Paper and Threads

I love figure drawing sessions at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.  It is a drop in program - 3 hours of drawing/painting two models who pose simultaneously.  There is also live music and a bar to buy a glass of wine.  From May through October I usually go to figure drawing weekly in Battery Park City - an outdoor venue that is hard to resist.  But I used to go to Society of Illustrators faithfully once a month and this year my last visit was in June!  On Tuesday night I went with my friend Casey who was visiting from France.  I met Casey in 2007 through the Everyday Matters Yahoo Group and see her most often during NYC visits.  The last time I saw her was a year ago in Paris. 

One of the models was new to me and I found her short poses to be challenging and fun.  Here are two of her two minute poses.  

I sketched two 5 minute poses on the same large sheet of watercolor paper and then squeezed in another drawing.  I love the challenge of trying to figure out the spacing and relationship among them. I used a sketch and wash pencil and shaded the figures with my waterbrush and clear water. 

These are two of the 20 minute poses.  I get bored easily, and probably finished these in 15 minutes and then looked over at the sketchpads of those sitting around me.  We had a great evening and 19 sketches by the end!   This page was too large for scanning, thus the gray-blue background from my camera.

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There are lots of great gallery exhibits in New York City and my artist friends and I usually put together a list and then spend a day in a specific neighborhood.  On November 18th we met at Penn Station and walked to Chelsea.  My personal favorites for the day were the Max Ernst sculptures at Paul Kasmin, the Robert Rauchenberg at Pace, and the Giorgio Morandi at David Zwirner.  The bunny was street graffiti!  I sketched in the Galleries and painted the pages at home.

There are also many terrific Museum Exhibits which opened this Fall and we've been scheduling at least 2 visits each week.  Last Friday we started at "Berlin Metropolis 1918-1933" at the Neue Gallerie  and then went to the Morgan Library and Museum to see "Graphic Passion:  Matisse and Book Arts."  I walk through the exhibits with my sketchbook open and quickly draw images that I like.  Here is one page of drawings from each museum.

I could copy Matisse ink drawings and prints endlessly.  They captured so much in so few lines. 

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I went on an amazing one hour Gallery Tour with an exhibit Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Friday.  The exhibit is called Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520 to 1620.  The Met collection of 60 Design Books from the Renaissance is the 3rd largest in the world - and I had no idea that even one of these books was created for needleworkers and other artisans during those years.  The first books were made using woodcuts, then later etchings, and they spread rapidly throughout Europe.  The books are on display along with representative pieces of embroidered fabric and lace made from the designs. 

http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/fashion-and-virtue 

I did some drawings in my sketchbook as I was walking and listening and added additional ink with a Sakura Pigma-micron brush pen later.  There is limited information in this above link, but approximately 1000 images from these pattern books were scanned and said to be available on the Museum website.

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I went to see Christie's Auction Preview for multiple auctions (Impressionist and Modern, Contemporary and Post War), and just sketched a few items on one Sketchbook page to remember the day.

Joan Miro's sculpture, Le Personnage, was displayed right inside the main entrance and 80 inches high.

It is wonderful - and I sketched it while waiting for our friends to arrive.

The other drawings were both from Picasso, a detail drawing from Jeux De Pages (1951) and two Picasso ceramics.  

Several days later I spent the day at Art Galleries on the Upper Eastside of New York City with my artist friends.  My sketchbook drawings, done to record and remember the day were two crazy sculptures by Joan Miro. 

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November and May are the months of the big Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary art auctions in New York City, and the auction houses schedule previews for several days before the auctions so the public can see and assess the art.  In general, you see art that is being sold from one private collection to an individual building another private collection - and the previews rarely disappoint me.  Sotheby's auction this month included many pieces owned by A. Alfred Taubman and it was a thrill to see the art, especially the watercolors (Winslow Homer, Sargent) and many drawings Gustave Klimt, Egon Schiele).

I  took a class at Quilt Festival last week about "working in a series" and one of the exercises was to rapidly list all of the themes you loved.  At the top of my list was Mother and Child, perhaps in part because it is one of the few series I created in fabric.  These are small quilts in which I explored the many ways I could transfer my drawings of a pregnant nude model to fabric.  Here is my favorite.

At the Sotheby's Auction preview last week, this was one of my favorite sculptures -  Mother, Child, and Apple by Henry Moore.  I would have drawn it except for the constant presence of at least 10-12 people standing around it! 

Instead I painted one of Louise Bourgeoise' Spiders with Eggs (11 inches high) and Aristide Maillote's Jeune Fille (terracotta, 7 inches high).  I loved the spider shadows!

Tomorrow we are going to the Previews at Christies - with sketchbook in hand again! 

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