Paper and Threads

As part of my September initiative "to shake up retirement," I also returned to ballet class after 4 years.  I danced on and off my entire life and managed to find time to take classes even when my schedule was full.  My body needs the stretching even more, the older I get - so off to ballet class I went.  Here are my "oldish" ballet slippers, just to commemorate my first few classes.

Last week was last week of my grandchildren's summer vacation and I took Sydney to MoMA on Tuesday and Zachary to the American Museum of Natural History on Friday. Syd and I sketched, had lunch, and then came home to do some sewing.  I drew a few details from paintings included on the children's audioguide while she was listening.  She also sketched a few details and painted them during lunch. 

While my husband took Zach to see the big blue whale, I quickly sketched a beautiful tiger at Natural History and then painted it at home from a photo.

Yesterday my husband and I spent the morning at the Café at the Conservatory Water - one of our favorite morning walks for coffee in Central Park. I sketched cone flowers - first painting them and then adding pen. I continue to play with this technique after liking the way Reginald Marsh used it in the exhibit Swing Time.

Tonight is my second Figure Drawing class at FIT and I will be doing longer and longer poses as the semester proceeds.  I will need better hand drawing skills and used a photograph to draw these two hands. 

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The weather was perfect on Wednesday and Judy, Pat, and I all went to figure drawing!  Here are a few 5 and 10 minute sketches, and one 20 minute sketch, using a General Sketch and Wash pencil.

Three 5 Minute Sketches

Two 10 minute poses left - and one 5 minute pose right:

Twenty Minute Pose:

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I love to draw from the Masters and try to analyze paintings and drawings during my museum and gallery visits here in New York City.

There is a new exhibit at MoMA, called American Modern:  Hopper to O'Keeffe.  All paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs are owned by MoMA and curated for this specific exhibit.  I loved several of Charles Burchfield's paintings and especially a painting called The City, 1916.  It was such a lovely loose architectural painting, that I was hoping that I could, sketch it, paint it, and try loose paintings like this is the future.   I sketched a portion of the painting in the museum and then painted it at home from a photo that I was allowed to take.

My husband and I saw a Reginald Marsh exhibit, called Swing Time, at the New York Historical Society last week, right before it closed.  I've always loved his paintings of New York City - especially those with a subdued palette.  I was fascinated with his use of ink, and I think thin paint/tempera lines, to delineate his figures.  I sketched one from Harris Street Theater, 1940, so I could paint the figure and then add ink. 

I also liked the woman on the far right of BMT 14th St. and just needed a drawing of her head to remember her. 

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I watched the Videos in Stephen Cephalo's Strathmore Workshop and then tried his techniques using 9B graphite and white charcoal on toned gray paper.  I used a photo reference for this very experimental drawing.

I am taking my very first art class since 10th grade in High School - and was very nervous about it.  Did I really want to "study" art in a classroom as opposed to learning on my own?  Did I want to have a 3 hour class every week from Aug through Dec?  Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has a senior scholar program, and unfilled classes can be audited for a nominal fee.  I finally decided to take Figure Drawing I and last Monday was my first class.  I used an easel for the very first time and sketched the model on 12 X 18 " paper - both totally out of my comfort zone.  But I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Here are two 20 minute drawings. Next week 18 X 24" paper - YIKES!

Thanks Vicki for suggestions on how I could get the background photograph blue tinge changed to white using Photoshop.

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The Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group met in Battery Park on Saturday and I finally was able to draw Pier A - the oldest pier on Manhattan island.  It was built in the 1880s as a home for the New York Harbor police and was landmarked in 1975.  It is currently being renovated, with a projected opening in May 2014.  It will have a high end restaurant, food court, event space, and a tourist information center.  That area definitely needs a few more restaurants during peak tourist season!  Here it is - all newly painted!  The clock is said to be an old ship's clock. 

This drawing was done as a double page spread - and this is all I finished in the 45 min session.

The group then moved further north in Wagner Park - to the gardens next to the Museum of Jewish Heritage- and I painted lovely pink flowers. I have no idea of their name, but they were a delicate pink with a yellow "fuzzy ring" and flat yellow green center. Can you tell that I am not a gardener and never have been?

I had a few more minutes before we ended session 2 and shared our sketches, so I did a fast sketch of one of the other participants. Some day I will learn how to get a hat firmly planted on someone's head.

During our final session, at the north river corner of South Cove, I sketched gorgeous trumpet vines - being dive-bombed by big black flies that were hovering around the flowers. The weather was fantastic and it was a perfect 3 hour meetup.

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