Sketching at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has so much to sketch that it was like being a kid in a candy store. I think we could have sketched there for a week and not run out of subjects. Except for lunch, I never left the first floor and barely touched on the collections there.

My first stop was the Roman and Greek collection on the 1st floor. The drama of the high ceilings and the light of the room stopped me in my tracks. All those tall columns with their straight lines contrasted so well with the rounded sculptures of the figures. I wanted to include it all but as you can see it didn't all fit on the page which was only 5.5 x 8.5. Luckily a woman and her little girl sat and posed for a few minutes while they checked out the map. I used watercolor pencils and my Lamy pen to sketch this, and then added water when we were in the cafeteria.

Lunch was next and although I was busy eating and talking I did get a very quick "mandatory Jim" sketch done.

Heading back upstairs a few of us went into the exhibit with the armor. I started with a sketch of the knight on horseback from the side, but loved the view from the rear so I sketched that too on the same page. This time I used my waterbrush on site to finish the sketches.

My final sketch at the museum was in the room with the Temple of Dendur. I tried to include the temple, the windows to the outside, some of the gallery visitors and the Statue of Amenhotep III in front of it all.

It was a really great day but time flew by much too quickly. I hope we visit again soon.