My (mini) Vacation in DR

I just spent 3 dreamy beautiful days dozing off on the beach in Dominican Republic's Punta Cana resort. I can still hear the hum of the ocean...these few lazy drawings that I brought back with me are shedding sand. I feel warmer just looking at them in the dead of this endless New York winter. Maybe they will bring some warmth to you, too.

Resort's plaza

Vacationers

Amazing Dominican Republic clouds

Sunbathers

Posing for Facebook, naturally

The beach

The resort

Resort's architecture

Purple sunset

3Doodler: Drawing In Plastic

I am playing with the 3Doodler: it's a pen that draws in space with plastics.

Here's my plastic study of the Medieval tapestry "The Unicorn in Captivity." The original tapestry is located at The Cloisters in New York. According to one of the interpretations,  the unicorn represents a lover who is glad to be a captive of his lady. The golden chain with which he is tied to a pomegranate tree represents matrimony, and the pomegranate fruits stand for fecundity.

This is somewhere along the way, but I'm not done with it yet. Update to come.

a close-up

#whatwillyoucreate (3Doodler)

Wycliffe Gordon with Svetlana & The Delancey Five at the Back Room

Wycliffe Gordon and Svetlana

A few days ago, on Monday to be precise, Ronnie, Margaret and I went to a jazz concert. What a show! Svetlana & The Delancey Five with a very special guest Wycliffe Gordon played at a New York's renown speakeasy venue Back Room. It's a recreated prohibition-era establishment where you get alcohol served in a tea cup. The place was overcrowded on that Monday night. We were drawing! The music was chill-inducing in the best sense, and couples were swinging away (one at a time...there was no room for movement!) I was crouching right under Wycliffe's trombone the entire concert and loved every second of it: New Orleans style jazz songs, the brass section, the piano, Svetlana's beautiful singing, Wycliffe's roaring voice and trombone... What a great night! Thank you, Svetlana, for the invite, that was memorable! You can see Ronnie's exciting drawings here>

People dancing swing

Wycliffe Gordon and The Delancey Five musicians

Wycliffe Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon, Charlie Caranicas, Svetlana

Wycliffe Gordon and the saxophonist

Wycliffe Gordon, Charlie Caranicas, Svetlana

Wycliffe Gordon and The Delancey Five Musicians

Day 7: "One Watercolor A Day" Challenge: Food Studies.

Here are some watercolors of berries and sushi. For variation, I used a masking fluid pen on some, which would make this a hybrid of Day 5 and Day 7 of the book. I feel like I'm learning a lot, such a great book to study with.

I'm doing one watercolor exercise a week, following a delightful book called "One Watercolor A Day", written by my art teacher Veronica Lawlor, with my other art teacher Margaret Hurst, and their co-members of Studio 1482 artist collective. Check out the One Watercolor A Day Facebook group, where participants of the challenge are posting their exercise results on weekly basis.

Day 6: "One Watercolor A Day" Challenge: Layered Landscape.

Some studies Brooklynscapes in watercolor glazing.

I'm doing one watercolor exercise a week, following a delightful book called "One Watercolor A Day", written by my art teacher Veronica Lawlor, with my other art teacher Margaret Hurst, and their co-members of Studio 1482 artist collective. Check out the One Watercolor A Day Facebook group, where participants of the challenge are posting their exercise results on weekly basis.

Day 5: "One Watercolor A Day" Challenge: Masking Fluid.

Being in a fairy tale mood, I revisited some of my thumbnails from Disney's Magic Kingdom, and used them as the starting point for these studies of Pegasus flying over a kingdom and unlocking springs of living water. The point of the exercise was to use masking fluid with watercolors. It's something I've never done before, a new technique, and I loved it! The suspense of rubbing the rubbery mask off the dry painting to reveal paper was the best part. Will pack a masking fluid pen next time I go draw on location.

I'm doing one watercolor exercise a week, following a delightful book called "One Watercolor A Day", written by my art teacher Veronica Lawlor, with my other art teacher Margaret Hurst, and their co-members of Studio 1482 artist collective. Check out the One Watercolor A Day Facebook group, where participants of the challenge are posting their exercise results on weekly basis.

Pottery Painting

Went pottery painting the other week with my friends, and enjoyed it immensely! These objects here are pre-made. I'm working on making my own ceramics, but that's for another post. The suspense in pottery-paining is that you start with matte, pastel-looking painting, and after glazing and firing, it turns glossy and saturated. I'm pleased with how these came out, and want to experiment more. So many possibilities...

Close-up

Before glazing and firing. Pastel, matte finish of freshly-painted ceramics.