Paper and Threads

We are at the beach with our children and grandchildren - except for the 3 who are at sleep-away camp.  I spent more time organizing drawing and painting for them than I did working in my own sketchbook.  This is Zachary and Annabelle who were painting shells that Annabelle found on the beach with me in the early morning.

I finished painting the group of birds that we saw at our friends' birdfeeder in Martha's Vineyard at the end of June.

And I painted one very long sea gull feather that we found on a beach walk in the mist and fog. 

We are going home tomorrow and then I need to do some catching up! 

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Our Meetup Group met at the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace in Central Park last Saturday. 

http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/bethesda-fountain.html 

http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/bethesda-terrace.html 

It was sunny and very hot and we all looked for shade during the 3 sketching sessions.  I took one 12 X 18' sheet of watercolor paper so I could make a composite of several drawings.  In the end I did two paintings - without linking them.

I stood under the arches of the 72nd Street portico and sketched a man dressed in a gold sequin top hat and tails - and then the Angel of the Waters atop the fountain.  The man was posing for pictures in exchange for some small donation to his pail.  I painted him in bright gold gouache, which can only be seen in the original.

For our second 20 minute drawing, I turned around and sketched the arches on the other side of the portico, with the long staircase leading down to Bethesda Terrace from 72nd St.  through the Park.  It was a bit boring, but my position under the roof was cool.  For our 3rd drawing, we walked over to the Band Shell and Mall area, just south of 72nd St.  and I was thrilled to see two young ballet dancers posing for photos on the stage.  They are teenagers who are in New York City for the American Ballet Theater summer program.  When I first saw them they were doing amazing jumps but they eagerly took simple 5 minute poses for me to draw and paint them.    They look like ghosts as I painted them over the prior painting. 

Posted by Shirley at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love the drop-in figure drawing sessions at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.  Two models that pose together, wine and snacks, and live music for 3 hours.  My classes at Fashion Institute of Technology precluded my usual monthly visit during this past year, but I hope to go each month during the summer.

I sketched both of these models previously and was happy to draw them again.  My dear friend Sara joins me for a June session each year when she and her husband are visiting us at the beach and then in the City.  Here are 3 of my sketches - all done with a washable graphite pencil (Sketch and Wash from General).  Each page represents 20 minutes of drawing done on 12 X 18" sheets of watercolor paper.

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I am devoting this blog post to the recent opening of the 9/11 Memorial Museum - with only one small drawing that I did there on June 9th for my daily sketchbook.

The following description of the  9/11 Memorial Museum was taken from the website:

https://www.911memorial.org/ 

"The 9/11 Memorial Museum opened on May 21, 2014. It is located beneath the
Memorial plaza. Visitors enter the Memorial Museum through a pavilion where two
steel “tridents”— remnants of the North Tower’s façade — stand in the building’s atrium.
The main exhibition space is located seven stories below the 9/11 Memorial at the
bedrock foundations of the World Trade Center. The Museum offers displays of
artifacts from the WTC and 9/11 attacks, interactive exhibitions, contemplative areas,
and programs that convey individual and collective stories relating the experiences
of survivors, responders, area residents and eyewitnesses. A memorial exhibition
honors the individual victims of the attacks." 

The museum is the low building behind the row of trees, between the Memorial pools that were created in the foot prints of the North and South Towers.   

As soon as you enter the building you begin to descend stairs and ramps, past two of the original girders from the North Tower and adjacent to the Vesey St. stairway  down which many of the survivors fled from the area.

I loved seeing artwork that was created to commemorate the event and the victims, including a 60 foot quilt that contains photos of the victims from both Towers,  the Pentagon, and the Flight that crashed in Shanksville PA.

 This tall ceramic urn, which was created by a University of Minnesota Professor and contains the names of

all of the Victims.

Vehicles damaged on 9/11 make up some of the artifacts within the museum.

The bottom level, at the end of the ramps, has one wall which remains from the "bathtub" that was part of the foundation of the North Tower.

This area also contains a girder from the site of destruction

- and the main historical account of 9/11, the cleanup, and the building of the Memorial and Museum.  The main exhibit is very well done will take several visits to look carefully at all of the photos, videos, and other displays.

Posted by Shirley at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our Meetup Sketching Group met here from 11AM-2PM last Saturday.  The weather was gorgeous and it would be hard to find a more breathtaking urban scene.   This is lower Manhattan - with the ferry terminals to the left and the new World Trade Center Tower to the right.

 We love our yellow taxis so much that even our water taxis are yellow.

The Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge - from the Promenade.

I did this painting during our Meetup.  I sketched and then met with the whole group to share our sketches.  I then painted my sketch with watercolors and met again to share our sketches.

This is an 11 X 14" piece of watercolor paper to which I glued a piece of the New York City Subway Map.  After the glue dried, I painted a thin layer of Golden Absorbent Ground over the map.  It is a wonderful surface for graphite and watercolor.  I have used this technique before for smaller pieces, and decided it would be perfect for the NYC skyline from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Posted by Shirley at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)