Sayville Farmers' Market

I couldn't get in to meet the group in Central Park today, but I did get out for a sketch at the Sayville Farmers' Market.

Brooklyn Museum, Wednesday June 26, 2013

Underneath all my whining about the heat the other day I mentioned that I planned on going to the Brooklyn Museum on Wednesday. I was a bit late - subway's fault - and discovered Benedicte and Judy lolling around outside the museum. The morning was quite pleasant. Our first stop was the John Singer Sargent Watercolors. We were under the impression that there would be a docent tour at noon and an artist demonstrating watercolor techniques at 12:20. It turns out that the demo is a film clip and there were numerous docent tours throughout the galleries. You could pick and choose which suited your interests. Very nice. They didn't interfere with each other. We spent quite a bit of time in this exhibition. I sketched a few people while they (and I) listened to one docent talk about Sargent's portraits.

On the same floor (4th) were a few other exhibits that we visited next: "Workt by Hand": Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts. (really nice) Valerie Hegerty: Alternative Histories. (a bit creepy) Unfolding Tales: Selections from the Contemporary Collection. Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the "War" and "Death" Portfolios. (I love her work - am always drawn to it - was So Happy to turn a corner and see these prints.) I stood in front of one of my favorites and sketched happily, trying to reproduce her work on my iPad.

Next we headed up to the 5th floor. The elevator doors opened onto magic. Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui. Monumental is an understatement. I've seen quite a number of his pieces over the past couple of years but I think these must be the most beautiful of them all. There are also a couple of galleries of his work with wood and chainsaw. Yikes! Hurry Hurry Hurry! Everybody has to see these pieces. In two rooms are videos (4 all together) in which El Anatsui explains and demonstrates the process of creating his pieces. I sketched some of the people taking time to watch the short films.

We continued into another exhibition on this floor: American Identities: A New Look (well worth visiting) That was it for us. On the first floor we quickly went through African Innovations and Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn and checked out the gift shop and called it a day as far as the museum was concerned. There was no energy left for their large Egyptian collection on the 3rd floor. Stomachs were growling. We were pleasantly surprised that, when we exited the museum, we weren't hit with a blast of hot air - the cloud cover had kept the temperatures in the 80's. Phew. We walked a couple of blocks to check out a vegetarian restaurant Benedicte found on line. Looked through the window and decided to try another place we had passed that looked more promising. Much better. The other two had beet soup (!?!) which they agreed tasted "odd", but which both finished to the last drop. I had a Grilled Emmenthaler Cheese sandwich with grilled sweet & sour onions on rye and a big mug of delish coffee. Yum. Ate the whole thing. I sketched the people in front of my table while I waited for my sandwich.

Process: i Pad, Sketch Club and ArtRage apps; Pogo Sketch stylus. All of the above drawings were sketched freehand while in the museum and while at lunch. Color, text, background texture were added later in The Recliner Studio.

NYC Urban Sketchers - Saturday June 29, 2013

The Central Park Model Boat Pond

- also known as Conservatory Water.  This spot has attracted families, artists and model boat enthusiasts. The 72nd street site is bordered by the Alice in Wonderland statue to the north, as well as a sculpture of children's author Hans Christian Anderson reading The Ugly Duckling, to the west.  To get there enter the park at Fifth Avenue and 76^th Street.

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Backup Rain Plan

The long term weather report says it might rain on Saturday. We’ve had some of our best sketch dates on rainy days – so be bold!  

The back-up plan is to meet at the New York Historical Society.  It’s located on the other side of the park, (almost opposite the Boat Pond ) at 170 Central Park West at 77^th Street

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Details:

• We start at 10 AM, 
• We’ll take a break for lunch 
• For everyone  with  sketching stamina we’ll continue in the afternoon.
• If you start late or can’t find us call 
• Mark 973-809-9128 or 
• Richard 917-224-8373

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The Renegade Fair, The Sketchbook Project and Argyle Yarn

I spent Sunday in Brooklyn with my wife.  We went to the Renegade Fair in Williamsburg.  There's always interesting things to see.  The fair is right by the river with nice views of Manhattan across the water.

Is it my imagination or are more women wearing wide brimmed hats this year?

Came lunch time and we decided we'd go to the Radegast Hofbrau. It was good to get in out of the heat and have some cold drinks.   By the time food arrived we were starving:

Susan digging into her bratwurst

Only a few stores down from the Hofbrau was a shop that caught my eye - The Sketchbook Project.  I'd heard about this, but didn't know they had a library in Williamsburg.  It's open to the public and you're welcome to browse their collection.  They have thousands of sketchbooks from all over the world.  You can do searches based on almost any criteria.  I found two sketchbooks that I loved.  One was done by a woman from Russia who had the greatest loose drawings, and another was done by a guy from Brooklyn.  I was so taken by his work that I tracked him down and asked him to come sketch with the NYC Urban Sketchers.

Before heading for home my wife wanted to check out a new yarn store Argyle Yarn.  If sketching is my passion, knitting is hers.  The store was in the western part of Park Slope.  I sketched the mannequin while Susan was absorbed with their huge collection of interesting yarn

Goes to show - there's something
interesting to sketch wherever you are

Whitney Museum June 19, 2013

Benedicte, Teri, Shirley and I met for brunch last Wednesday, a looong brunch, at Three Guys on Madison Avenue then crossed the street and entered the Whitney Museum of American Art. Shirley's friend Gail, a museum docent, was giving a talk and tour of the exhibition "I, You We" which consists of museum holdings from the 1980's and 1990's. Her talks are always very well prepared and instructive so we make a point of showing up and have never been disappointed. I took out my iPad and tried to sketch Gail (she's the redhead below) several times without very much success. I finally gave up and sketched whichever photograph or painting she was explaining. Doodling, taking notes of phrases that caught my fancy, you know. Later I combined them into one piece.

We also spent a lot of time prior to and after Gail's talk upstairs in the "Hopper Drawing" exhibit. If you are in NYC this is a must see. Zillions of preparatory drawings for his magnificent paintings - which were there in all their unbelievable glory - WOW. I decided to copy the detail below from one of these paintings. (Head is a little lopsided, oops.)

Finally we left the Whitney, got some gelato, my first ever, and coffee on E. 73 Street. What followed were visits to 4 or 5 galleries showing American Collage, George Grosz watercolors and I can't remember what else - how pathetic. Wait, I just remembered something. The last place we went, Benedicte rang the doorbell and a lady, who was leaving the building asked where we were going. Seems she just had closed and locked up the gallery (surrealist art) for the day. Even after I casually mentioned that we didn't have millions she simply turned around, stuffed us all in a teeny tiny elevator and opened the second floor gallery and left us alone in there while she disarmed the alarm. Back on 81st Street we parted ways, Shirley heading east and north, Teri westward in a cab and Benedicte and I on a downtown rush hour bus, both of us yawning in tandem every two minutes. Apps used: iPad, Finngr Pro, Sketch Club, ArtRage apps, Pogo Sketch stylus.

Sketching at Green Wood Cemetery

What a strange beautiful place.  The cemetery is perched on a hill overlooking NY Harbor.  You can see the new World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty across the water.  The grounds are sculpted and beautifully kept.  Which is all great, but there's also the macabre aspect, ... that it's a cemetery.

Many famous people are buried there.  I think we were all taken by the old Copper Beach tree with gnarled roots.

Joan, Susan Jimmy, Matt and Carol

Joan Sketching

Richard Sketching

At some point we all got hungry.  We adjourned and had lunch, shared drawings, talked and sketched each other.

Susan gave me three sheets of paper to try out.  I painted Richard who was sitting opposite from me.  The characteristics of the paper could not have been more different.

Strathmore 140 lb watercolor paper from their Brown Cover pads.
My favorite.  I think it was cold press.  Enjoyed everything about the paper.

Green Parrots

Maybe the most extraordinary thing we saw at Green Wood was a large flock of Green Parrots.  Not what you'd expect in Brooklyn,  Apparently they were pets years and years ago,  escaped and seem to be thriving in the cemetery.

Green-wood Cemetery

Large elephant like roots of a copper beech tree shading some headstones.



Family crypt

Visitors entrance

 

Lunchtime sketch of the view out on the patio.

 

 

 

Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery

We did a lot of sketching at our meet-up today at Green-Wood Cemetery. The main gate was our starting point...who knew there was a community of green parrots who have been nesting for years over the gate? Not me.

Here are a few photos from that area.

Here are Matt, Carol, James, and Susan sketching.

Richard (who joined us for the first time today) and Mark at work.

Next we moved into the cemetery. I found an interesting copper beech tree to sketch.

And of course had time to sketch a few friends.

A few more photos.

Matt and Carol sharing before they left.

A scenic view.

Richard sketching.

Mark sketching.

James sketching.

By then it was time for a lunch break. We kept sketching while we waited for our food and after getting our food. Here's a view of a table in the back garden where we ate.

A man outside.

Mark, Susan, and I headed back to Green-Wood Cemetery for a bit more sketching.

Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup - Sunday, June 16, 2013

Sunday morning I headed into the city again, taking an early train so I would have time for breakfast and coffee .  I settled at my usual spot by the window looking out at the station, watching travelers promenade and linger.

I sketched the view straight ahead while I sipped coffee and ate an egg sandwich.  Things are slower early on a Sunday.  

At 10:00 I left the station and started walking in a north easterly, almost two miles, zig zag pattern.  This plan changed when I spotted a street fair/festival at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street.  Lex was closed to traffic all the way to somewhere in the 50's and it wasn't crowded yet so I was able to walk at a good clip and not have to stop for lights.  At 51st I resumed walking east until I reached the meeting place.

 The Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group spent a few hours in The Secret Park.  You get to it via some very old, narrow, steep, stone steps.  Lots of them.  Down Down Down.

It's a very nice place.  Something for everyone to sketch -  trees, architectural interest, East River views, dog park, people, even the site of an old leper/smallpox/TB (one of those, not sure which but for some reason leprosy comes to mind) hospital on the island right opposite us.

I took advantage of Francesca who was busy painting something above my head and didn't move  anything except her painting arm.

Jesse, the organizer of this Meetup group, has us disperse and sketch for about an hour or so, and then we all display our drawings, ooh and ahh, and then resume another sketching session, etc.

I switched apps and spent some time on the garbage (not the first time, it seems).  None of the colors are true - palette is very limited in this app so imagination and reality collaborate.  When I finished this I simply pivoted around from where I was standing and spotted my next subject.

At 1:45 we all gathered and displayed our final sketches.  Kimiko and her friend were way at the other end of the line.  I was watching and wasn't disappointed.  Her friend spotted my iPad image and started laughing, gesturing to Kimiko to look.  Massive giggling ensued.  She had no idea I was using her as a model.  "E-mail it to me!", said between giggles.

Reversed zig zag walk back to Penn Station.   While waiting I took advantage of these three.  Someone sat next to me and openly watched but I don't care anymore.  Or, I had such a good day, I didn't care then.

I finished the drawing just before the two on the left got up to catch their train and had time to get a coffee and oatmeal cookie.  Had to get my caffeine quota.  Sketch was done on the train.

iPad drawing, Sketch Club app, Finngr Pro app, Pogo Sketch stylus.

(In the last sketch the app acted up and wouldn't "save" so I took a screen shot.  That's why the unwelcome intrusion shows up on the lower left.  A sporadic glitch.)