 |
| 12/12/24 Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds |
An article I read recently about different ways to enjoy art
museums made a provocative suggestion: Instead of sketching a painting I admire,
sketch one that I don’t like. Doing so might increase my appreciation for the
work and what the artist was trying to achieve. I had that exercise in mind as
I viewed an exhibit at Cascadia Art Museum. Structure and Form: The Art of B. L. Hyde is the Tacoma artist’s first solo exhibition of oil paintings made
mostly during the first half of the 20th century. I picked my least
favorite one to sketch (above left), hoping the exercise would make me
appreciate it more (not really).
More enjoyable than sketching the art was simply sketching what I saw in the museum space (above right) – a chair, a sculpture, and the kids’ art room beyond.
 |
| It's always fun to see an artist's materials and tools as part of an exhibit. |
 |
| Ali Serra's art at Walnut Street Cafe |
I was with Roy and Mary Jean, and the visit to Cascadia was our first stop in an art-and-food-filled day in Edmonds. Next was lunch at Red Twig and then a stop at Walnut Street Café, where my friend Ali Serra has a show of his fun and whimsical robot art (at left).
Finally we ended our Edmonds art adventure with dessert at Canarino Gelato, which is the same gelateria where I enjoyed refreshments during Sketcher Fest. I have fond memories of being Andika Murandi’s workshop assistant outside Canarino on a lovely July day. Seated inside on a rainy afternoon, the vibe was different but still relaxing, and we all enjoyed sketching there (sketches below).
 |
| 12/12/24 Sketch journal page of my outing with Roy and MJ |
 |
| Roy surprised Mary Jean and me by giving each of us a small Seawhite of Brighton concertina sketchbook with the idea that we'd use them in round-robin fashion. We each sketch in the book, pass it along to one of the others to sketch in, and so on, repeating the rounds until all the books are full. Eventually the book we started would return to us to keep. Here are my first two sketches. |
Fun idea with the concertina sketchbook. I remember a small group of artists that I knew who lived in different countries did a similar thing. Each one started a sketchbook and then it was mailed to the next person on the list. They continued until everyone did their artwork in each book. I can't remember how many pages each artist did, but they were beautiful to look at when they were finished.
ReplyDeleteI recall hearing about a similar project in Urban Sketchers... maybe it was the same one? It sounded like so much fun! What a treat to receive a partially filled book from another country to continue working in.
DeleteOh I like this idea of the circulating sketchbooks. Reminds me of something that became quite popular with quilters. We called it Round Robin challenges or exchanges and usually began with each quilter making a center block and passing it to the next person to add a border to it, sometimes including some fabric that could be incorporated but no real instructions about what to add next. To keep the size of the finished quilts reasonable, usually this exchange went on with passing along to 4 or 5 at most people. It's a wonderful way to get someone else's handiwork and take on design, just like this sketchbook exchange.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of such exchanges in various types of media, and I'm sure they are all great fun for the participants!
Delete