lock arms
DC is full of beautiful monuments this one stands across from NGA in front of the Federal courts building.
I stopped to admire the figures and wondered how many models posed for this interesting composition. I like the way the sculptor created this circle of figures. Notice how carefully he arranged their intertwined hands and arms.
Notice the big table sized board sheer with the blade in the air waiting on a board to slice. It is over 100 years old I believe and works like a dream. These tools of the past, along with Linda Rollins' expertise in how to use them, make this studio a real treasure for the DC area.
Thursday lunch at NGA
I was out a lot this week starting with my visit to the clinic to get my sore tooth evaluated. Then Monday evening I held my drawing group with a new 21 year old red headed model from Peru. Tuesday, I took some photos of a flower arrangement here at home Keith made earlier. Orange or close to orange orchids are all over the house imported from Holland. Tuesday, I enjoyed an afternoon visit with Dan Murray again for coffee and cookies and discussion of his figure drawings and paintings. Wednesday, I hung out at the Pyramid Atlantic Studios up in Silver Spring, Maryland with Linda Rollins building my own Barcelona Book Box anew. The original Barcelona book box ended up being a tad too tight for my copy of Cor Windhouwer's Barcelona book copy; Linda showed me a new way to build the box. It was a lot of fun working slowly in a good space with her help and all the right tools and good company. Thursday, Keith and I went to National Gallery of Art for a gallery talk about the exhibition of Robert Frank's Americans and other photographs that proceeded his famous book of 1959. We met Joseph Hall one of my newest friends who is also a photographer for the talk and really learned a lot from the lecture leader Mr. With. Then Doug Kingsbury, who was there working on his copy painting of Daniel in the Lion's Den by Rubens, joined us for lunch after the Robert Frank gallery talk. Then after lunch and art discussions we walked up to the Flashpoint gallery on F St. to see the DCist blog photo contest winners with Joseph and discussed it over a coffee at Starbucks where we happened upon Matt Hollis another artist who does some really beautiful macro photography and lots of interesting things with fiber and sculpture. National Gallery has had a cafeteria for as long as I have been going there. It is an artifact of the era when all government agencies had food service for employees and visitors. I can remember as a kid going to the cafeteria with Mom and my Aunt Betty. I remember it was in the west building then before there was an East Building! I recall it was kind of hidden down on the ground level near the stairs in an area that is now closed to the public. Friday, I went back to NGA to hang with Doug for lunch and we went and looked at the new exhibit of Dutch Masters from the golden era of the 1600's when the city scape painting was invented. We examined them in detail looking over all those tiny brush strokes that represented people and buildings. Saturday and Sunday I took a break and just stayed home. After all these weeks of being ill and tooth aches it was nice to get out and see lots of friends and art. Still there are more I want to see and more art to enjoy. DC has so much for free and as I discovered years ago hundreds of artists living and working here. I did not expect to find so many artists here after living in New York for 11 years. I figured that Wash. DC would be full of political people and bureaucrats but many of them moon light as artists to express their inner feelings and enjoy the relief of expression. Today we have snow and very cold weather in Washington DC. It is the first snow of the year and the biggest in a long time. I think 2003 was the last time we had measurable snow. The cold that is blowing in from the north today is going to make the snow stick around after it blows up in drifts for a day or two. I dread going out in this very cold weather. Normally, if there is such a thing anymore when related to weather, snow in March isn't so cold and blustery in Washington DC.
Joseph, Doug, Keith (seated left to right)
I was out a lot this week starting with my visit to the clinic to get my sore tooth evaluated. Then Monday evening I held my drawing group with a new 21 year old red headed model from Peru. Tuesday, I took some photos of a flower arrangement here at home Keith made earlier. Orange or close to orange orchids are all over the house imported from Holland. Tuesday, I enjoyed an afternoon visit with Dan Murray again for coffee and cookies and discussion of his figure drawings and paintings. Wednesday, I hung out at the Pyramid Atlantic Studios up in Silver Spring, Maryland with Linda Rollins building my own Barcelona Book Box anew. The original Barcelona book box ended up being a tad too tight for my copy of Cor Windhouwer's Barcelona book copy; Linda showed me a new way to build the box. It was a lot of fun working slowly in a good space with her help and all the right tools and good company. Thursday, Keith and I went to National Gallery of Art for a gallery talk about the exhibition of Robert Frank's Americans and other photographs that proceeded his famous book of 1959. We met Joseph Hall one of my newest friends who is also a photographer for the talk and really learned a lot from the lecture leader Mr. With. Then Doug Kingsbury, who was there working on his copy painting of Daniel in the Lion's Den by Rubens, joined us for lunch after the Robert Frank gallery talk. Then after lunch and art discussions we walked up to the Flashpoint gallery on F St. to see the DCist blog photo contest winners with Joseph and discussed it over a coffee at Starbucks where we happened upon Matt Hollis another artist who does some really beautiful macro photography and lots of interesting things with fiber and sculpture. National Gallery has had a cafeteria for as long as I have been going there. It is an artifact of the era when all government agencies had food service for employees and visitors. I can remember as a kid going to the cafeteria with Mom and my Aunt Betty. I remember it was in the west building then before there was an East Building! I recall it was kind of hidden down on the ground level near the stairs in an area that is now closed to the public. Friday, I went back to NGA to hang with Doug for lunch and we went and looked at the new exhibit of Dutch Masters from the golden era of the 1600's when the city scape painting was invented. We examined them in detail looking over all those tiny brush strokes that represented people and buildings. Saturday and Sunday I took a break and just stayed home. After all these weeks of being ill and tooth aches it was nice to get out and see lots of friends and art. Still there are more I want to see and more art to enjoy. DC has so much for free and as I discovered years ago hundreds of artists living and working here. I did not expect to find so many artists here after living in New York for 11 years. I figured that Wash. DC would be full of political people and bureaucrats but many of them moon light as artists to express their inner feelings and enjoy the relief of expression. Today we have snow and very cold weather in Washington DC. It is the first snow of the year and the biggest in a long time. I think 2003 was the last time we had measurable snow. The cold that is blowing in from the north today is going to make the snow stick around after it blows up in drifts for a day or two. I dread going out in this very cold weather. Normally, if there is such a thing anymore when related to weather, snow in March isn't so cold and blustery in Washington DC.
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1 comment:
my friends tell me the first picture is of this....
Memorial to Major General George Gordon Meade by Charles Grafly.
I took my pictures of the back avoiding the good general who stands in front of the ring of figures wearing a full civil war era uniform.
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