Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I Luv NYC

and I love taking photos of the places and people of the city.....please don't require me to obtain a permit!

PictureNY.org

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Playing With Pastels

I spent every day, Monday through Thursday, from 10 am to 4 pm, playing with pastels in Bill Cammon's workshop at the museum. Considering this was the first time I'd tried that medium, it was fun! I managed to do 11 pieces (mostly unfinished), but the good/bad thing about pastels is that you can keep on re-working them. We had several still life set-ups and 2 afternoon portrait sessions with a live model. Perhaps I'll incorporate pastels in mixed media...along with oil pastels and watercolor. The materials (paper, pastels and framing) are even more expensive than watercolor, and certainly create a lot more mess. Not the kind of thing I can work on at the coffee table in the living room and definitely not with the fan blowing back and forth. Still no central air at the building..maybe for Labor Day??


Unfinished Still Life
My first attempt at pastels
Work in progress
The least worked over..and I think it's done!
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Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Egg(s) and I

Some things never change...I still can't crack an egg without breaking the yolk! Not good, when you are trying to use a separated whole egg for the 13th century art of egg tempera painting! A really fun and interesting class at the Newark Museum with artist Judy Negron and two other students. Using pigments and egg yolk with a bit of vinegar makes the most striking colors, and exciting glazes. Oh, no...more art supplies to buy and find a place for.
Experiment #1

"Eggs Tempera"
or should I call it "Eggs Tempura?" One of the other students said the painting had a "Japanese" look!

Experiment #2

#4 - Based on a very small watercolor I brought with me.
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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Frank Stella Up on the Roof

What am I doing "blogging" at 4:00 a.m.? If you fall asleep around 9:00 pm and wake up at 3:00 am, what else?

I spent a beautiful Monday afternoon "museum hopping" in NYC, but oh, my aching feet! I walked from Penn Station at 7th Ave & 34th to Lexington & 40th to catch the subway to 86th Street. Then I walked back up to 5th Avenue and waited about 15 minutes on line for the Neue Galerie exhibit of "Van Gogh and Expressionism." July 2nd was the last day. It was an interesting exhibit that hung the Van Goghs with the work of Austrian and German artists to demonstrate his influence on artists such as Kandinsky, Schiele and Kokoschka. Self-portraits were hung together; Van Gogh's painting of his bedroom in 1889 was shown with Schiele's bedroom painting in 1911. I didn't get the show catalog, but I couldn't resist getting a book on Schiele. I've always admired his unique vision and watercolor works.

I walked over to the Metropolitan Museum, open this Monday because it is a holiday week. What a day to see the Frank Stella works up on the roof. The show opened on May 1, but work was still being done on the Chinese Pavillion piece. I'd only brought the Sony camera, but I think I got some good shots. I like the way the openings and angles of the piece frame the skyline and the sky. I had no idea what Frank Stella looked like, so I thought perhaps the bearded man in black was the artist...no, it's Robert van Winkle (not Rip). When I got home I googled and found the NY Times Article about the show. There's also a slideshow of photos taken by Librado Romero during the installation. OK...he's a pro, but I didn't do too badly.


If you go to: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/05/02/arts/
20070503_STELLA_SLIDESHOW_1.html
you should be able to see the slide show and review. I tried it, and it only seems to work if you copy and paste the entire reference.

I walked through the special exhibit of the Sterling and Stephen Clark Collections of Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. A lot of people weren't aware that the Met was open (it's usually closed on Mondays), so it was pleasantly uncrowded. It would have been a good day to check out: Poiret; the related Stella exhibit, contemporary photographs, and of course, the new Greek and Roman Galleries, but my feet said...save it for another day.

On the way out I passed a huge book on Diane Arbus' work called "Revelations." It was on sale from $50 to $20, so how could I resist! It's 352 pages and weighs about 20 lbs...what a bargain. Fortunately, it was just a short walk to the 5th Ave bus.

There's a bright red sunrise...maybe I'll take some pictures, and then again I may just go back to bed.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Will the Calla Lilies Bloom Again?

Ron planted the 3 ugly Calla Lily tubers I got for the garden. Will we see blooms as beautiful as these this year? The flowers, together with oranges and beautiful tiles were in a central courtyard in Portugal. The painting brings back memories of a great trip a few years ago.
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