Paper and Threads

Guess Who Planned a Meetup for Sketchbook Skool Students last Saturday, in Washington Square Park, New York City? 

When I partially retired from Medicine in 2005, I discovered Sketchbook Art and Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters Yahoo Group.  Several months later, I started this blog to interact with other group members, and I now am a student of Sketchbook Skool (SBS), a very professional, online art education program.  Danny and Koosje Koene are the co-developers of SBS and it was fun to finally meet Koosje who was visiting from Amsterdam.

Double Page Sketchbook Painting: It was a cold, but sunny afternoon, and I sketched the Washington Square Arch and then some of the musicians who are always playing in the Park.

Wonderful Concert at Juilliard: That evening my husband and I went to a concert at Alice Tully Hall.  The Historical Presentation Juilliard Students played two Telemann pieces and the Chorale was sung by Yale Sacred Music members.  I started by sketching the first Violin, and then wanted to add the Conductor.  Obviously I left out many musicians and singers.  But there is enough on the page for me to remember the evening and the Baroque horn (of which there were 3) which we had never seen before.

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I carried my Paris Sketchbook with me everyday, and almost always sketched something while we were visiting a museum and in a restaurant.  When it is just my husband and I traveling, we periodically stop for 45 minutes and he does a New York Times Crossword Puzzle while I sketch a scene I want to remember.  We were traveling with friends this time and walking outdoors instead of sitting - so almost all of my drawings were done indoors during this visit.  By posting them a few at a time, I'm painting my ink sketches from Paris while also finishing sketches from New York City.

Memorial to SHOAH:  This is an amazing museum, located in the Marais, and detailing both the fate of French Jews during WWII and the details of the French Resistance.  I was intrigued by this illustration which showed the round white and black badge (worn on the dress) that Jews had to wear in France in 1218.  On the right is the Yellow Star which the Nazis made Jews wear during WWII.  40,000 of these stars were made in France by Chas Wauters et fils in the Occupied Zone.

Dinner at the Brasserie de L'Ile St Louis that evening.  This artist character was painted on the window next to my seat as a decoration for the restaurant.

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We're Home!  We had another wonderful visit to Paris - walking the City for miles, seeing some wonderful museum exhibits, and eating delicious meals.  I made a special sketchbook for this trip and carried it with me all day.  We were traveling with good friends, and I only sketched when we were in restaurants or exhibits, and usually in pencil - followed by pen.  Now that I am home, I will slowly paint all 15 of the sketchbook pages from photos I took.

I regularly draw a grid of 2" squares near the front of my sketchbook, one for each day of travel.  I fill those with one specific small image each day - just reminding me, in another way, of how we spent our time. 

The only sketchbook page that I painted in Paris was in the restaurant where we had our first dinner.  It was a modest neighborhood restaurant, with a wall of organic wines in front of me.

This is the longest period of time I've gone without blogging since I started my blog in 2006.  We walked 5-7 miles each day, enjoyed lovely restaurants, followed the news back home, and went to bed tired each night.  Our two longest walks, seeing everything along the way, were from (1) Notre Dame to the Arc of Triomphe and back to near Notre Dame via Pont D'Alma and (2) home from Sacre Coeur, walking around the Opera House, Place Vendome, and Faubourg St. Honore back to our street near Notre Dame.  It is so sad to see Notre Dame after the fire. 

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We will be leaving for Paris for a short vacation, and for many years I included "Mickey" on one of the first few pages in my travel sketchbooks to Europe.  He is a character in Maurice Sendak's book In The Night Kitchen, and during the night he creates a bread dough airplane in his dream/imagination. 

When we go to Paris I also include a painting of the Eiffel Tower, on the page with all of my contact information in case my sketchbook is misplaced.  Years ago I searched the internet for images since my photos were not sufficient to draw it, and I found a tutorial.  This is complicated enough for me!

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2019/07/_we_are_going_to.php

This is my blog entry for the Paris sketchbook which I recycled/made from a Paris book - with 140 lb watercolor paper. 

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A group of my friends and I went to Swann Gallery for the previews of their Drawings and Prints Auction last month.  They have important representatives of 19th and 20th century artists, and we all usually draw some of them for practice.  I sketched two of my favorite artists:  Picasso and Matisse. 

Picasso Print Bacchanale:  This was one of several figures on this print, and I loved this guy!

Matissee: Odalisque print which was made based on a an earlier painting of his.  I'm never sure how much I am learning from drawing these pieces, but it is so satisfying.  It was big enough to require more than one page in my sketchbook.

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