcoal Pencils. 

This past week we had two male models, clothed.  Class began with a demo of the approach to portrait drawing, and then we had a choice of drawing some or all of each figure.  The model with the hat broke his pose about every two minutes, with slight shifts in position.  It is rare to see such bad models at FIT. 

This is part of a 20 minute pose and class ended before we finished.   

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Last week a very good friend from San Antonio came for her annual weeklong vacation with me, and as in the past we divided our time among the Garment District, Talas Bookingbinding in Brooklyn, Museum and Gallery exhibits, and making things.  The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan has an exhibit about color - various historical methods of classifying color and some wonderful examples of the use of color in the world around us. 

Some objects I liked from the Cooper Hewitt exhibit SATURATED, and a link to the website.  The visit is worth it just to see the Carnegie Mansion on 5th Avenue, home to the Cooper Hewitt.

https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/saturated/ 

Delacroix at the Met:  There are two big Delacroix exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  One contains a large number of his paintings, with a few drawings.  The other is a 3 gallery exhibit of his drawings, some with watercolor.  Both are really worth seeing - the painting exhibit is here from the Louvre in Paris.

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/delacroix 

https://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/devotion-to-drawing-eugene-delacroix 

Will Barnet Exhibit Love Letters at the Alexandre Gallery:  I fell in love with Will Barnet's paintings when the National Academy of Art had a big Barnet exhibit on his 100th birthday.  His lines and his forms are so clean, and in the earlier exhibit it said that he traced his images and simplified them in several steps.  The current Gallery exhibit is small, but lovely.  The drawings and paintings are all "love letters" to his second wife. 

http://www.alexandregallery.com/current-exhibition-/ 

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Pat, Benedicte, and I met our friend Gwen at the Morgan Library and Museum to see the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit.  It was my second visit, and it was equally enjoyable both times.  I wanted to paint his watercolor Candy Apples, and used his watercolor painting as a guide.   

Candy Apples - my version of Wayne Thiebaud's watercolor candy apples.

Thiebaud is an excellent draftsman and this graphite self-portrait was lovely.

Last week was Asia Week for Galleries in NYC, and Christies featured an auction of Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art.  Over the last several years my friends and I found artists in these exhibits whose work we really like.  My favorite is B. Prahba  (1933-2001).  She paints many elongated, rural Indian women, and I like everyone of them, the same way I like almost all of Modigilani's women. 

Here is a brief biography of her: https://www.saffronart.com/artists/b-prabha

This is my painting from the exhibit, in the style of B.Prabha, but painted in watercolor instead of oil.   I also posted the other original painting of hers in the auction.  

B Prahba:  Vorsova Girls 1960

B. Prabha Untitled (Fisherwomen) 1969 

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