Paper and Threads

Christies had their Spring Impressionist/Modern and Post-War/Contemporary Auction previews in the last 2 weeks, and I love to go to see the art that is usually coming out of one collection and going into another.  There are always wonderful pieces in their Art on Paper Drawing Gallery and I sketched two figures from a Juan Gris painting, and yet another Matisse face line drawing.

Matisse and Picasso sketched so many wonderful faces in the simplest lines.

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I love Spring flowers growing along the sidewalks of NYC - most are in planters around the trees, in big urns, or on the medians of wide avenues.  The day I walked to Aquavella Gallery to see the Joaquin Torres-Garcia exhibit I saw my first daffodils in front of our building and beautiful red tulips in the next block.  Like the next two sketchbook pages, I drew the flowers with my non-dominant hand, and painted them this weekend with my dominant hand.  It felt good to have color back in my sketchbook. 

Wagner Park May 2nd:  I arrive for the weekly Figure Al Fresco session while the Wednesday Battery Park City morning program is still in progress, and walk through the Park to find the most recent blooming flowers.  Most of the artists are painting the beautiful landscapes, but I prefer drawing and painting individual flowers. 

Wagner Park May 9:

Although my cast is off, and I'm getting PT twice each week, I still have some limited movement and pain.  Since this is my first fracture, every day I learn something new about how the body heals. 

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On Wednesday I met my artist  friends at Galerie St. Etienne to see their current exhibit - Drawing the Line: Realism and Abstraction in Expressionist Art (through July 6th).  There are 69 drawings, etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts from Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, Richard Gerstl, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Auguste Macke, Franz Marc, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde, Hermann Max Pechstein, Egon Schiele, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

As usual, we found many masters that we wanted to copy.  I sketched "Sleeping Woman" by Pechstein with my non-dominant hand.  I also sketched "The Shepherdess," but need to finish it at home because we ran out of time.  

Before my fracture I was practicing "line of action" drawings as presented by Suhita Shirodkar in a Craftsy Class.  Yesterday I used photos from a clothing catalogue to practice the technique with my non-dominant hand.  I made a quick line of action, concentrating on a line from head down to weight-bearing leg and foot, and then completed the drawing in ink.  My pencil lines are still visible.  I see my hand surgeon this morning, and hopefully will learn how many more weeks I will have my cast.

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April 13th:  I met my friends at Neue Gallery last Friday to see their new exhibit called Before the Fall: German and Austrian Art of the 1930s.  I love their exhibits and brought my Hand Sketchbook so I had the option of making a sketch.  I loved this image of a man and his dog from the painting by Rudolf Dischinger from his painting "Railroad Underpass." 

April 14th:  More Drawings from The Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group

I had a few minutes to draw as our group was gathering and did a fast sketch of the Horse Carriage driver who was standing in front of me.  

My final sketch in Central Park was done in the plaza around the Chess and Checkers House.  I sketched this with a pen with non-waterproof ink and used a waterbrush to spread the ink. 

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Spring is finally arriving in NYC, and I decided to sketch with the Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup group Saturday.  We met at the 59th St and 6th Ave entrance to the Park and walked up the first hill, where there were a few early blooming flowers.  I used my regular daily watercolor sketchbook so I could paint for the first time since my fracture, and used a 05 Pigma Micron Pen for the drawing.  I've missed painting and was thrilled that I could complete this page with my non-dominant hand - while sitting. 

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