Paper and Threads

I Love Francis Picabia's drawings and paintings, but not of machines!  The current exhibit at MoMA is huge and it covers every aspect of Picabia's art - through the twists and turns.  There are several tours of the exhibit, lead by a museum curator, an artist curator, and an artist on the MoMA website.  And if you want to learn something about Picabia, these are worth watching.  I went back to the exhibit with my friends and sketched and painted one of the earliest paintings in the exhibit, and then a portion of one of his Monster Series.

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On Wednesdays I have Figure Drawing at Battery Park City in the afternoon and a Watercolor Comps Illustration class at FIT in the evening.  I really enjoy both of these classes, and look forward to dinner at Brookfield Place between the events.  Here are two figure drawings from last week - each were 20 minute poses.  I used a soluble graphite pencil for both but only had time to add water with a waterbrush to the first one.  I spent way too much time trying to draw his feet in the second pose.

Our Illustration Instructor gave us two photos to work with as he makes sure that the entire class gets some instruction with watercolors.  On the left is Sargent's preliminary watercolor painting of Madame X that we had to draw as homework and paint in class.  On the right are fruits to be painted in class after Madame X.

We had to paint Madame X with only Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine Blue with a little Viridian Green for the couch.

And were expected to paint the fruit with combinations of colors, including the complementary colors for shading and shadows.  

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The NYC UrbanSketchers Weekday group gathered at the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (20 W44th St) to draw plaster casts that were stored by the Met Museum many years ago , and donated to the ICAA in 2004 who refurbished them and make them available to the public.  They are beautifully displayed in a brightly lit room on the 6th Floor, and we had tables and chairs for the 4 hours we were there.

This is the head of an Equestrian Statue by Donatella, the original is in front of a church in Padua, Italy. 

Tuesday was Valentines Day and sketching this putto (plural Putti) is a celebration of this Holiday.

The cast drawings were made with a Caran d'Ache Mahogany Watercolor Pencil, but no water was added.  The backgrounds were done with a watercolor brush and paint removed from the tip of the watercolor pencils with a water brush, and then used. 

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Yesterday was my first sketching session with Urban Sketchers - NYC in a long time and we met and sketched at the American Museum of Natural History here in NYC.  In honor of Groundhog day most of us sketched the groundhog - and then moved on.  There were approximately 20 of us at lunch and sharing our sketchbooks.  Fun Day!

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I still love drawing elephants and unfortunately the African elephants are not well lit.  I did take a minute to draw a detailed eye, because they are so hard to see unless you are close to them.  Any artist can participate in the weekday or weekend sketch events and should visit the USK-NYC blog for the schedule

nyc.urbansketchers.org/

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This is the book created for each annual Master Drawing week.  It can be requested from the website and arrives in the mail at least a month before the event.  Each gallery has an entry and there is a list of participating Galleries as well as a map on the back cover.  

The variety of elevators in the Upper Eastside Townhouses is part of the fun of this annual gallery-hop.  Benedicte, Pat and I took this photo in an elevator lined with mirrors.

And here are a few of my favorite drawings. 

Fritz Haas (1864-1930):  On The Grand Canal.  We are returning to Venice in May, so this may be my favorite drawing of the entire day.

Theodore Gericault (1791-1824):  Study of Arabs 

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863):  Chevalier au Cheval.  I love Delacroix drawings, especially from Morocco, but this may be the most expensive drawing of the day per square inch?  $4200 for a 2 X 2" drawing.    

As we passed Gagosian Gallery, we stopped in for a quick look at the exhibit "Picasso's Picassos", that was extended to 2/17.  These are paintings from his daughter Maya's Collection.  We each sketched one - this is Maya's mother Marie-Therese Walters.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918):  Portrait of a Woman in Blue 

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805):  Study of Feet    

I don't have the artist for this sudy of hands, but it fits in with my deliberate practice "drawing hands" and I just wanted a copy!    

Il Guercino  (1591-1666):  Cosmographer with an Astrolab and Compass in a Landscape ($20,000).  He is one of my favorite artists since I saw an exhibit of his drawings in London in 2006.  I copy his drawings whenever I see one in an exhibit here in NYC., but there wasn't time on this visit.  

Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) :  Untitled.  I love his figure drawings, and not his abstract paintings. 

Our last stop was at the Academy Mansion (2 E63rd St).  There were 4 galleries renting space in the Mansion for Master Drawing week, and it is an amazing building that was built as a private residence in 1921, donated to the National Academy of Science for 20 years, and now owned by a real estate conglomerate - and rented out for film shoots and other events. 

This annual gallery hop never is disappointing.  It is so hard to imagine seeing the inside of so many townhouses on the Upper Eastside and such wonderful varied collections of drawings.  I just chose to include a few of my favorites in this blog post.  Below:  A David Hockney drawing (Peter Running 1968) used on a gallery banner.

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