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There's a 1900 Parisian cafe show at my local museum just now (Dixon). I love that time period and the whole slew of different styles they had going on, and Vuillard is one of my favorites. There is one stunning Vuillard on loan from the Cleveland Museum of Art, and I'm so grateful to be getting to spend some time with it here. Once again I'm having to make do with the artificial colors of pencils and crayons since it's only dry media in the local museum, and it's a little too candy colored. I also sat on a bench across the room, so it's just an impression from there instead of trying to get all the details in, but I loved sitting and drinking it in for a while. A perfect sort of Saturday.
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I had such a welcome day yesterday. Events have overtaken me lately, and I've barely been getting through the necessaries with no time for the soul giving extras. I kept yesterday morning to finally see the new Parisian Cafe paintings exhibition (clustered around 1900) at Dixon yesterday. Like all large group shows it was a mixed bag, but the good stuff was really good. There was a stunning Vuillard, who is one of my favorites, and a lot of great prints (always happy for me) including a lifesized Steinlen cabaret poster that was beautifully designed and executed. I love that 1900 era, with so many different styles and subjects burgeoning. Clearly in a specific subject matter you don't get as many of the symbolists I love from that period, but they did have a Munch I'd never seen before, and there were a lot of recognizable artists as well as a bunch of new ones to me.
Beautifully, the museum cafe has designed a special menu just for this show. I treated myself to a salad Nicoise outside with the trimmed trees that also feel like Paris and the Rodin sculpture in the background. It was good to see art and take time to sketch again, and I did a big, loose piece in my biggest sketchbook with a dip pen, some green ink, and a bunch of watercolor on top.
That evening was a bonus urban sketchers outing to Shapeshifter Art School. They have two new shows up in their galleries, and it was such pleasure to just relax and sketch and talk with friends. I ended up sketching our founder Elizabeth Alley, who is also a founder of the school. She has been such a light to the art community here in Memphis.
Beautifully, the museum cafe has designed a special menu just for this show. I treated myself to a salad Nicoise outside with the trimmed trees that also feel like Paris and the Rodin sculpture in the background. It was good to see art and take time to sketch again, and I did a big, loose piece in my biggest sketchbook with a dip pen, some green ink, and a bunch of watercolor on top.
That evening was a bonus urban sketchers outing to Shapeshifter Art School. They have two new shows up in their galleries, and it was such pleasure to just relax and sketch and talk with friends. I ended up sketching our founder Elizabeth Alley, who is also a founder of the school. She has been such a light to the art community here in Memphis.
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I play old time music every Monday night in someone's back room, just for fun. Actually my whole month has been knocked off kilter, so it was my first time in a few weeks, and I also haven't been sketching the last 10 days or so. When Mike's banjo string burst late in the jam, I handed him my banjo. He is definitely first chair banjo and the backbone of the group. I told him I haven't been sketching, so I got out my tiny (3.5x5") purse sketchbook and did a series of people with instruments for the last half hour. These are all basic black ink in a Lamy fountain pen plus a little bit of Payne's grey Windsor and Newton watercolor marker. I'm pretty bad at likenesses, but I love drawing the juxtaposition of bodies and instruments. It was a great way to finish out evening and get my sketching jump started again.
