Wednesday Figure Drawing

I haven't left my apartment since... Monday? Sunday?
It's hard to remember.

I should leave my apartment more... I start feeling REALLY weird after a few days.

So I went to figure drawing... and got a seat in front instead of at one of the easels in the back.
I don't like working flat, it is uncomfortable and can cause distortion but I'll stop complaining.
The space is really tight in Simon's (very nice) room at the National Arts Club, but at least it's something.

The model was lovely and it was her first time modeling! She did great!

40 mins

20 mins

10 mins

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It's not terribly far to get to the National Arts Club, which is on 20th and Gramercy.
I can just take the train to 23rd St.
Figure drawing ended at 9.
I was on the train by 9:15.

I don't know what the heck was possibly going on to cause so much train traffic because the train stopped in the tunnel before every station and it was just the kind of night where I just wanted to get HOME ALREADY.

I should have been home easily before 10 but I didn't get off the train until about 10:30.
And of course before I left drawing I didn't stop at the ladies' because I thought to myself... "It's not long to get home." Yeah right.

That was not fun.

Tuesday Figure Drawing

 So.... I went to drawing again with my friend Janet's group.

The company is fantastic, truly. They are great quirky people.

I don't think they light the models properly and the view is difficult sometimes and absolutely no one is picky like Simon is abut the model poses so I'm completely spoiled.

But it's still worth going to. I'm going to keep looking around for other "zoom supplements" but I'm glad to have this one.

The cats "helped" pose with their people.

The cat settled down right in front of the camera... so I just went with it.

Brooklyn Plein Air & Pointe Shoes

Today I went to Brooklyn Botanic to paint.
It was a nice quiet painting session, which was just what I wanted.

8x10 oil

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Daya needed new pointe shoes and I met her at Onstage after painting.
She needed a fitting (again) and I knew we needed as many pairs as they had of whatever she wanted that they would sell to us.

There is a big problem with pointe shoe shortages right now, and she's very picky about what she can wear. (This is normal for dancers.)

There are many, many, MANY styles and variations of pointe shoes, it's astounding, and you can't wear just anything. It has to fit properly to the shape of your foot and be the right hardness for your foot strength.

Daya's feet are super-strong and she needs the hardest shoes possible.

We ended up getting 2 pairs, which is good because she's performing next weekend with Manhattan Youth Ballet. Tights, shoes, ribbons, elastics... it was a good chunk of change. She'll maybe be ok with shoes for a couple of months.........

I thought this costume at Onstage was really pretty.
And I'm also glad that I don't have to buy costumes anymore.

Find the Hidden Cat & Other Sundries

 Can you find the third cat?

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I feel weird lately and also I kinda really failed on my February Art Goalz.

It was faces.  I wanted to do a face every day. This did not happen.
And figure drawing also wasn't happening and as a result I feel lost and drifty.
It's amazing how a change in my art routine really can knock me off.

I did some Bargue studies and a few faces in my sketchbook but I didn't work anywhere near to the quantity that I wanted to.

Last weekend I even took off from plein airing, on purpose. I was just feeling a bit internally tired.
Work has been pretty busy.  Not busy enough that I am out of balance with it, and I prefer to be busy than not, but it has still been busy and that will continue. (I'm not complaining.)

I'm just in a bit of an artistic lull.

I did start a Holbein master copy and it's going ok but even with that I'm not feeling the energy flow and I can only work in short sessions, an hour or 2 at a time.

Also in Feb I extracted my stationary bike from Daya's room and I have been dong a daily HIIT spin class.  I need to get cardio back in my life, especially since I'm in my apartment all day every day long-term. So I had to being some intense exercise back to my daily routine.  I can go DAYS without leaving my apartment now, taking out the trash doesn't count. And I haven't been going to the pool- in Jan because of covid and in Feb because work has been really busy.  I'm going to make it happen in March.

But I need that daily cardio, and my spin class is working out well.
My diet has been good as well; I spent the month recovering from Junk Food January which was awesome but definitely not sustainable.

March will continue with keeping good health balance.

And I hope my art-energy-lull subsides very soon.

Figured Out Figure Drawing MAYBE

Today I texted Janet and told her I am having an Art Crisis.
She maybe has solved it for me, as much as it can be solved.

Janet draws with The Bunker Creative, they are in New Jersey.
But they are still doing Zoom sessions, and they welcomed me tonight to their group.

Is it as good as Drawing America?
I don't know yet. Maybe nothing ever will be.
Simon is very finicky and tweaks the model pose to make it just right.
I got used to that. 

The poses are mostly shorter.
The people are WONDERFUL and the model was also WONDERFUL, so that's good.
I will definitely keep going.
But I am still sad.

Here are some drawings of Bree:

Figuring Out Figure Drawing

Simon broke my art heart.

Drawimg America zoom figure drawing sessions are officially discontinued and I am gutted.
I loved them.

I got accustomed to having them, and I also kind of got addicted to them over the last 2 years.
It really made figure drawing extremely accessible and I got so much practice in.
I loved the audio books and all the different costumes the models had.

But now figure drawing is back in-person.
Sessions cost more and I have to...... leave my apartment and go.

I want BOTH.  Zoom is never a permanent replacement for in-person live figure drawing but it's also turned out to be a really great thing on its own. Simon runs really, really good sessions with fantastic models and not all sessions are run as well.

I could not go last week because it was full.  There is a participant limit because the room is small.

So I went today.

The model who was supposed to show up didn't and there was a sub.
It's not that he wasn't a good model, he was fine as far as holding poses but I don't really like drawing men. They are never as good as women. This is kind of a thing, even Simon has said the reason they never announce the model beforehand is because no one shows up if it's a man. Women are just more fun to draw, unless there is a cool costume involved.

The guy next to me was breathing loudly through his though the whole time and.... burping.  It was gross. I'm less tolerant of being in close quarters with people.  I was never good at it before but it's on a whole new level for me now.

Figure drawing sessions usually aren't this unpleasant, but sometimes it happens.

I need to find a zoom figure drawing group to supplement the in-person stuff.

Move|NYC Performance

Daya was off from school this week but she didn't have any kind of break.
I let her take last Friday off school so she could have one day to do nothing, at least until she had dance in the evening.

Monday she had rehearsals all day with Manhattan Youth Ballet, and the rest of the week she had an intensive with Move|NYC, her dance mentoring program. They performed tonight and it was wonderful.

She has more performances in a few weeks with Manhattan Youth Ballet.

Islamic Art at The Met

 After the Disney exhibit we went and hung out in the Islamic wing, which is always a wonderful place to be. It's serene and relaxing and there are many manuscript pages.

Back at The Met- Disney Exhibit

 Kedrin, Kim, Janett and I went back to The Met today...and I wanted to go through the Disney exhibit again.  It really was excellent.  They have original Eyvind Earle paintings which are astounding in-person.

All the background art was astounding to be honest.

One of my favorite paintings is not in the catalog which is a bummer.
Also, I don't want to spend $50 on the catalog so I'm going to wait to get it later at a much lower price.

A few super-sneaky pictures...they are not great but I had to be careful.

My friends who were supposed to help me be sneaky were not very good at the "sneaky" part and kept asking (not quietly) if I got my photo yet...... no one caught me but next time I'm not telling anyone.

This is a Cinderella background in gouache.

Detail from an Eyvind Earle painting.

Style sheet for Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast... NO TOILET HANDS!

This painting of the cathedral forest is from Fantasia and isn't in the catalog.

This is the one I wanted to get a picture of.

The stained glass scene that opens Beauty and the Beast is in.... marker.

Roosevelt Island Again

There is a really odd-looking spot on Roosevelt Island that I thought would be fun to paint.

I worked small again today, 6x8. I'm feeling tired today and didn't want to be out too long.

These amazing clouds disappeared about 15 minutes into the painting!

The Met- Saturday Night

 I met up with my museum friends tonight after painting and we went to the Met.
The Disney show is on and I really wanted to see it.  It was really, really good and I want to go back.

Unfortunately, and this is really stupid, they don't allow photography but I'm going to go back a second time and sneak some.  The guards don't seem to be particularly attentive to it.

The sculpture court is so nice at night.

Aside from the Disney show we mostly sat in the Temple of Dendur and talked.

Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital

This weekend all the trains are running local in both directions on the F line.
Which means it's particularly easy to get to Roosevelt Island, so that's the weekend plan.

Today I went back to the old smallpox hospital.
I wanted to work small, so this is a 6x8. It's something a little different.

I like working with different colors within the grey.

Last time I painted the smallpox hospital it was Spring, and everything looked completely different.

Big O works at the parks department at the South tip of the island and he brought me three packs of hand warmers!

Three Cats Napping

 All three cats are not usually together, but today they are!

LaGuardia Dance Ensemble Performance

Daya performed tonight for a cancer benefit.

She's part of the LaGuardia Dance Ensemble, which is a select group of LaGuardia dancers.
They only take 15 kids and it is audition-based.

Here she is after the show right before we left. She was amazing and I am very proud of her.

Studio Progress

I got a LOT done in the studio clean-out.
I destroyed and discarded many, many old paintings.

For the ones I am keeping, some will go back on the wall but most will go into storage.

The top of my shelving is storage for things that should actually be stored.

Isis supervised the whole process.