Usk Sketchmas Day 18 - Dog or Cat & Museum Trip

 The Sketchmas prompt yesterday was a "dog or cat." I don't have any pets and didn't really want to disturb a friend to go over and do a pet portrait. So I went to Petco and stood by their window to the grooming station. The dog I picked stood pretty still, but the groomer kept moving around and blocking my view. Also, I couldn't see the dog's paws because there were boxes blocking my view. I did the sketch on site but added the color at home.

On Saturday one of my art groups, Wet Paints, had a bus trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a free trip for members...only guests had to pay. How could I pass that up? The museum had several great exhibits so I wasn't planning to spend the day sketching like I usually do. Along with two friend from the group I went to view the Manet/Degas Exhibition which was really good and extensive. Manet & Degas were friends and often painted in the same areas and used the same models. The curator of the exhibit showed a painting of each of theirs and the info by the paintings discussed how the two paintings were related. I learned a lot about both of them.

The second exhibit was titled "Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism." The two artists redefined color as they painted with colors that they sensed rather than the natural hues of what they were seeing. It was a color explosion.

The final exhibit we saw was "Women Dressing Women" which explored many of the women fashion designers from The Met's permanent collection from the turn of the century to the present day. My favorites were some of the older fashions.

The Met's Christmas tree with the beautiful angels merited a stop too.

But I did have about 30 minutes to do a sketch before we were due back on the bus. My friend Liz was sketching in front of me.

Collioure, France - Sketch 1

The NYC Urban Sketchers had Zoom event today hosted by Patricia Chow, a member of our group who lives in California. We have been having members virtually lead us through an area, a style, or a location. Patricia led us to the lovely town of Collioure, France which is the birthplace of a style of art called Fauvism. She also spoke about Fauvism, which I admit I knew nothing about. It is a very colorful style of art that didn't last too long. Here is what Wikipedia says about it.

I found a colorful, flower-filled street using Google Maps that already had a lot of strong color, so in some ways this sort of fits the idea of fauvism. I personally have a difficult time straying from the actual color of something I am sketching or painting. I have never visited Collioure, France, but from my experience wandering around the town, I am sure I would be very happy visiting there in person.

Since this is not sketched from life it isn't a true urban sketch.