LaGuardia Senior Dance Concert

Tonight we went to the dance meet and greet for incoming students and parents.  It was nice.
Afterwards was the senior dance concert which was.... freaking AMAZING.

It's not a high school-quality production.
It's a Broadway-quality production and I'm not exaggerating one bit.

It was.... astounding.
In fact it was better than some professional dance performances I have seen.

Daya is so, so excited to go.
There are 66 dancers in Daya's Freshman class.

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Here are some thoughts that I'm just going to write because they are in my head and it's stuff that isn't relevant or important to (mostly) anyone else but this is my blog and I'll ramble if I want to.

When we arrived at LaGuardia this evening there was an... ABC(?) reporter recording a sound bite in front of the school.  It went something like... "These talented kids are coming here for drama, dance  etc etc and instead they are getting..... math class."

It's a high school, idiot, of course they are getting math class.

Now, the principal is REALLY disliked. There is a lot of controversy because she has put what people say is too much emphasis on academics at the expense of cutting some of the arts programs in the school.  There is also controversy over grades factoring in too much for admissions.

And she is from every account I heard a difficult person to deal with, and not a good communicator.
She has gotten terrible press since she took the position.

BUT-- LaGuardia ranks something like #265 of the top high schools the entire USA and #31 in NYC.
And while I am in agreement with some of the protests, I dislike the way people are going about it. The message is getting distorted in extreme negativity.

The quality of training, talent, and professionalism in that school is astounding.
The kids are coming out of there polished professionals. They love being there, people are happy at the school.  Parents, too.

I think that this bad press is hurting the school, ironically by the very people who are looking to make it better. It isn't working, it isn't helping. A different approach is needed.

So while I do think there are issues with Dr. Mars, this crazy rabid negativity is something I need to steer clear of.  If there was a decline in the quality of students, that would be a greater issue.  But there isn't- they are amazing and worthy of that school's legacy.

Dance Workshop Sketch

One of Daya's dance teachers has a dance company, and they did a workshop on May 17th.
She invited me to come paint, which was fun.

This is very difficult on-location work, not only the (moving) subject matter but the size.  I worked in my Moleskine book which is 5" x 8".

The workshop was only an hour long and i needed more time, so I finished tonight while Daya was in class.  In total about 2 hours.

What Not to Do

This is an illustration I have been working on for a mental health resource website for Reuters journalists.  It is an illustration for an article entitled "What Not to Do", which is about unhealthy coping mechanisms that manage stress short-term but can become addictions.

This is a pastel, 8x10 on Richeson sanded paper. 
It has been giving me dirty looks from the easel for a few weeks. 
I'm glad it is done and sent off.

*****
In the afternoon I spent some time at Jackie's for a bbq, which was lovely and relaxing.

Sheep's Meadow Plein Air

I took my pastels out plein airing in Sheep's Meadow today. (Central Park)
Daya came along for part of the time, then had enough and went home.

9x12 pastel on black Uart 400

Dress Rehearsal

We were at rehearsal for a long time, after 9:30pm.
Of course there was heavy rain on the way over to the theater.

Three Oil Paintings

They are finished and dry! They are dry!!!

These three paintings are thank you gifts this year to Daya's dance teachers, her main ones who have worked with her since 2011.  Especially with her going into high school, and getting in to Laguardia, I wanted to do something special this year.  Tonight is dress rehearsal and probably the last time I see all three of them before recital (which is not a good day to give gifts).

All are 5x7 oil.

This is Ms Shauna's cat.

This is Ms Victoria's dog.

This is for Ms Rysa who owns the studio and has provided the overall environment.
(She doesn't have any pets.)

Sometimes photographing paintings is more difficult than painting them.

After Work Plein Airing

Now that we have longer daylight hours, and (presumably) better weather, I can go painting after work in Central Park.

So last night I went, because we finally had a break from the stupid rain.  I had a decent window of time between leaving work and having to get Daya, but not enough for an 8x10.

So here is a 6x8, oil, exactly 2 hours.

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Three Paintings Update:
They are all done and the last layer on the third painting is drying today.
It should be fine for tomorrow evening. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Phew, I made it!

How I Exchanged My Soul for a Water Bottle & Watching Paint Dry

HOW I EXCHANGED MY SOUL FOR A WATER BOTTLE

Saturday was the NYC Dance Parade.  Our studio participated.

They started on 21st and Broadway and went down to the Village.

Daya wasn't feeling well on Saturday, she had a sore throat.  At the parade everyone got a bottle of water, but by the time we got down to the park she had no water left.  This meant she was Literally Dying.  I was put to the task of getting her water, which was tricky due to the street barriers.

I looked around in the park and saw a table with nice-looking people sitting.  They had a case of water.  I walked up and asked if I could buy a bottle.  They said no, it is free, but you have to take some books.  I said, ok!

And that is how I exchanged my soul for a bottle of water.

The water was fine but the real price I paid was carrying around the books.
(I could have set them down somewhere but I had to take a picture for my blog!)


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MY THUNDERCATS SISTER

After the dance parade I sent Daya home and I went up to the Met to meet Jin and paint.

I was a little early, about a half hour.  Since I was waiting for Jin I wanted to wait to set up anywhere, so I walked around, mostly without thinking too much about it.  As it happened, I went into the 20th century galleries, which is not a place I usually go.  It has been years.

So I was walking around the galleries looking at paintings I had to know for art history when a guard walked over to me.  She approached me as if she knew me, like I was someone she knew but hadn't seen for a long time ... I don't know, but it was intense.  She looked like she was going to cry.  I was thinking, "Do I know this person?  Did I know her a long time ago?  I don't think so.... um...." So I just went with it.

And she said... "ThunderCats!"

I was, indeed, wearing my ThunderCats t-shirt.

So we had an extremely fun encounter and she decided we are sisters, which of course is true.
Her name is Tiffany and she was SO HAPPY to talk about ThunderCats!

We got a lot of strange looks but they were from tourists who don't know how NYC goes with cool encounters.

So that's why I wandered into the 20th century galleries, because Tiffany was there!
Maybe one day I'll see her again as I wander around the museum.

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I wanted to finish the painting I started with Carey, but I was a little too bold about my setup and I got busted and had to stop painting.  I give up, I'll finish Aphrodite at home.  But their inconsistent enforcement policies are really stupid.  I'll have to be super sneaky again next time.

I did this sketch instead with Graphitint and a water brush.
I'm slightly annoyed because I wanted my sketchbook to be a gouache sketchbook and this is not gouache but I'll have to deal with it. Or maybe I will go over it in gouache.  James Gurney finishes his gouache sketchbook paintings at home, I guess I can, too.

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SUNDAY PAINT DRYING UPDATE
Two of the paintings are finished and one needs a varnish layer and a final gold layer.****
I am hoping I can get it done late tonight or tomorrow so it can be solidly touch-dry for Thursday.

Galkyd gel rules!

****   I am using gold paint in all three paintings. I like a good gloss finish on my oils, but I do not like gloss over gold oil paint. So it has to go over the varnish.  I could put cold wax medium over it to change the finish back to matte but since there is a good amount of detail work, that's too much of a pain,

There is a ton of thinking ahead that goes into layered painting, and a lot of that is knowing what to do from past experiments.  And of course taking into account drying time.

I could have easily done the underlayers in acrylic but... I don't like working in acrylic, I like painting in oils. I want to make oil paintings, not acrylic paintings.  Sometimes we artists are so funny about our preferences for no real reason except we just feel better about it.  The end results would be the same either way. But I feel better about it being 100% oil, solely because that's how I want to work.

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TUESDAY MORNING PAINT DRYING UPDATE:
I got the varnish layer on the third painting this morning. Last night it was still sticky but this morning it was dry enough.  Today the varnish can dry and I'll put the final layer on tonight, which should be dry for Thursday!

Monochromatic Cat

Pebbles the Monochromatic was very interested in my pastel delivery!

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What a week.

This is the part of May that is one thing after another.

I'm backlogged at the easel and I have a deadline on three small paintings for next Thursday. 

One is Mostly Done, the second Needs Background Work and the third is currently Not Started.

I cannot find my tube of Liquin which is .... baffling.... as it never leaves my easel area.

This morning as I was getting ready for work I had Other Priorities which included trying to find my Liquin, I found my tube of Galkyd gel instead so that will have to do.  Liquin dries oil paint slightly faster but Galkyd is fine.

Because right now I have a serious need to get oil paint to dry as fast as possible.  Two days ago I mixed some of Gamblin's solvent free gel (also an alkyd) into the paint and parts of it are still a little wet and that is Not Good.  I need 24-hour drying.  (Note to Self: Solvent-free alkyd gel dries more slowly than Galkyd or Liquin...)

I'm feeling stressed. Painting is stressful.

Tonight I'm going to have to put in some serious easel time and get that third Not Started painting at least half done.

If I can get Serious Work done tonight, and everything has tomorrow to dry, I can maybe have everything finished AND dry by Tuesday....... then varnish which needs to dry for a day or so....

Oil paint and deadlines are a tough combination.  I'm not very good at it until the deadline looms.

But I have put in several hours already on the 2 paintings over the last couple of weeks, they are just taking longer than I hoped.

Showchoir

Daya choreographed the show choir performance this year.  She wasn't a performer but she ran auditions and all rehearsals.  Only two other girls in that group are dancers, so Daya had her work cut out for her.

The choreography was really great- it was an actual large group dance, not one of those cheesy pantomimes,  The choir director gave her a lovely intro to the audience.

2 Days in Denial

It took me about 2 whole days after receiving that $100 Blick coupon to stop kidding myself about what I would get with it.

Really, I spent 2 whole days in denial, wondering and thinking "Well, I do have a year to think about it...I wonder what I will get....it has to be good...."

Yeah right, of course! I'm going to get pastels!
I'm actually on a self-imposed restriction about buying more pastels- I'm not allowed to.
I have.... so many..... I even held to this with the Schminke open stock pastel clearance sale at Blick.

The problem with pastels is it really is a matter of the more the merrier, unlike oils or, anything else really...... because pastels are not mixed on a palette like any other paint.  They are essentially pre-mixed paint.  You can do optical mixing but one of the great learning aspects of pastels is to identify the correct color AND value in one stick.  This is why pastel painters in general have the most incredible sense of color... as a general group more than any other medium IMHO.

So because I'm not allowed to buy any more and I don't need any more I got three sets which were more than half covered by that coupon:

Unison Lights
This was the one I had an inner struggle about... because I technically have the whole set already.
Da Vinci discontinued Unison open stock a few years back and I dug through their whole inventory and got all of them on crazy- sale.  With a bunch more.  Then I saved them carefully and the morning after I packed them in their new memory foam box Furball knocked it over and my soul shattered.

I never really got over it... and that set of lights was hit hard... literally.  I still use them but it isn't the same.  I can't stare at them. Blick has this set on sale and it works out to the same price per stick that I paid previously.  These will stay in their original box because my box of Terry Ludwig lights needs a friend.

Unison Darks
I don't want the full set of 18 darks, they aren't all tinted blacks and I think Unison could have done better on the selection.  But the set of 8 is perfect.

A good range of tinted darks (value 1 Munsell), just like lights (Value 10 Munsell), are really crucial for pastels. I have a set of Sennelier (very soft) and Rembrandt (harder and so useful!) but I always wanted some really good Unison darks.  I don't know why their 18 darks set isn't all value 1.... it is the same with Sennelier.  They do well on the lights though, those are all the same value. (The Rembrandt dark set is fantastic.)

Richeson Portrait

I really like Richeson pastels and this portrait set is just lovely.

It will also stay in the original box because my Sennelier portrait set needs a friend.

Any pastel painter will tell you that at least half of any painting consists of staring at your pastels.

Yes I know I am hopeless.

Cleopatra's Needle

Today I went out to paint, but I wasn't really in my zone at all.  Not before, not during, and not after.

I had loosely planned to go out today but I was in one of those mental-sludgy days where even three cups of tea didn't help.

But anyhow, here is the painting, I had a harder time with it, especially the foliage, due to not being in my zone.  And I felt like everything was lined up for me to be there, I just couldn't feel it.  The painting is not a disaster though, even though there are a few things I would change.

I think now that I am comfortable putting people in I need to re-think and adjust my technique just a little bit. 

I have been intentionally going with the colored blob approach because it works so well in David Nakabayashi's paintings but I think mine need another step of... something, I don't know, edges maybe?  I have to think about it.  I always do them very last after removing the paint underneath.  They are thickish spots of color so working them too much isn't possible.  Plus, they are really tiny.

So... I have to think about it.  There is something there and I'm close to knowing it.

8x10 oil, about three hours.

(I can very predictably say an 8x10 plein air takes about three hours.)

Funny true story- I made up the dog.

After I had packed my gear and was walking out of the park, a dog who looked just like my imaginary painted dog appeared!!

Blick Appreciation

You know what's really, REALLY nice?
When a large company takes time to say thank you in a significant way.

It's seriously really very extremely nice.

I'm a mod on oils and pastels over at wetcanvas, and this is a 100% unpaid volunteer position which often requires quite a bit of work and dealing with people, sometimes in a front-lines kind of way.

I have been a mod for years and I enjoy it.  The site could not run without all the volunteer staff.

Every few years, Blick sends us an appreciation gift. And it isn't even their forum, though they support it through advertising.  I got a nice set of oils once which I still use.
But today I got THIS in the mail, with a really, really SUPER nice letter.

Instead of art stuffs, they sent..........

WOW!!!

I appreciate being appreciated!

This is a significantly nice gift and makes me feel really good.

Carey on Saturday!

Carey left us on Saturday, after we went to the Japanese grocery.

Pebbles was very sad and slept on Carey's pillow for the rest of the day.
Isis and Furball were also disappointed.

Carey on Friday!

Dinosaurs and art....... we went to TWO museums on Friday, I don't think I have ever done that before.  Museums are wonderful but also really tiring.

We spent a lot of time with the dinos including the new T-Rex exhibit, which is very cool.

We hung out with our prehistoric pets until we got kicked out of the museum due to closing.

Then we took the bus downtown, passing Lincoln Center, and walked east along the bottom of Central Park (horses) and made our way to the Met.

Carey is the ONLY person I have taken around the city who.... didn't get tired of walking.
EVERYONE gets sick of my walking routes, but we walk a lot in this city.
But not Carey! She's a local, now.

The Met is magical, unlike MoMA.
I never get tired of the Met and it is nice to visit with old friends, like the Degas ballerinas.

And Monet's haystacks.

We painted in the Greek sculpture court until we got kicked out due to museum closing.

Then we went out to eat at a newly-discovered Indian place.
On the walk back to the train some lovely older ladies called us over to ask directions to a theater.
One of them had a birthday (66), and they were so nice and it was a fun encounter.

Then we passed Carnegie Hall on the way to the train.

Carey gets around!!

She went to, over the last 2 days:

Midtown (MoMA) 53rd and 5th
Port Authority and Times Square
Hell's Kitchen (for sushi at Kodama)
Walk back through Times Square to Bryant park
AMNH and Upper West Side
Lincoln Center
Columbus Circle
Central Park South (all the horses!)
Uptown via Madison Ave
The Met
5th ave and 59th (The Plaza which is under construction)
Carnegie Hall

...all in 2 days.

And she did not get tired of walking!

Carey on Thursday!

Carey came to visit me today!!
We managed to find each other at the airport.
We had a much more difficult time finding where to buy a metrocard, which is set up in a very un-intuitive way.

A girl came over to me asking for help "activating her metrocard or she will get a fine"..... someone was messing with her, she had just purchased a $22 card and it was fine!

On the way home I got a really dire text from Daya:

Regents practice was at school and the kids were done and just sitting in the auditorium.
They thought they were going to die of boredom and I agreed.

So, Carey and I went to school and bailed Daya and her friend out.

Then we went to MoMA so Carey could see Starry Night.
I have not been to MoMA for many years, maybe not even since college.
It isn't somewhere I ever feel I need to go, not like the Met.

I did visit my 2 favorite paintings there, which should really both be at the Met anyhow.

Well, I'm glad I went but I don't need to go back.

Then we went to Kinokuniya so Carey could bask in Japanese everything.
I saw this teapot and I really might go back and get it. Photo does not do it justice, it is AMAZING.