Snow Behind The Met

We got more snow- not much but enough to make painting in it necessary.

I was originally going to go to Pinetum but ended up behind The Met instead... which is on the way to Pinetum.

My feet did not get cold! Those winter coat things for my boots really work!

It was just above freezing- 34 degrees or around there.

Yes I was a little disappointed it wasn't subzero but it's still a big win that my feet didn't get cold.

8x10 oil

The sun only started to come out at the end of the painting- it was a grey snowy morning

Medieval Pretzel-Neck Creature

You know, I thought these medieval creatures would be chill and easy and... they are INTENSE, as it turns out!

But 3 of 4 is done...!!

I have to have them all ready for our class show which opens on March 4th.

I'll have 6 paintings in the show and I'm VERY excited about it!

So much work to do....

Pretzel-Neck Creature
Adapted from reference-1300s, England
5x7 Egg Tempera and metal leaf
__PRESENT

SNOW!!

I'm so happy it's SNOWING!

Even though it is Tuesday and I cannot paint because I have to work...!!!

SNOW!!

Bizarre Timing

I had my monthly overnight shift at the hotline.

I got in a little early.

Checked in.

Previous shift had all lines occupied.

They said it was REALLY busy.

All normal.

We chatted. Such great people there.

Previous shift left.

Yes I was alone, which is actually really nice.

I took a cue from how another volunteer handles the overnight and turned the lights down to be all cozy.

I was caffeinated, ready for calls, and feeling good.

I put the lines on.

Had my sketchbook and some watercolors, just in case of the unlikely event I had time to pass.

Huh, it was quiet! Weird!

So I sketched.

Put some paint down.

Weird, no calls!

Triple checked the lines were on- yes.

Ok then.

Kept sketching.

About 45 minutes later I thought- ok this is REALLY weird.

It's so not-normal I should tell my shift supervisor.

So I picked up the phone to call them and was met with a BLAST of static.

OMG!!

Thank goodness for cell phones!!

The whole phone system went down.

We went through a reboot procedure.

It did not work.

We all gave up at about 1:30am.

The timing was SO weird- somehow the whole phone system went down in the 20 minutes between when the last shift ended and when I turned on the lines for my shift.

I was scared- irrationally so- that I did something.

This is something to think about- that I blame myself for doing something wrong even when it is literally impossible.

But all I did was turn off a few lights, which could not in any was possibly affect the phones.

The timing was so strange!

So I ended up leaving the lines on and going to sleep for the rest of the shift.

Not 

*******

As it turned out, construction in the area knocked out many, many landlines.

It was just sheer coincidence that the timing was right at the start of my shift!!

A Medieval Civet

The reference for this medieval creature was taken from The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, the "Taste" one.

I had to look this creature up to confirm its identity.

5x7 egg tempera and metal leaf

The experiment on this one was using pastel turned back to dust with the ADORABLE Derwent grater.

It worked.

I also did this for Snailchicken, with some Unison violet in the background.

All the turquoise was based on my favorite Sennelier 722 (the mystery pastel from a while back).

It worked well.

It's actually nice to be able to stretch the usefulness of my stupid pastel collection to egg tempera- though it should be known that when mixed with egg, the pastel dust does turn darker.

Pastel is still the most direct accurate way to apply pigment in its unaltered state.

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Pedestrian Bridge at E 63rd St

I found a new and interesting spot today- I'm always looking for those- there is a pedestrian bridge at E 63rd St so that's where I painted.

The bridge is kind of messed up in my painting..... it was painted last and I did get a bit cold....

8x10 oil

The midday sun was brutal.

Thank goodness I had an extra panel in my box to somewhat get the glare off.

I took a picture of this because these first three lines are the most important part of the painting.

This is the composition stage.

Three simple lines that look like nothing and a LOT of thought went into them, and some erasing and re-doing.

Where is the horizon?

How much sky in relation to water? (More sky? More water? I chose water.)

And the MOST important thing.... never make any 2 intervals the same.

A Bad Drawing

I went back to the Met after work tonight to have a relaxing evening of sketching.
With charcoal, again.

I found a nice secluded spot back in one of the Greco-Roman galleries, with a moon goddess bust.

This is not a good drawing and I don't care.

It doesn't matter because 1) I showed up which in itself is amazing and 2) it's just practice and 3) who cares.

One of the really important things about being good at anything is failure.

Not everything has to be good.

I also finished at 8:52 and the Met closes at 9.

So I had to get out of there.

I would like to go back for a second attempt, maybe in graphite.

Please note the (rather brilliant if I do say so) kneaded eraser "cage" around my tools.

She really is beautiful; I do need to go back.

More pictures:

snailchicken

After that really technical portrait of Daya, I decided to do some small medieval-inspired animals.

I figured they would be relaxing and easy, and a break from the exhausting technical work a portrait requires (for me at least).

I also wanted to take the opportunity to experiment with a few different things.

Like leafing.

I have been scared of leafing for..... um, decades.

Because I never actually looked at the cheap easy way to do it.

Actual gold leafing is very technical and very expensive.  It requires special equipment and is, frankly, terrifying.  So I have stuck with metallic pigments and mostly been pretty happy with them.

But Janae has been doing wonderful leaf work on her paintings, and she's not doing anything fancy.

So I took the plunge.

I went to Blick and got a metal leafing kit for $17.

All you have to do is apply the adhesive, let it dry, stick the leaf on, and put on the sealer.

It is a little bit tricky but.... oh man I'm so slow and dumb; I should have done this YEARS ago.

Snailchicken, 5x7 egg tempera and metal leaf

Skiing Is Not for Me (Probably)

My friend called me earlier this week and invited me to go skiing as a last- minute thing for someone's birthday, and someone else had cancelled.

I have never been skiing and think it's good to try new things and have an adventure, so I said yes.

There is an indoor skiing place in NJ and.... well, the day was an adventure and I have no regrets but I wouldn't go there again.  They book in time slots but don't scan people up the lifts, so people just stay all day and it's dangerously overcrowded. And they ran out of equipment.

It's also not good for people who have never skied before. Even the employees said it was bad.

My boots were too big which is definitely not ideal.

All that being said, I was glad for the new experience.

The biggest problem I had was that I can't get up if (when) I fall.

I find this to be really disturbing because while I am not a gym rat and don't consider myself to be athletic, I do work out and I am in reasonably functional physical shape. For YEARS before covid, I regularly attended a fairly advanced yoga class.  I kayak, I use my stationary bike, I swim, I just started a jump rope workout program (Crossrope)... so I have reasonable expectations of basic physical activity.

And I discovered that- even though I CAN do sit-ups, I can't do standard crunches.  This never even occurred to me, but after talking to a friend about it, I most likely lost the ability to do them after my c section.  Since I can do planks and sit-ups, and have the yoga history, it never even occurred to me.  

But I can't do them.  

This tells me I need to start really working on my core.

It's a horrible feeling to be essentially helpless in a physically compromised way.

So, at least for now, skiing is out for me.

We went to a coffee shop afterwards.... these odd pastries at the bottom of the case look interesting.

I did not get one but was curious what they are.

They are Italian- Roman in origin actually, and are called maritozzi.

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Onion Vase at the Met

One of my boathouse friends wants to get back into art, and I'm really good at helping people with that.
Se, we went to the Met together tonight to sketch.  We both brought charcoal.

I haven't worked in charcoal forever!

Isn't this onion vase wonderful?

I'm pretty sure this old vessel was the basis for Shrek's character design....

Van Gogh says hi!