Paper and Threads

I attended my first Sketchcrawl Friday February 3rd.  It was organized by Patti and Danny Gregory at the Rubin Museum of Art which is a new Manhattan museum that features art from the Himilayas.  It's a gorgeous space and the art was inspiring.  I filled 5 pages of images that I abstracted from the paintings, clearly more in my "comfort zone" than sketching the very ornate, small sculptures.  The sketch above was one tiny portion of a very large painting from 17th C. Tibet to which I was drawn because of the stylized clouds.  I did the sketch with a Pigma micron 05 pen and added watercolor washes at home.  I wish that I could have met all of the other artists, and I really wish that I could have seen their work.  Hopefully most of them will post their sketches to the EDM group.

I loved this little fish - created in a transparent orange pigment over a dark background with white highlights.  The same fish appeared scattered around the border of the painting several more times.  I can't wait to recreate him on paper or on silk in a quilt journal page.

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I see this rooftop many times each day, but never previously considered it a scene for sketching.  Although I used only pen for all but one of my sketches in Sorrento Italy (see earlier entries from Moleskine journal), I recently started laying out lines in my sketches in pencil, usually because I had the time to play with lines a little more now than when I was standing and trying to draw in just a few minutes during our trip.  There was a wonderful exchange this week on the Everyday Matters group (and Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters website) about using pen versus pencil/then pen and I decided that I would do this sketch without allowing a pencil to touch the page.  I still have lots to learn about watercolor, but I found this quick sketch to be fun to do.

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This is the first opportunity for me to sketch a section of our new library.  My husband and I have watched the MacNeil-Lehrer (now Lehrer) News Hour since it was first broadcast.  We never got home from work in time for the national news, and enjoyed the more in-depth coverage of their reporting.  Our whole family are all also Law and Order fans, but I couldn't imagine how I could sketch the rapidly changing scenes in one of their episodes!  Maybe in my next lifetime!

Laura inspired many of us to sketch interiors this month and I decided to try another one from my apartment.  This is our wood-burning fireplace which hasn't been used yet this year because the winter has been mild.  The previous owner of our apartment bought the mantle which is one of my favorite possessions. 

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My 12 month old granddaughter Sydney was sitting quietly next to me watching Play with me Sesame when I did this quick pencil sketch on a scrap piece of paper.  She is much cuter than the drawing, but maybe more practice will make a difference.  The opportunities to really "look" at her face are rare since she started to walk so Ill have be content with fast portraits and hope that I'll get better. 

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Reflections:

1. The Drawing:  This was one of the hardest sketches I have done.  I wanted to work in my 5.5 X 8.5 daily journal, but feel as if I really needed a huge piece of paper to draw all of the moldings and details.  Thus this is simplified for the smaller format.  The apartment walls and trim are off-white and the floors hardwood.  The furniture is all slightly different shades of brown wood and the quilt that I made is cream background with a red and green feathered star with mutliple red and green pieced borders.  Newbies like me should get a laugh when they notice that the furthest wall sconce "just appeared" in the middle of my quilt!  If you look really quickly you don't notice it.  The rug is a complicated red/green/beige geometric design - do I have enough inner strength to tackle the design?  I wanted to post this before I added watercolor because I have no idea how I will develop the sense of deep space and warm light.  Any ideas?

2. My feelings as I enter my apartment:  I love my apartment and my life in New York City.  My childhood home is 22 miles from our apartment, in Northern NJ - our move to Manhattan was like coming home.  Although we live on a busy avenue, it is possible for me to get completely lost in my apartment, or to be surrounded by people from all over the world within minutes.  We can walk almost anywhere that we want or take easily available public transportation.  Our car is used only when we are leaving the city - I drive 11 miles to work and back.  The entry hall has an antique table (purchased when we lived in San Antonio Texas) and an antique Victorian oak hall tree (purchased when we lived in San Diego).  It is covered with  hats, caps, and earmuffs which I ignored in my sketch, but just this minute realized that I should have then added the empty hooks!   The double doorway on the right leads to the living room and the door to the left leads to the dining room.  The light on the table is hand blown glass, and on most of the time, creating warm light and shadows.  The antique brass candle holder was purchased during a favorite vacation in Amsterdam.   We just renovated one of the bedrooms and now have a beautiful mahogany library  - my new favorite room.  Maybe I'll be brave enough in another week to sketch in there.

Posted by Shirley at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)