Paper and Threads

Joseph Cornell - detail from one of his 12 Boxes inspired by Juan Gris.  Not my favorite art, but I wanted to remember working in a series.

We wandered around trying to find a gallery that inspired all of us, and Pat suggested a random painting by Georges de la Tours, called the Fortune Teller.  We all picked one of the figures to draw. 

Here we are in front of the painting.  My sketchbook page is above.  On the photo below you can't see the sketches in Paula's or my sketchbook, so Pat just drew them in on her iPAD! 

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We began taking our Grandchildren to the Young People's Concerts 8 years ago.  There are 4 concerts per year, and before the 1 hour concert, they have a 30 minute presentation called the Young Composers Concert.  Three children from this city-wide music program are selected to have members of the Philharmonic play their short compositions.  Here is a quick drawing of the head of the program, John Deake, and the trumpet player.

I debate about adding this type of sketchbook page to the Urban Sketchers Facebook Page, but thought this was a good advertisement for an amazing opportunity for kids in our urban city.

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I walked by this Puppet every time I entered the Met and always meant to draw and paint him for my sketchbook.  When I finished the drawing he looked lonely, so I added the mask and female figure to the same page, and painted all 3 of them at home.

The puppet was used in ceremonial events, and is from the 19-20th C, either the Bamana farmers or Bozo fisherman from Mali.  The other two pieces are also from Mali and were donated by Nelson D. Rockefeller to the Met.

Mali is in sub-Saharan Africa, and I had to search the map to find it. 

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Dance is my one lifelong physical activity, and loving to take ballet class also means loving to watch ballet.  For the last 3 years my husband and I go to working rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals, lecture demos, and occasional dress rehearsals of the New York City Ballet.  Last week we went 3 days - and these are the 2 sketchbook pages that I created from scribbles before the lights went down.  The dancers move so fast that is almost impossible to capture their movements, but I try to remember at least one pose at a time.

2.

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Yesterday I posted information about Master Drawings Week in NYC - with a link to the website and a map of the participating galleries. I went to see the large exhibit of drawings at Sothebys - which are being previewed until 5PM Tuesday - and sketched in pencil a favorite Goya pen and ink drawing.  When Sothebys invited artists to come sketch Saturday and Sunday they stipulated pencil only.  This morning I used my favorite Brause steno nib and India ink, followed by diluted ink applied with a brush to finish "my Goya basket lady."

In yesterday's blog post, where I posted the original Goya drawing, I also mentioned that the estimated auction price is 1-1.5 million dollars!   

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