Paper and Threads

My daughter and her family are living in Chelsea, right off King's Road, so I have many opportunities to walk in the neighborhood with strollers and my grandchildren.   

The sketch on the left is the back of one of the terrace houses on Walpole Street.  As you look down the row of houses, it is interesting to see how each owner has added space in a variety of ways around their back entry.  This sunroom addition has a wonderful round table that is bathed in sunlight and surrounded by flowers.

The sketch on the right is the Library entrance to the Chelsea Town Hall.  The other end of the long building is identical and there are civil ceremony weddings occurring there almost everytime that I walk past.

Left:  John Sandoe Books - a wonderful, packed book store that is purported to have everything.  During my last two visits, I have lovingly looked at Cezanne's Basel Travel Sketchbook and Henry Moore's Sheep sketchbook in the store.  It is hard to buy anything in London, however, that is available in the US because the exchange rate is currently so bad. 

Right: A regular dinner spot for our family - The Big Easy on King's Road Chelsea.  They have an American menu which is perfect for our toddler grandchildren.  I loved the fisherman/fish sign the first time I saw it in July, and finally had time to arrive at the restaurant early and sketch it.

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We returned to the Imperial War Museum with our daughter and both of our grandchildren during this visit to London.  Our grandson loves the submarine simulation and spends much of his time at the controls.  My 22 month old grand daughter loved the puppy that was descending from the roof in a parachute.  After they left to return home for naps, my husband and I went through the "Children's War" and "Holocaust" exhibits.  Both were excellent and emotionally draining.

There is an amazing exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci notebook pages at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  I loved seeing his figure drawings, but was especially intrigued by his exploration of the human body.  The sketch reproduced above presents his ideas about the brain.  He completely ignored the white and gray matter and hypothesized that all human functions were contained in the 3 fluid-filled ventricles: The first was the receptor of all senses, the second blended the senses into consciousness/soul, and the third was the memory.  It is unusual for him to be so wrong.

One of my treats this trip was meeting London artist Katherine Tyrrell  for an afternoon at the David Hockney Portrait Exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.  I have never been attracted to Hockney's Southern California series, but was overwhelmed during this exhibit by his drawings.  It is a large exhibit, but there was still time for Katherine to take me to Tea in the Cafe at the top of the Museum.  There we spent time enjoying each other's sketchbooks and had time to talk more.  The view from the Cafe is magnificent - and the above quick sketch was taken from a photo that I hastily took before the cafe closed.

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I have 100s of buttons in my studio from my many, many years of sewing.  When we lived in Texas I bought an old English oak button cabinet to use as a side table, and the buttons that I sketched tonight were some of the lovely metal buttons that came with that table.   Each one has a very intricate design, regardless of how small.   The two largest buttons in this group are 3/4 inch and the smallest is 1/2".

Last Saturday I spent the day between the New York City Garment District and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with my new fried and fellow EDM member Paula.  She is from Brazil and currently studying at Columbia.  I have walked past the Garment District sculptures at 40th and 7th Ave many times, but on Saturday joined Paula in taking a few pictures of the large button, needle, and garment worker.  It sometimes takes new eyes to make you see something that is so familiar!  I thought that I would include it as another sketch for the Button challenge.

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I have never sketched a flag - and was lucky enough to have one in front of a historically landmarked building in my neighborhood in New York City.  I want to do multiple sketches of this beautiful building that was the home of a light opera composer in the early 1900s.  In the 1930 census that I viewed its value was already estimated at $1,000,000 and it is well maintained and now contains several luxury apartments.  I was able to do the sketch while standing in front of the building and then take a photo of the flag when it was blowing to sketch and paint at home. 

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My husband and I went to DC last weekend to visit our son in their new home near Eastern Market in the East Capitol Hill section.  We went to the Market early each morning for food and on Sunday I went 30 minutes before the group so I could quickly sketch the Eastern facade (built in 1873).  I stood and then sat on the sidewalk across the street and just finished when they arrived.  Then we realized that the image used for the market on T-shirts and by local artists is the North facade.  One of the artists in front of the Market told me, "I'd never do that complicated Eastern facade."  My sketch of the north facade is coming.

On Saturday we went to the Library of Congress Book Festival on the Mall to hear Mo Willems, the author/illustrator of the pigeon series of children's books.  Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is a real favorite in our apartment with our grandchildren and he was wonderful - even passing out paper and pencils to all of the children in the audience and then teaching them how to draw the pigeon!  We walked home up the Mall toward the Capitol, but I didn't have time to sketch the rotunda.  This sketch was done from a photo taken as we walked by.

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