Matisse in the Studio

Late last week I took a trip into Boston to met a friend at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. First time I had been back to the museum for several months. A combination of things has kept me away, mostly weather related. Then I get out of the habit and just end up not making the trip. Not good, as there are several exhibits at the museum that I want to spend more time with. On this trip the main focus was the Matisse in the Studio Exhibit which is in the large gallery space. Though we also spent time in the Botticelli exhibit.

Henri Matisse was a French Artist who along with several other Artists was involved with the beginnings of modern art in Paris around 1900.  Unlike Picasso who worked at developing his artistic skills as a young man Matisse didn't discover art until after he had started a career in law as a court administrator. While he was recuperating from an illness his mother gave him some art supplies and he fell in love with art. He then returned to school in Paris to study art. If you wish to read more about Matisse click on the link embedded in his name above and read a full biography.

The exhibit pairs his paintings (selected as representing his entire career) with objects from his studio that he had collected or had been given and then used in his paintings. Matisse liked to paint from life.

In the painting above it is the screen and table that were items in his studio. Both are in the exhibit.

Both the tree above and the lithograph below are from a later time in his career/life, when he along with Picasso was interested in simplifying drawings and design. Course the men were lifelong friends by then and probably discussed their goals with their art.

I find that I enjoy looking at these simplified images. And I have to say that it isn't as easy to do as Matisse makes it look. 

Matisse was also known for his use of color, which can be seen in the painting I posted at the head of this post. 

I am not going to say much about the Botticelli exhibit though it includes paintings from his instructor. While I enjoyed viewing the works I can't say that I really admire them. I can only take so many virgin's with child before I have had enough, and Botticelli lived at a time when religious art was the main stay of his career. They do have one of his Venus paintings, and another that shows Athena with a centaur, both classical themes that again I find a bit, wearing. That said both paintings are beautifully executed and if you like art of that period (Renaissance) are worth a visit to the MFA to see.

One totally non relevant comment, in the Matisse exhibit I saw a man going around to each painting and photographing it. He didn't bother to look at the paintings, well only enough to make the photograph, and then quickly moved on to the next one. What was he doing? Did he not have time to spend in the exhibit and wanted to document that he had been there? Did he honestly think he could study the paintings in his photographs as if he were in front of the actual works? By the way you can't, photographs lie, and gallery lighting isn't good enough for a really good photo. It seemed very strange to me. While I made a few photos (for the blog) I don't usually even try to photograph paintings. I am more likely to photograph sculpture or other works and then more as a memory jogger rather than as something I would study at leisure. As far as I am concerned he was just wasting his time and perhaps looking for bragging rights. Oh well it takes all kinds.

That is it for today. Next blog post will probably be pretty flower pictures.

Life Portraits and a butterfly

I was hoping to post this blog update last week, but poor weather here in the Northeast caused me to have Internet connection issues so I wasn't able to do any uploading. Better late than never I guess, but I admit to feeling a bit frustrated at the time.

Above is another of my 6 x 6 inch pen and ink drawings that are meant to be used like coloring book pages. This one was also started on my vacation in Chicago over Christmas. The butterfly is from a photograph I made a couple of years ago. Last summer I didn't see a lot of Tiger Swallowtails, while the previous summer (2014) I saw a great many, but then last summer got very dry and after July I just didn't see a lot of butterflies at all.

Drawn first with pencil on Stonehenge paper then inked with one of my technical pens. I decided to fill in the black areas with pen, I suppose I should have left them open but I know I found the areas a bit confusing so I thought it would be better if I just went ahead and filled them appropriately. The background is a bit abstracted. The butterfly was feeding on a Butterfly Bush which has lots of little flowers, a bit tricky to draw so I didn't even really try. Eventually I hope to get around to adding colored pencil to this.

Last Tuesday (Feb. 2) I took the bus into Boston to make photographs and visit the new Frida Kahlio painting at the Boston MFA. The painting which is a new acquisition is on display in the Rotunda but will only be there for a couple of weeks before it heads off to conservation for documentation, evaluation and any needed conservation before it goes on permanent display in one of the galleries. The painting is of two sisters who worked for Frida's mother, and I posted a photo of it on my Facebook page along with some of the photos I made of Boston on Tuesday.

Anyway on the trip up to Ashmont I entertained myself by making sketches of my fellow passengers. The woman above was done with pen, and I didn't really mean to give her a mustache, I just wanted to shade the area under her nose a bit.  Oops, used a bit too much pen I fear. Still the drawing isn't too bad. I think I still managed to capture her look.
 

 After my problems with shading with the pen I switched to a mechanical pencil and drew these three passengers. I feel the best one is the 3rd drawing of the African American older man. There are issues with the middle male figure as while I was working on the drawing he change how he was holding on (he was standing) and raised the arm closest to me blocking my view of the back of his head, I didn't want to add the arm, so the back of his head is mostly unfinished.  These exercises of drawing fellow passengers are one way for me to try and keep my hand in with figure drawing.

 At the MFA I decided to check out the Modern Art wing, which I usually avoid, but they do tend to swap out exhibits in those galleries so I thought I should check them out. To my surprise in one of the rooms a Performance Artist was in residence. The exhibit is called 100 Ways to Consider Time. The artist (Marilyn Arsen) is spending 100 days in this room, moving water from one container to another by eyedropper. Also present but not in the photograph is the mechanism of a Grandfather clock, no case, just the exposed gears and pendulum. There are also benches where visitors are encouraged to sit, and slow down while they observe the artist.

Sounds become important in this situation, the ticking of the clock, the sounds of the glass eyedropper hitting the sides of the glass beakers, the sounds other visitors in the museum make while exploring the outer galleries etc. I of course decided to try and draw the artist to capture a moment of time. I also made a photograph which you can see below.. Drawn in my sketchbook with a mechanical pencil, my visit was on day 80 something so she still has a couple more weeks on exhibit.

 Photograph of Performance Artist Marilyn Arsen, 100 Ways to Consider Time.

We had our first major storm arrive last Friday with about 8 inches of heavy wet snow which stuck to trees and buildings. This is a photograph of one of the dogwood trees in front of my local Library. I made the photo early on Sat. Afternoon. Because the tree is shielded from the morning sun by the Library building most of the snow was still on the branches. It looks pretty but can be deadly if the weight of the snow causes branches to fall, there were at least two deaths attributed to falling branches over the weekend.

That is it for today, per usual comments are always welcome.

Some Pen and Ink and other Updates

Oops, been way too long since I managed a blog update. Mostly because a problem with my Apt. required that I pretty much pack it up and store stuff while the problem was being dealt with. Heat has also been an issue as I just don't feel very creative when I am hot. That said things are mostly settled, thank heavens, and I am slowly starting to put the Apt. and my life back together. Still for the moment my art supplies have been reduced to a couple of sketchbooks and my technical pens and pencils so the type of work I can do is limited, graphite or pen and ink.

All of today's images are pen and ink aren't really much more than doodles, but still a way for me to keep my hand in, and some of them are kind of fun. Above a stylized moon with some funky stars and I think galaxies, hey if I say that is what I intended you will just have to take my word for it. Drawn with pen in one of my small sketchbooks.

Another pen work, this time an imaginary still life, Not sure what that image in the background is, but I had fun drawing it.

I have been photographing Hydrangea's, the flowers can be white, blue, pink and sometimes a purple color depending on the soil conditions they are growing in. This little sketch isn't from life, but from my imagination even if based (more or less) on real flowers. Drawn with a .03 Copic Multiliner in one of my sketchbooks.

The upheaval in my Apt. caused me to toss the curtains in my living room. It was time, they were old and some of them had sun rot and were splitting. Trying to keep the cost of the replacement curtains down I purchased some inexpensive flat sheets from Walmart, They are a cotton/poly blend and knit not woven. The fabric is not very nice and I would hate to have to use them on my bed, but for curtains they will work, however the plain cream color just was too bland for me to want to go with it.

Hey I am an artist and something of a fiber artist though I haven't been doing much with fiber these past few years. Still I had/have supplies (just had to dig them out of storage) so the above photo shows an in-progress image of what I am doing to the sheets to liven them up. I am stenciling leaves to the cream background using Shiva Oil Paint sticks and some leaf templates I had picked up at a quilt show years ago and never really used. I am using several colors of green paint, along with several gold/yellow/red iridescent paint colors

Needless to say this is turning out to be a larger project than I initially planned. It is taking longer to stencil the leaves than I expected and is a lot more work. I have four windows that I have to re-curtain, and at my current rate it will probably be sometime next year before I am done. I will try to remember to post an image of a finished set so you can have an idea of how the project came out.

Last week I finally managed a trip into Boston, the main purpose was to make some photographs in Copley Square for the 2016 Calendar that I am working on but I also added in a quick visit to the MFA, with a side trip to Dick Blicks for more paint sticks. I am working on 3 calendars for 2016, flowers, butterflies and a seasonal year of Boston images. More about these in further posts.

From my visit to the MFA, above are three photographs of artwork from a new exhibit called Pastoral to Pop, 20th Century Britain on Paper. As you can see the exhibit is very eclectic from abstracted to realistic, buildings to figure. I take every chance I can get to view works on paper, for many years a neglected part of world of art but one which I find compelling. Some of these works I found very compelling, others not so much. Since it will be up until next Feb. I expect to visit it a few more times and to be able to really examine some of the works more closely.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo's but the gallery has low light and I can't use flash so.., also the works were sometimes hung over each other putting them above my line of sight, making a head on photo shot a bit tricky (hence the cut off top of the figure drawing)

Last image today is a photograph of a sunflower that I made last week. It is growing in a neighbors front yard. Actually a lot of my neighbors grow sunflowers, which I appreciate since I love to photograph them. Yellow, brown, green and blue wonderful colors that go well together.

That is it for today, hopefully it won't be so long before my next update. Hope everyone had a good summer and is looking forward to a splendid fall. Per usual comments are welcome and appreciated even if I don't always respond.

Pen and Ink, eggs, bottles and doodles

Not fabulous work this update, but at least I seem to be back into a cycle of getting some art work done, always a good thing even if the work isn't my best. Ah well, the above is from another of the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum monthly challenge images. This is a plate of quail eggs, if you have never seen them in the stores they are about half the size of a Chicken egg and are speckled brown and cream eggs.

For this image that I drew on Strathmore Toned Tan paper I used first a brown pen for the eggs and their speckles then added black for the plate and shadows. For the black I used one of my technical pens. Size is about 5 x 5.5 inches.

I actually started this before I got sick and just finally got back to in the the past few days.

A bottle, drawn directly in ink for one of the Treasure Hunts in the Draw from Life forum in WetCanvas. This is a very wonky bottle, I am usually much better at symmetry but as I drew directly in ink there was no way to correct and I just had to let it go. It does have a certain charm, I guess, sometimes it is just better to accept that we can't be really accurate all of the time and work with what comes out of the pen.

The drink is a carbonated flavored water, no artificial or real sweeteners and as I try to stay away from soda (too many empty calories) this one of my preferred alternatives to buy when I can when I am out and about. Flavor for this bottle was black cherry, that or lemon or lime are my favs.

Another of my pen exercises is above. I start with a shape and then just work it, adding fills and other shapes as the mood takes me, the only requirement is that I use all of the pens, and I have 5 that I routinely keep ink in.

This week I made, with a friend, another trip to the MFA. We spent time in various galleries, seeing the new Leonardo da Vinci drawing exhibit; Herb Ritts photographs; In the Wake, photographs from Japan after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in 2011; Hokusai, Japanese prints; and Court Ladies or Pin-Up Girls, Chinese paintings. Needless to say we didn't spend very long in any one gallery, more less just sampling the works. I do have to say that I have no clue how da Vinci and his contemporaries could get such a fine line with chalk, their chalk must have been nothing like any chalk I have used. Also the Herb Ritts photographs are amazing, I am not usually that interested in photographs that aren't connected to a story, but his really pulled me in.

Anyone in Boston in the next few months/weeks should plan a visit to the MFA, there is so much to see and admire. Oh the flower arrangements were already gone when we were there on Tuesday so I am glad that on my last visit I was mostly chasing them around the museum or I would have missed them.

After we reached our limit inside we went outside to visit the newly reopened Japanese Garden, above is a photo of some blooming cherry trees in the garden.

One last image for today, above is a Trout Lily, the first flower I have been able to photograph, I saw one at Borderland State Park last week, but it wasn't where I was able to photograph it. These delicate little yellow wild flowers are one of the earliest of our native spring blooms. They are very late this year due to the slow melting snow and our cool weather.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Spring is Arriving, sketches and a MFA exhibit

Above is a graphite drawing I made on site at a local State Park, the lake, a rocky outcrop and trees. Not wonderful, but not too bad either. Next time I need to add some color to this.

The drawing was made on a walk I took just prior to catching a bug. I wasn't terribly sick, but I also didn't feel like drawing so I have been neglecting the blog. It is hard to draw when the hand I draw with is busy holding tissues to my nose or mouth. Feeling much better now and am hoping to get back to my drawings.

On another walk I made a photograph of a Song Sparrow which I used as reference for the above drawing. The photo is a bit blurry, I don't have the right lens to really photograph birds but I rather like the drawing anyway. Done with one of my technical pens in a small notebook.

Another of my pen exercises using all of my technical pens. Started with just the straight lines, then added the curved lines and with a bit of imagination created a face. Looks like some kind of cat to me, but then maybe you see a bear, whatever it is all good.

I made a quick trip into Boston yesterday, mainly to photograph the arrival of spring in the Boston Public Gardens, but also included a quick trip to the MFA. On exhibit at the MFA is their annual Art in Bloom show. Each spring different garden clubs and centers around Boston select works of art on exhibit in the museum and create floral arrangements to complement them. Since works are selected throughout the museum you never know what you will be seeing in each gallery.

I had fun photographing quite a few of the different arrangements but thought you might enjoy seeing two that were presented in the Modern Art Wing. The flower arrangements are the top photos with their accompanying art work the bottom.

The art work above is Crommelynck Gate, Enamel on Bronze created by Jim Dine an American who lives in Walla Walla, WA.

This second piece is by Gerhard Richter a German who lives in Cologne, Germany, and is called Vase, oil on canvas. Love his use of complementary colors in this, the real painting is relatively large and the colors really pop.

I was almost ready to kill when I was trying to make this photo, three women spent many minutes (which felt like hours) standing where I needed to be to make the photograph, discussing the painting, the use of color esp. the white streaks and how they pull the viewer into the painting. UGH, I am sure they though I was listening to their conversation, I sort of was, but only because they wouldn't move and I wanted to make the photograph with as little distortion as possible.

This is just a sample of the many combinations of flowers and art that can currently be found at the MFA. If you are in the Boston area it is certainly worth a visit.

Last photo is from Boston's Public Garden and is of a early blooming Magnolia tree in full bloom, they and some early pink cherry trees were yesterday's attraction. The tulips aren't quite out yet, though there were a few beds of pansy's along the main walkway.

Weather was actually a bit chilly though sunny but still after the winter and snows we had it is a wonderful sight.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome. Hopefully there will be more art in my next update.

Nature Journal, Still Life and Madonna

For the moment I am all caught up with the Nature Journal drawings. Above is my last one and is for a visit to Daniel Webster in Sept 2013. I am happy to have finally finished these as they have been hanging over my head so to speak since I stop making notes on my visits to various locations.

The drawings above are of the usual tree stump, though on this visit the water in the Panne was at the lowest level I had ever seen it at. It had been a fairly dry summer, but I do recall being shocked at how little water was left, esp as the last time I had visited in June it had been at the highest level I had ever seen. I speculated that they might have tried to drain some of the water out, a mistake since the summer had turned out very dry. I haven't been back since that visit, and while I want to go back I think I still need to wait just a bit longer to make sure the snow is gone from the paths.

The next drawing is of a Cabbage White Butterfly on some fall New England Asters, and an image of a couple of apples growing on one of the apple trees in the old orchard. The trees aren't taken care of in any way, so the apples are not pretty and I doubt they would be very good to eat. The deer love them though and will eat whatever falls.

Above is a pen and ink still life done for the March WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum monthly challenge. Haven't done one of these for a while, not sure exactly why, I download the challenge images and print them out but never seem to get around to doing the drawing. This one was done with my technical pens on another half sheet of the Utrecht paper with no under drawing.

I was in Boston at the MFA on Tuesday and for my Museum sketch I made the above. The statue is a medieval wooden Madonna. The infant Jesus doesn't look very child like, which was typical of that era, and both figures have lost parts. A hand in the case of the Madonna and parts of hands and feet in the case of Jesus. It was a fairly quick sketch and I certainly missed capturing her expression, mine doesn't look very happy at all. Ah well I should of spent more time on her but I kept being distracted by performances of Sonic Blossom that were taking place in a gallery not far from the one I was in.

Sonic Blossom is performance art, a singer selects a museum visitor, guides them to a chair that has been set up in one of the larger galleries and then sings to them. They use a tape player of some sort to provide the background music for the singer who on the day I was there was a lovely Soprano.

The statue I was drawing is above, I was seated on a bench which is slightly to the right of the statue so I had a slightly different view of the pair.

I spent some of that visit in the European art Galleries paying attention to the composition rules that most of the paintings seemed to adhered to, triangles, with the most important figure at the apex of the triangle. The painting above is by a French painter, which I didn't make note of, but was painted about a member of Louis XIII court who was a friend of Cardinal Richelieu, through that friendship he was the power behind the throne.

Note the most unusual composition, the lone figure on the right with the bowing courtiers on the left, they and the staircase all pointing to this one figure, giving him prominence and making him the focal point of the painting, as he was in the court.

Last but not least a photograph of Boston Common looking west, notice that enough snow has melted that ground is actually visible in some spots. The day I was there they were taking down the barriers for the skating rink at Frog Pond, and in the Garden they were trimming trees, both also signs of spring.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Back to MFA Boston, various sketches

More of my pen exercises, this time I was exploring white against black. Still need to do more of this, I wasn't really happy with the shapes around the circle, they were supposed to be mushroomed shaped and ended up looking more like nail heads in some instances. Ah well, I have to keep in mind the thickness of the line takes away from the white that will be left once the background is filled in. Esp. as I tend to use one of the larger tips for this part of the drawing, mainly because it is easier to fill in the black when I use a larger tip.

Not thrilled with the above, too much is sort of haphazard, I wasn't paying enough attention to my initial line placements.

I was back into Boston on Tuesday. It was a sunny day with temps above 32 degrees F, so it wasn't freezing and some actual snow melting was taking place. I drew the above sketch on the Bus on my way up to Ashmont. It is sketchy because I rather liked it that way and decided that I might ruin it if I continued to work it. I did several other sketches on the bus but this is my favorite. Graphite (mechanical pencil) in my smaller sketchbook.

I started this visit to Boston by walking through the Common, the Gardens and then over to and up Charles Street, making photographs along the way. Some of those photos are on my Facebook page. Anyway I ended up at a Red Line station and took it back to Park where I picked up the Green Line to the MFA. I wanted to see the visiting Klimt painting of Adam and Eve that is on exhibit in the European Modern gallery. It is a lovely painting, but photographs are not allowed so I can only reference you to the MFA web site.

That said I think the Guards need to pay more attention as while I was sitting and drawing the above I noticed a man making many photos of the Klimt, with flash. I almost yelled at him, but I wasn't sure at that point that photos weren't allowed. I was making a photo of an MFA painting next to the Klimt when a guard came up and told me photos weren't allowed, ah well.

The drawing above is of a plaster relief of two wrestlers made by Henri Gaudier Brzeska in 1914 a year prior to his death at the Front in 1915. Apparently he was fascinated by wrestlers and loved to watch their matches.

I am trying to make one drawing per visit of an item on Exhibit, sculptures are a bit easier than paintings to draw, and this relief is almost a sculpture. Spending the time to make a drawing gets me more involved with the exhibits, and allows me to rest my knees and feet.

The above photo was made in the American Wing looking out toward a park area that is next to the museum. I forgot to get the name of the artist who created this figure, but really the photo is more about the exterior with the inclusion of the Prudential tower in the distance.

We are having a week of above freezing temperatures and there is lots of melting going on. Don't get me wrong there are still piles of snow but you can see from the reflections in this rather large puddle that there is also lots of melting.

That is it for today per usual comments are welcome.

MFA Visit and other pen works

Lost track of time, or I would have done this update yesterday. Actually that is a lie, I wanted to include the above drawing and I didn't finish stippling in the background until last night, too late for me to have done an update.

So here is another of my pattern pieces, this one is a bit larger than the ones shown previously it is six inches square where the others were only 4 inches. It is done on Hot Press Watercolor paper so the options for coloring are wide open, I was thinking about using Inktense pencils for this instead of colored pencils, but I need to do a bit more stipple work on this before I start color. It doesn't show in the image but some stipple areas are just a bit too light and need more work.

I used a lot of ruled grid lines on this one to help with the placement and size of the various repeated motifs. Also for the stippling I went with a larger tip size than I normally use (to save time), I wanted an even background, fairly dark so didn't need to worry about gradations. Anyway I used a .3 Copic Multiliner SP pen, one of my Christmas gifts to myself. Drawn without references but of course it may remind you of something.

I know it is after Valentines day so hearts should be put away until next year, but with it still being the month of February I had hearts on the brain when I was doing a recent pen exercise (using all of my Technical pens). Anyway I ended up with this design of hearts, for the background I wanted to play with a different type of fill so using my 3x0 pen just drew the basket weave background. I then added color using some of my various mfg. red pens. This was just for fun but I kind of like it.

A fairly quick pencil drawing of the back of a plastic fork. Done on the bus heading toward Boston for one of the WetCanvas Scavenger Hunts. I thought the back of the fork was more interesting than the front what with the supports built into the mold. Done in one of my smaller sketchbooks with a mechanical pencil. I don't really like these pencils, but they are the easiest to haul around for sketching as they don't need to be sharpened, course that is what I don't like about them, I don't have a sharp point to work with for details.

The bus trip into Boston last Friday was so I could visit the MFA to see several new exhibits and to revisit one other on-going one. The new exhibit I wanted to see was the Gordon Parks photographs of friends made back in the late 1950's pre-desegregation. I feel they were worth my time, I enjoyed seeing the photographs and reading the blurbs. In some ways we have come a long way, but in others I am not sure there has been that much change in attitude towards African American's or Negro's as they were called then.

Anyway after seeing the photographs I wanted to revisit the Chinese Silk paintings. On my way I stopped to rest in the Gallery showing Pacific Island art and sketched the above wooden statute. You can't tell from this view but she is female, sitting on some small 4 legged animal and holding a human figure. The figure has hold of her tongue (super long) and is also biting the tail of the animal. She is holding one hand up to her ear. The small human has extra long and flexible arms and legs so it isn't my drawing that is out of whack but the way the sculpture was carved. Again drawn in one of my smaller sketchbooks with a mechanical pencil.

Photographs from Boston, the one above was made on Boston Common from the Boylston side looking toward the State Capitol (the golden dome a little to the right of center) and shows some of the mounds of snow that I ran into in the city. 

I made the above photograph in the MFA. Last week was a school vacation week for MA public schools and the Museum set up all sorts of activities for kids throughout the museum. This one was pretty simple, supplying kids with paper and drawing tools and letting them have at it. Sorry if the focus isn't as sharp as it could be but I can't use flash in the museum, and am not as steady as I once was. If I wanted to play in Photoshop I could probably improve this shot by removing the mothers legs at the bottom, still I rather like it the way it is, cut off head of a visitor and all.

Again I have more Boston snow photographs on my Facebook page if you are interested.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome and appreciated.

New Bookmark and Other scribbles

I have finished the inking on another new bookmark and have an image of it above. Not quite sure what is going on here, a chick dreaming of Easter Eggs, or something. Anyway this is what I drew and rather liked so just went ahead and inked it in. It now needs to be finished off, with a protective layer of contact paper and a tassel.

Two by six inches on Stonehenge paper, various colored pens, mostly Microns but the grey is a copic fineliner.

I did the above the other day for one of the WetCanvas Scavenger Hunts. It was supposed to be hand lotion and I used this tube of body cream as a substituent. Well the body cream can be used on the hands after all and I wanted to draw something fairly simple.

I used a copic black fineliner in the dedicated sketchbook I use for challenge drawings. I was trying to not do any cross hatching on this only directional black lines.

Another Scavenger Hunt image, a new hunt so a different series of possible subjects. The challenge for this one was to draw my favorite electronic device. Right now that is my Samsung tablet that can be used for reading books, listening to books, listening to music and playing games. Not sure which activity I spend the most time doing on this device.  Again copic fineliners in my dedicated sketchbook.

I was in Boston on Friday (which is why this update is late) and visited the MFA and the Greek Vases. I was starting to feel a bit tired as I had done some walking and shopping prior to arriving at the museum so sat myself down for a bit and sketched this vase. There are problems with it, as it leans to the right a bit and the neck is a bit longer in my drawing than the real life vase had, but am otherwise not to unhappy with it. Done in my sketch book with a technical pencil that I use for these drawings. The museum doesn't want attendee's to use pens in the galleries, which I can understand.

From the Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries I went to visit the Asian Galleries and there viewed some Japanese children's games, wood block prints on paper. Then I went down to the Chinese exhibit of women in paintings, Court Ladies or Pin up Girls? I was getting rather tired by the time I arrived in the gallery showing these works and will have to go back to revisit. But they are both beautiful and a bit off putting at the same time. Some I would not hesitate to classify as porn, others would have been considered erotic by the contemporary Chinese viewer while my modern western eyes thought them just beautiful images of court life.

In paintings where the women are clothed you never see even the tips of shoes, in the paintings where the women are nude they all have tiny feet and look like they are wearing booties. This of course is the depiction of the bound feet that higher class women in China were subjected to for centuries. Makes me shudder to even think about, their feet had to hurt all the time, but walking on them must have been extremely painful. Such a cruel thing to subject little girls to, all in the supposed name of beauty.

My closing photograph today was made in Boston Commons and is of a North Sea Mine that was recovered and presented to the City of Boston as memorial for Mine Sweepers in WWI. I didn't take the time to read the whole inscription on the plaque, it was windy and cold up on the hill by the war memorial. But thought this made an interesting photograph of contrasts, esp. as it has been just 100 years since the start of that war.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.