Paper and Threads

We are alternating figure drawing with still life drawing at our weekly Battery Park City Art Sessions.  There were many different objects available for creating a still life, even winter cuttings from foliage in the many parks.  This was my first painting.

By the time I was putting together my next still life, the staff added many toys they found from the "childrens" programs also held in the space.  I've always been fascinated by the story of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a British sculptor who made dinosaur sculptures using their skeletons as a basis.  The sculptures were featured in the Crystal Palace Exhibit in London in 1854.  Sadly, New York City's Tammany Hall objected to putting these sculptures in Central Park, after Hawkins toured the US with his dinosaurs.  It is said that "gangsters" destroyed the sculptures and they are buried in the SW corner of Central Park.  These stories can be easily found online and in a lovely Children's book.

 For my last drawing/painting, I used one stem of the foliage that was donated by the BPC gardeners.   I loved the delicacy and orange colors!  Can anyone identify this winter planting?

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Hope everyone has an enjoyable Valentines Day and Presidents Day weekend in the United States.   

We have 6 Grandchildren spending the night with us today and I made Axel Valentines to go with the new books I bought for them.

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Battery Park City sponsors outdoor Figure Drawing and Nature Art Programs from May through October.  They are now offering 9 sessions indoors during February and March for the first time, and last week one of our favorite models, Regina, was there.  I usually sketch in soluble graphite at these sessions and then add water for shading.  This time I decided to add watercolor paint because of Regina's very colorful wardrobe. 

Three 5 minute poses: 

15 minute pose on the left and 10 minute pose on the right:

15 minute pose without watercolor:  with a little more attention to drawing her hands and feet.

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The 3rd teacher for Sketchbook Skool - Expressing - is Sabine Wiseman, a Dutch Illustrator.  She described infographic illustration and demonstrated the basic ideas.  Our first homework was to make an infographic on a topic of our choice.  I chose to write mine about Human Blood  with very basic information and illustrations. 

The basic information is as follows, since I'm never sure if text on drawings is readable.

1.  When you centrifuge a tube of human blood it is separated into plasma and blood cells.  

2.  There are 3 types of blood cells. 

3.  Red Blood Cells (RBC) are full of hemoglobin which give blood its red color.  Hemoglobin carries oxygen to all the tissues of our body.  They are shaped like biconcave discs so they can squeeze through our capillaries which are smaller than the RBC diameter (7 microns).

4.  White Blood Cells (WBC):  There are 3 major types of WBC - Granulocytes, Lymphocytes, and Monocytes.  They are important in inflammation and infection.  Granulocytes are further subdivided,  based on their granules,  into neutrophils (most numerous), eosinophils (few), and basophils (rare).

5.  Platelets:  Very small "cells" that are pieces of the cytoplasm of their precursor cell (megakaryocyte).  They stick to the insides of damaged blood vessels and to each other to form plugs which stop bleeding.

6.  In one drop of blood there are 5 million RBCs, 5,000 WBCs, and 250,000 platelets (approximately).    

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Last Week was the annual Master Drawings Week in New York City.  I've gone with my Art Pals for the last several years, partly because I love drawings, and secondly because it is a wonderful opportunity to see elevators for 1.5 people and grand staircases in some of the most elegant townhouses between 5th  and Madison on the Upper Eastside.  Some European gallery owners rent space in NYC galleries for the week, making the selection even broader in scope.  There is a published book of galleries that can be requested from the website, and copies that can be picked up in the first gallery you visit.

And there is even a map of gallery locations on the back of the booklet.  We began on 66th St and ended on 86th St - only missing a few along the way.

I love pen and ink drawings - and these are two photos I took of favorites.  The first is from the 18th C. Italian artist Giuseppe Bernardino Bison and the second by Gustav Klimt. 

Last week I watched a very short Matisse video of The Piano Lesson and then was delighted to see one of several preliminary drawings exploring different positions of the 3 individuals in a Master Drawing gallery.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/impressions/2016/01/matisse-la-lecon-de-piano.html?cmp=email_selects_selects_matisse_hero2_12916-12916 

But the highlight of the day for me was my 3rd Joaquin Torres-Garcia exhibit this month.  He is described as the first South American Modernist and I now know many of his paintings for the first time.  I saw the big Torres-Garcia exhibit at MoMA at the beginning of the month, a lovely exhibit at Gary Nader Gallery at 24 W57th St last week, and then a collection of privately owned Torres-Garcia works of art on this tour.   There were drawings and paintings in the Gallery, and a watercolor sketchbook that was spread out in a glass case.  It was one of the pages in the sketchbook that I was inspired to paint in my sketchbook when I got home that evening. 

My version - for inspiration! 

i 

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