Paper and Threads

Yesterday was a beautiful day in New York City and everyone was outside enjoying the early spring weather.  Central Park was full- many ball games, bike riders, walkers, runners, sun bathers and just plain folks sitting on the benches.  There were several beds of daffodils at the park entrance on E 86th Street and I stopped to sketch a few while I was walking with my granddaughter in her stroller.  I was delighted to see the EDM challenge for this week because I already had my grouping of 4 different daffodils and just needed to finish painting them today.  Within the next 2 weeks there will be many beds of tulips in bloom as spring definitely arrives in the Northeast.  I'm watching and periodically sketching one specific tulip plant that is growing in a flower bed in front of my building.  I can't wait to see what color it is!  This daffodil painting was going to be one of my series of Color projects since I'm exploring YELLOW this month.  Now there will be one less to add at the end of the month.

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I sketched and painted cars twice already in 2006, so for this challenge I decided to use my Grandson Henry's toy New York City checker cab.  Since I will soon start my yellow month, as part of the Color Project that I am doing, it was exciting to get an early start. 

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I found another tree that is no longer dormant on the block that I walk between my office and parking garage.  Most of each of the branches are red or red brown and the largest of the buds are only 1/4" maximum.  The buds are extremely complex when viewed with a magnifying glass (see separate sketch of buds at the bottom).  There are 4 petal-like structures and where they are open you can see 8 or more circular structures that are darker in color.  Each one of them is barely larger than the tip of a pin.  The buds are arranged in fours - around the stem - or as a pair on opposite sides of the stem.  I decided to watch this tree change over the next few weeks and then to try to ID the tree type.  My walk is more interesting since I now have a sweet gum tree and this unknown tree to observe over time.

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Those who know me might have said that the appearance of "PEEPS" on the grocery store shelves heralded the arrival of my spring.  When I left for work, with a wind chill of 15 degrees, on Monday AM, I seriously considered sketching and painting two boxes of Peeps for this challenge.  Today, however, one of a long row of sweet gum trees that line the block between my office and parking garage was definitely "blooming" with multiple 3/4" buds along each branch.  All of the other trees in my neighborhoods look dormant.  My other favorite signs of spring are the many beds of tulips that bloom all along the streets and in the flower beds in the city - a wild profusion of colors.  The tulip plants are approximately 4-6" in height today and many actually look like mutants!  Did they always look so twisted and deformed?  I will have to inspect them daily to watch them flower to answer that question.

I also brought home a sweet gum seedball that was lying with hundreds of others below the trees.  Laura's paintings inspired me and my husband challenged me to TRY to sketch and paint my own.  I really think they are works of art all by themselves.

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In May 2002, my husband and I rented an apartment in Venice for our 35th anniversary and invited our family to join us for the week.  My daughter and her husband, my two sons, and their girlfriends (who are now my wonderful daughters-in-law) joined us for a very memorable vacation.  I love Venetian paper and immediately considered drawing this frame for the challenge, but I definitely didn't want to draw more portraits!  Therefore I sketched a photo of our Palazzo in Campo Santa Marina and "put" it in the frame.  The frame is wooden, but the design section is a piece of handmade paper that is set into the frame.  I loved that trip and just thinking about it makes me smile.   Today I decided that I really should put the photo of the apartment in the frame permanently.

Posted by Shirley at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)