Paper and Threads

During our recent visit to London, my husband and I visited Museums while our grandchildren were busy with other activities. I really wanted to sketch/paint at least one page from each visit in my Travel Sketchbook, but needed to choose things to sketch very carefully - based on their complexity. My interests in textiles makes it natural for me to gravitate toward colors and designs so many of my sketches captured those passions. I chose some representative museum pages to upload here.

Tate Modern: We walked across the Millenium Bridge for our first ever visit to the Tate Modern. As we viewed the permanent exhibits, I was attracted to the brilliant colors of one strand of a hanging installation, a part of a Sonia Delaunay color block painting, a very small part of a Kandinsky painting and a Giacometti bust. It was our first full day in London and we decided to save the Kandinsky special exhibit to our next visit.

British Museum: The museum changed so much since our previous visits, but I was still attracted to the Elgin Marbles and specifically this horse's head. The upper right part of the page shows some mosaic designs that I loved in the Hellenistic Galleries. The wine bottle label is from the bottle that we shared enjoying the late afternoon "people-watching" in the outdoor Russell Square Park Cafe.

Victoria and Albert Musum: One of my long time favorite places in London! Unfortunately they are doing lots of renovations and the jewelry exhibit won't reopen until 2008. However, I found lots of designs that I loved in the Japanese galleries and was completely overwhelmed by a modern set of 100 silver cake slicers commissioned from the world's best silversmiths by a US Chemistry professor named Benton Seymore Rabinovitch. I only sketched the silver/blue cloisonnier fish from the collection, but could have spent all day in front of the exhibit cases. None of the quilts in the V&A collection were on open exhibit. I definitely need to invesitgate this before our next visit.

Royal Academy of Arts: There was a special Modigliani exhibit at the Royal Academy - 1 piece of sculpture and approximately 40 of his paintings. His 3rd mistress, Jeanne Hebuterne, was the model for many of his last paintings and she watched over him as he died of TB meningitis in his 30s.

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I was concentrating so hard on the # of grams and millilieters when I made this for dinner in London, that I didn't have enough energy to also sketch and paint the ingredients.  But I wanted to remember this sketch as one of my recent London journal entries, so here it is. 

 These ingredients are sauteed together and then put over al dente angel hair pasta.  The dish is then finished with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

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We took a long walk through Belgravia on our last day in London and I sketched the huge basket of flowers that hangs from every light pole in these areas of London and one Hibiscus flower that was blooming in front of a terrace house.  In spite of higher than normal temperatures, these baskets always looked fresh and beautiful. 

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We've returned from our wonderful London visit and this morning I scanned some of the sketches that I did of buildings.  These include:  the house that my daughter's family is renting, clouds overhead after a rainy day with details of their balcony, my 3 year old grandson's nursery school, Greene & Stone arts supply store, and Osborne & Little's windows.  All of these places are on or near King's Road in Chelsea.

This was a full family vacation and for much of the time I was with one or both of my grandchildren - ages 'just 3 and 19 months.  I carried my supplies with me and tried to make very quick sketches and then added watercolor washes - both from memory of the colors and occasional photos taken immediately before.  The clouds (EDM Challenge #74) need a little tweaking after scanning, but I have no time at the moment to do it.

The journal was a linen watercolor by Cachet (7 x 10" spiral bound).  I used Pigma Micron pens, Niji waterbrushes (small and medium) and a Daler-Rowney travel watercolor set.  Since my goal when I started sketching recently was to be able to keep an illustrated travel journal, I am pleased with my progress.  I purchased Graham Byfield's "London Sketchbook: A City Observed" before we went and realized very quickly that wonderful watercolor paintings of major London sites probably take days and days en plein!  I love looking at his magnificent book, but can't imagine creating it.

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I have had many types of mailboxes in my lifetime: mail slots in the front door, rural and suburban mailboxes with flags, and mailboxes with combination locks filling entire walls while at school. Our "mailbox" in New York City is really our mail table.  Mail is sorted in the morning into cubbyholes in a large rolling set of shelves and then the apartment staff moves the shelves into the elevator and delivers the mail to our hallway.

I love mail and as a child home during the summer could hear the mail truck move down the street approaching our house.  Several letters changed my life as I was accepted into college and then medical school.  But the best mail was the daily letter I received from my boyfriend, then fiance, then husband as we both went to medical school hundreds of miles from each other.  We have two full boxes of letters that some day we will open and reread.   

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