Browsing today I saw the work of Judith Youshock who uses a "combination of watercolor and batik". I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I rather like her landscapes. They have such a vibrant quality to them, simultaneously like fabric and stained glass or something. Really lovely.
I love seeing how very differently one can represent the landscape.
Do you have an artist LANDdraw might like to look at? Send me a link!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
LANDdraw #2 is coming!
Saturday, 2/2/08 is the second LANDdraw. Right now I am leaning towards the Winter Gardens downtown, but am open to suggestions of indoor places to draw in winter. Maybe that rotating bar above Times Square? Who knows?
Keep an eye on this space....
Keep an eye on this space....
Monday, January 21, 2008
LANDdraw Number 1
Saturday was the first LANDraw. No one but myself went, AFAIK, which is OK. I hope that at the next one I'll have a drawing partner, but if not, that is OK too. I'm really happy I went.
Today LANDraw convened (HA!) at the Met in the American Wing. When I got there I found that the upstairs had been closed and I thought that most of the paintings I wanted were inacessable to me - however they had opened up one of their storage type areas and people were wandering these long "halls" that were basically double sided glass cases of artworks. There were HUNDREDS of glass pieces and silver tankards, dozens of Colonial armoire's in various states of disrepair... and a bunch of paintings. It's a real privilege to be able to sit a few feet away from a Homer Winslow painting and so I drew his "Harvest Scene", c.1873. The glare on the glass got in my way. While drawing I began to have an inkling of exactly how hard this was going to be. Today I was working in vine charcoal and it was a good choice, forcing me to really think about blocks of light vs. dark. The painting in question was very dark, and so was difficult to draw, but I did and then I migrated after about 25 minutes.
While looking for another painting, I discovered that the portion of the gallery *I* wanted was indeed open and so I sat myself down to draw Willard Metcalf's "After the Thaw", c.1922. This is a painting of a thawing wood/meadow landscape with a stream. I think this painting is the same place but from a different position and before the thaw. This painting was *extremely* difficult to draw. The whites appear very bright compared to the greens of the trees, and yet it is not at all stark. The white has various colors and shades, the greens, etc. Here I began to experiment with putting down the basic shapes of light and dark by taking off my glasses. This forces my eyes to revert to their naturally blurry state - and keeps my mind from interfering by not allowing me to be distracted by the details. This drawing was difficult but rewarding. I thought it was terrible at the museum but came home and find it to be an OK sketch, which is better than the sketch in my memory.
The last painting I drew was in the same gallery and I switched to a chair from the floor for it. I drew William Picknell's "The Banks of the Loing", c.1894-1897. The glasses technique worked very well with this painting and really forced me to strip everything down to the bare blocks. I was pleased most by the sketching of this one, but don't know how I feel about the final product. But I will keep playing with this "technique", I think it is a good one for me especially.
All in all this was a really valuable drawing day for me and I'm really glad I went. I was there for about 1.75 hours and was WIPED OUT afterwards.
I have some thoughts about the weirdness of drawing in public which I'll write on another time. I got home and got in bed for a few hours. I don't know if it was just the ass end of my cold that kicked my butt, or the intense concentration to draw, and keep the people gawking at me out of my perception, or just the fact of drawing like this for the first time in a long time.
I'm looking forward to the next one two weeks from now. Any indoor suggestions?!
Today LANDraw convened (HA!) at the Met in the American Wing. When I got there I found that the upstairs had been closed and I thought that most of the paintings I wanted were inacessable to me - however they had opened up one of their storage type areas and people were wandering these long "halls" that were basically double sided glass cases of artworks. There were HUNDREDS of glass pieces and silver tankards, dozens of Colonial armoire's in various states of disrepair... and a bunch of paintings. It's a real privilege to be able to sit a few feet away from a Homer Winslow painting and so I drew his "Harvest Scene", c.1873. The glare on the glass got in my way. While drawing I began to have an inkling of exactly how hard this was going to be. Today I was working in vine charcoal and it was a good choice, forcing me to really think about blocks of light vs. dark. The painting in question was very dark, and so was difficult to draw, but I did and then I migrated after about 25 minutes.
While looking for another painting, I discovered that the portion of the gallery *I* wanted was indeed open and so I sat myself down to draw Willard Metcalf's "After the Thaw", c.1922. This is a painting of a thawing wood/meadow landscape with a stream. I think this painting is the same place but from a different position and before the thaw. This painting was *extremely* difficult to draw. The whites appear very bright compared to the greens of the trees, and yet it is not at all stark. The white has various colors and shades, the greens, etc. Here I began to experiment with putting down the basic shapes of light and dark by taking off my glasses. This forces my eyes to revert to their naturally blurry state - and keeps my mind from interfering by not allowing me to be distracted by the details. This drawing was difficult but rewarding. I thought it was terrible at the museum but came home and find it to be an OK sketch, which is better than the sketch in my memory.
The last painting I drew was in the same gallery and I switched to a chair from the floor for it. I drew William Picknell's "The Banks of the Loing", c.1894-1897. The glasses technique worked very well with this painting and really forced me to strip everything down to the bare blocks. I was pleased most by the sketching of this one, but don't know how I feel about the final product. But I will keep playing with this "technique", I think it is a good one for me especially.
All in all this was a really valuable drawing day for me and I'm really glad I went. I was there for about 1.75 hours and was WIPED OUT afterwards.
I have some thoughts about the weirdness of drawing in public which I'll write on another time. I got home and got in bed for a few hours. I don't know if it was just the ass end of my cold that kicked my butt, or the intense concentration to draw, and keep the people gawking at me out of my perception, or just the fact of drawing like this for the first time in a long time.
I'm looking forward to the next one two weeks from now. Any indoor suggestions?!
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