Brooklyn Museum

On Saturday I drove to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers at the Brooklyn Museum. A friend and I headed up to the third floor to the Egyptian collection. I've sketched their collection before but I had to go revisit it. 

Here is what I sketched back in 2018.

The Brooklyn Museum didn't open until 11:00 so I only had time for the once sketch before our lunch break. The socializing is an important part of the day and sometimes (like Saturday) I got to chat with one of the sketchers I hadn't seen since before Covid. 

Then I headed upstairs to the Canadian Inuit collection in the Art of the Americas gallery. My friend, Mark was already in the room sketching one of two of the house posts on exhibit so I started my sketch there. It slowly grew into most of the room as I sketched a few other items including a baleen whale mask that was on display.

At 3:00 we had "show and tell" down in the lobby. I think we had about 20+ sketchers on Saturday. It is always so great to see the different items that people selected to sketch or how they did the same item I did, but in their own style. When we were done I figured I had enough time to head back upstairs and sketch one more time. In that same room I found a Kachina doll from the late 20th Century created by a Hopi artist.

Sketching the Egyptian Collection

Due to the cold weather forecast the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Brooklyn Museum to sketch the Egyptian Collection. The museum doesn't open until 11 so my plan was to go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden greenhouse for an hour first. But when I checked to make sure it opened at 10:00 I also found out they discontinued their policy of free admission before noon. It didn't pay (pardon the pun) to pay full admission for less than an hour of sketching. I decided to head to Brooklyn at the same time figuring I could find something to sketch when I got there. The problem is there isn't a lot of street parking but I took my chance. I lucked out and found a spot right near the paid parking lot that is for both the museum and gardens...and I was parked right near this entry gate for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden so I was able to sit in my car and sketch.

I headed off to the museum next and met the other sketchers. We've sketched the Egyptian collection before so I was looking for something unusual. I wanted to sketch one of the mummy cases. As I walked around this one I found that if I sat on a certain side of the glass case I could see the work area behind it with a hoist. They were working on a few of the installations in the area but not the piece I selected. I think adding the work area background added a bit more interest to this composition.

After a lunch break I headed back upstairs and sketched a few of the statues. The one of the couple was interesting but her arm was missing. A lot of the statues of gods had broken noses. Apparently  they believed that if the nose was broken the god would have no power.

Here I am at our "show and tell" later in the day. My thanks to Louis Gutterman for the photo.

30 Day Challenge - Day 25 - Korean Statue & More

Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Brooklyn Museum to sketch. There were some interesting exhibits. I knew I needed to do my gouache painting for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge. I wandered up to the Korean Art exhibit and found this statue. It was one of two on display and it is a boy attendant from the Joseon dynasty in Korea during the 18th Century.

After lunch I headed down to the lobby. The combination of this statue, the brick wall and the archway had interested me when I came into the museum, but I saved it for the second half of the day realizing that the statue itself was going to be a challenge. The statue is "The Fallen Angels" by Salvatore Albano. Marble statues are always intimidating as I have to think about what colors to use on the white that will show the shading and the shape. Then this particular statue had such strange contortions of the bodies of the fallen angels. It was very difficult to figure out what body part belonged to each angel. I ended up sketching the statue with a ultramarine blue watercolor pencil and then going over that with a light wash water-soluble graphite pencil. Watercolors were added later.

As usual the group gathered at the end of the day for libations and to share our artwork at a local restaurant/bar called Tooker's Alley. The bar is artist friendly and they even have blank pages in the back of their menu for patrons to draw something to leave for their archives. I didn't sketch in the menu. These are three of the other sketchers who were seated across from me.

Welcome to Spring & The Final Part of the Urban Sketching Day

Happy First Day of Spring!!!
 In the spirit of the day I wanted to paint some outdoor flowers today. My good friend and fellow sketcher, Susan, who lives nearby is always ready to share her garden treasures with me. I called her this morning to check that something was in bloom in her garden and she told me to come on over. She works from home, so we chatted for a little while and then she went inside to work while I painted her crocuses, hellebores, and heather. Luckily it was sunny and warm enough to spend some time in the garden without freezing. Thanks, Susan!

On most occasions when the NYC Urban Sketchers gather, we meet at the end of our sketching day to share our work over drinks. I think we had about 20 people with us at the Brooklyn Museum and we headed out at about 4 to Tooker's Alley, a bar nearby. They open at 4 so we didn't worry about it being too crowded for us...and Mark always lets them know we are coming. Once everyone has a drink or whatever they order we start sharing our sketches from the day. It is always fun to see how everyone else captures the same or almost the same views. Some people do a lot of quick sketches and some people complete one longer piece. We have 2 rules when we share...you can't say anything negative about someone's sketches and you can't say anything negative about your own. The second rule is the hard one. LOL

In addition to sharing our sketches, almost everyone immediately whips out a sketchbook and starts sketching the other sketchers at the table or the other patrons where we are. It is good because the other sketchers usually don't get up and move...although they move around some talking to people to their right or left. I was able to get two sketches each with several people seated opposite me.

As you can see from the three days of posting...it was quite a busy day!

Then On To The Brooklyn Museum

After sketching the flowers that I posted yesterday, Susan and I went to meet the other NYC Urban Sketchers at the Brooklyn Museum. We spent most of the day in the African wing where there were great sculptures and artifacts to sketch. The museum didn't stop us from using ink or watercolors so my sketches are a combination of both.

My two sketches done before lunch:

Sketches done after lunch.

There was time for one more sketch before we were meeting to share our work...but no time to add color. (He looks like he's undergoing some kind of acupuncture.)

Then it was off to have drinks and share our work...more tomorrow.

Quick Trip to the Botanic Gardens

Last Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers were meeting at the Brooklyn Museum. My friend and I like to get an early start from out here and the museum didn't open until 11. But right next door is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (how lucky) and they open at 10. So we headed to the garden and had time for a quick 30 minute sketch of one of the indoor exhibits in the greenhouse. I did this directly in watercolors.

Outside the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens looked much different than when we usually visit in the spring. We had snow the day before. Here is the Japanese pond...the snowy version.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 5 - Mediterranean Blues

Here is my painting for Day 5 of Leslie Saeta's challenge. This was done from a photo I took in September when we were on our cruise. I made sure I was up every morning for sunrise.

Mediterranean Blues by Joan Tavolott

Yesterday I went with the NYC Urban Sketchers to the Brooklyn Museum. They had an exhibit called "Killer Heels" with high heels from the present and going way back in history to the 1620s or earlier. Some of the shoes were really impressive, but I was very thankful that I wasn't wearing any of the ones I saw and my feet were safe in very comfy shoes.

These colorful red shoes caught my attention...how could they not? If the pair on the right weren't so outrageously high you also had to tie them around your feet with leather straps!

These were worn by women in the Ottoman Empire at the bathhouses to keep their feet dry...just how wet were their floors? lol

The pair on the right was beautiful. The ones on the left didn't look so comfortable.

After lunch I headed upstairs and sketched a statue of Robert Fulton. It was a big statue and needed to stretch onto a second page. 

The rest of the sketches from the day were of people. I'll post those tomorrow.

World Bog Hop update: My friend, Tina Koyama (http://tina-koyama.blogspot.com) did her post for the World Blog Hop last Monday and nominated Michele Cooper to participate this week. Here is a link to the post Michele did today...She is a great writer as well as a wonderful artist. Please stop by an visit her blog...you won't be sorry! I went over last week to preview her blog and have been going back since.
http://michelecooper.blogspot.com/2015/01/around-world-blog-hop-michele-cooper.html

A Day in Brooklyn

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens this morning because it is cherry blossom time there. Our first stop was at the Japanese Pond. I did a painting of the pond with the orange Torii (gateway),  with the wonderful cherry blossoms in bloom in the background.

This is about 5 x 7.

I also sketched the crowd of visitors on the viewing platform across the pond.

This is about 3 x5 and was done directly in ink.

After lunch I painted a view of one of the staircases with the flowering trees and a few people.

This is 3 x 5 and done directly in paint.

Lastly I painted a view of a fountain with the greenhouse behind it.

This is 3 x 5 and done directly in paint.

After the gardens a few of us headed over to the Brooklyn Museum which was having some wonderful special exhibits. One was "Fine Lines - American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum" which included drawings of Homer, Eakin, Sargent, Hopper and Hartley among others. There were even sketchbooks belonging to some of the artists.

Next we saw the John Singer Sargent Watercolors. That was great!

The last exhibit we saw was by Anatsui and was hanging sculptures that looked like fabric but really made from metal caps that were flattened and connected with wire. They looked almost like soft, draped fabric hanging. Here is a photo of one of the sculptures.

Isn't this gorgeous?

Due to the length of this post I will save the entry of the "fake journal" until tomorrow.