Paper and Threads

 Although I don't enjoy painting landscapes, I love drawing and painting individual flowers.  The lilies were painted at Wagner Park, in Battery Park City last week.  I loved the colors!

This is a selection of flowers growing in Central Park, near the Toy Boat Pond Café (Officially called the Conservatory Water).  My husband and I have coffee at the café early on weekend mornings, and I take a few minutes to draw and paint the flowers when we're there.  I recognize variants of cone flowers, but don't know the names of others.

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Yesterday our NYC Urban Sketchers Weekday Group took the Tram over to Roosevelt Island.  We met at the Tram station on 59th Street, and for me it was my first time on the tram.   It is a short ride, but I never get tired of seeing the density of buildings and the Manhattan skyline from all positions and angles.  Here are a few photos taken.  The FDR Memorial Park is the triangular area at the bottom of the Rossevelt Island photo.

Entering the Tram: 

On the tram approaching the East River and Island. 

Our goal was to walk to the south end of the island to visit the FDR Four Freedoms Park, but I was immediately mesmerized by the skyline and chose a point of view from the UN to the Chrysler Building for my sketch. 

Two years ago I sketched the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Promenade using an art technique I love.  I randomly collect tourist maps of NYC - great tourist/map booths are in Grand Central Station and near Pier A in Battery Park. I collaged a portion of the map to watercolor paper, brushed Golden Absorbent Ground (white) over the map and allowed the map to lightly peek through.  When it was dry, I packed it up for our trip to Brooklyn painting the skyline from the Ferry Terminal to the WTC1 Freedom Tower.

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2014/06/lower_manhattan_from_the_brook.php

And here is my painting from Roosevelt Island - from left to Right - The UN, the Empire State Spire, and the Chrysler Building. 

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Wednesday and Thursday were terrific art days this week.  I went to Battery Park City Wagner Park for part of the morning session on Wednesday, and painted yet another view of Pier A.  I love the building and really enjoy the challenge because of the multiple perspectives.

In the afternoon I joined friends for figure drawing in South Cove - another one of the Park's art activities.  I haven't photographed the sketches yet. 

Yesterday I joined a small group from the Weekday Urban Sketchers group - first at Riverside Drive and 93rd Street, and then further south at Riverside Drive and 89th Street.  There was shade and a wall or benches at both locations, and a breeze off the Hudson River.  We had a delightful time drawing and talking at both locations.

Joan of Arc:  Riverside Drive at 93rd.  This is one of only 5 statues commemorating women in all of NYC. 

Soldier and Sailors Memorial:  Riverside and 89th St.  My daughter owned an apartment overlooking the Memorial, and now my son owns it.  I've had experience drawing the top of the Memorial from their window while my grandchildren were taking naps.  My first drawing was in January 2006, almost when I started drawing and painting regularly.  And it was the same month I started my blog.  

In 2010, when my son's boy Zach was taking his nap, I sketched the top again.  I remember being disappointed that 4 years of daily drawings hadn't changed my style very much. 

Yesterday I sketched and painted the full Memorial from a bench on the plaza.  It was much harder than just painting the top layer!  Many times I've been with one or more of my 6 NYC grandchildren while they rode their bikes and scooters around the large plaza, so this was a real memory drawing for me! 

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Tuesday was the final weekly Monotype Workshop at MoMA - all associated with their wonderful Degas Exhibit.  This was my 3rd visit to the workshop, and I wanted to draw more dancers. I scanned a drawing I did of my ballet teacher, resized it, and printed out several copies to take with me.  When I arrived at the workshop I cut out the image and manipulated it several times to make 3 prints and 2 ghosts.  Here is my original drawing - resized - and the cut-out which became coated with the Akua printmaking ink. 

I inked the printing plate and used my cut-out to trace the image in the ink.  Then I used Q-tips to remove more ink and complete the drawing.  This is the first monotype off the printing press.  

There was still enough ink on the plate to make a good ghost print, and I hope that I can rework the ghost  with ink marks, pastels, paint, or color pencils the way Degas did with his ghost prints. 

Three Dancers:  I pressed the dancer cut-out on the inked plate 3 times and used the vague imprints to add additional marks in the ink.  I also got a great ghost print after this monotype was printed.

For my final monotype I put my cut-out, which was now full of ink, on my plate and used a huge brush and additional ink to brush ink on the plate - with brushstrokes beginning on the cut-out and going to the edges of the plate.  I then carefully removed the cut-out and put the plate through the printing press.

The Museum of Modern Art is a wonderful resource for artists and this collection of workshops were very well attended.  Thank you MoMA. 

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We returned from the beach with our friends and sketched in Central Park and then in Lower Manhattan at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  This sketch of Belvedere Castle was made from the lawn at the Turtle Pond.  We had sun alternating with gray rain clouds, but there were only sprinkles during the time we were there. The National Weather Service uses it to measure wind and rainfall in Manhattan.

We ended a walk through Battery Park City and Battery Park at the Old Custom House and it was my second visit to the exhibit called Unbound:  Narrative Art in the Plains  I was attracted to another piece of art by Lauren Good Day Giago, the only woman painter commissioned for this exhibit among nearly a dozen men.  These were two of the images created as a memory to here Grandfather. 

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