Tag Archives: family
“My Kid Could Do That.”
When I was Two.
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
But now I am Six, I’m as clever as clever,
so I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.”
Quote from A.A Milne, Now We Are Six
When you clean up your room, you find all kinds of things.
I found a box of of folded paintings I had made in
nursery school, when I was around three. My mother
had saved my first paintings.
The first painting is poster paint on faded yellowed paper.
The second painting is acrylic paint on canvas 30″ x 30″
I created this painting last month.
The thread is there. I’ve been making art
since I was was two and nearly new.
Christie’s plans 175 million dollar sale in New York City while we play near Lake Tahoe
It’s summertime. We take a break from our jobs, schools, daily routines and even wean ourselves away from the internet. Driving down the hill to get the New York Times we pass a bear crossing the road. Squirrels play nearby. We soak up new experiences and come home renewed.
Quite a contrast from when Megan and I were blogging about our experiences in New York.
Apple and the Glass Staircase – New York
The Fifth Avenue Apple Store is open 24 hours a day every day.
Bright sun behind these figures helped produce this High-key photograph.
A steady stream of people walked through when we were there.
All the employees in the store were taking orders on their ipads as fast as they could enter the buyer’s information.
The glass staircase was designed for Steve Jobs by architect Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan Structural Design
Photos of store are by me. Megan took this shot. Hey, Megs, besides drawing well, you sure can make a good photograph! All photographs taken with my iphone. Megan has written to her ‘fans’ Now I’ll transfer her thank you’s to my blog comments. We have had a lot of fun with our collaboration project on New York, working on our posts while we live in England and California.
Thirteen Year Old Brit Sketches Commes des Garcons – New York
Comme de Garçon by Megan
While we were walking past the street, we spotted an unusual shop with a sort of futuristic theme. It was like walking into a smooth silver cave. The outside was dotted with a lot of pop art posters, which added to the craziness of the shop. When we walked in it had taken on a whole new theme. It was white everywhere separated with caving walls. There were several stylish-looking shop attendants dotted around each corner, they were wearing the shops clothes which were very unusual, colourful, and very very wacky. All of the clothes were hung on racks, we took one look on the price tag of a very cute top, that looked like it came out of goldilocks and the three bears story, and the price was over 3,000 dollars. A lot of the clothes looked they had been cut off, sewed on, fringed here, ripped here. It must of took an immense amount of designing, and even more creating. What especially caught our attention was the dresses. They were a cream colour, and the material felt like canvas. They were folded over, and had the same styles as the rest of the clothes, but every single one was different. One of the shop attendants showed us a catalogue from one of their fashionshows and it was completely different to see it on a rack as it is to seeing it on a model, it was very high fashion. The head pieces completed the Alice in wonderland mystical forest witch style, the makeup just topped it off. She wrote down the website style.com, and comme de garçons had their own section where we could look at all of their collections.
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/S2013RTW-CMMEGRNS/#24
13 Old Sees New York City For the First time – Carla and Megan’s Blog
Car parked outside Vin et Fleur by Megan 13
New York by Megan
When the plane was about to land, I was so excited about seeing New York, and spending it with my grandmother. I’ve heard so much, but it was a thousand times better than anything I could have come up with. Anyone could tell it was New York from when you stepped outside and there were 2,000 bright orange taxis waiting outside. The line seemed to never end! As soon as we got to Soho, I had already seen so many lights shining out of each and every building! The next week we saw the amazing metropolitan that constantly surprised me with all the amazing displays, we saw so much art and tasted the famous New York pizza! we watched out for all the fashion, watching all the latest trends, and the amazing comme de garçons where so much detail and time went into designing those amazing dresses, shirts and shoes! We also saw the two most amazing musicals, which are now my favourite, spider man and newsies! the choreography was amazing, and when the actors were swinging off stage and into the audience, it was amazing! When we came out of the theatre, despite it being dark outside, time square lit up like it was day! Every single corner was flashing, and shining! We took an amazing panorama photo, capturing every corner of time square. We visited Christies auction house, where paintings, pictures and objects were being sold for thousands of dollars! When we went behind-the-scenes, We touched the most amazing paintings by Degas, Vincent Van Gogh , Renoir, and Gauguin! It was amazing, and when we were sittings in an auction, I had to be careful not to accidently raise my hand. One of our favourite restaurants there was Vin et Fleur, we went there three times during the week and the bartender made the most delicious drinks. We named my drink after our waiter, Bartholomew Surprise. When we had to go over to the airport, I wanted to stay in New York with my Grandmother, but I had to go home. New York was decently the most amazing trip I have ever been too.
Men at the Bar – Vin et Fleur
Megan at the Brooklyn Museum
Pros and Cons of Online Collaboration Between Grandmother and Granddaughter
This one is worth clicking on to see drawing detail
Pros and Cons of Online Collaboration Between Grandmother and Granddaughter
First of all there are demographic variables. The participants are from England and America. The 8-hour time difference causes havoc when it comes to connecting with each other. One is asleep while the other is awake. Data collection is difficult to achieve. This depends on scheduling of family activities, school functions, business meetings and painting sessions in the studio. Unforeseeable circumstances such as email addresses not working or, well, life intervenes. The reliability of the posted message is important. The blogger needs to post with some sort of regularity otherwise followers will lose interest and move on. (There is a little tongue in cheek here.)
According to our outline Megan was going to begin this section of Carla and Megan’s Blog It’s Sunday night in America. Megan is asleep in England and about to wake up and go to school. It’s time for me to post a blog for Monday morning.
Collaboration between grandmother and granddaughter must be flexible so I’ll start. We are soul mates when it comes to drawing. It’s fun to be together because we are both used to sketching all the time, usually with someone patiently waiting for us to finish so everyone can move on. In New york we just followed our path to wherever it lead, with a little advanced planning. When I was back at home I found my first ‘official’ sketchbook started at the suggestion of an art teacher when I was almost 18. I wonder what she will be creating when she is 18?
We went to an exhibit about the role of fashion in Impressionist art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Displayed next to some of the paintings were manikins in dresses of the period. Megan whipped this out in about 5 minutes. Here is another one worth clicking on to see the detail of line.
Megan Discovers New York
Thirteen year old from England captures her impression
of seeing New York City for the first time.
This series starts right after the posts on China.
Come back and follow the second installment of Carla and Megan’s Blog.
Sketchbooks in hand and one iphone to share,
two soul mates check out the big apple.
The results you will see right here.
As always, click on image for a better look.
Raoul Dufy and Me – Southern France
Click on image to see detail
Carla’s interpretation of view in Larmet, France
The camera’s interpretation of the scene
Megan’s interpretation of the scene
Upon entering a hotel room in Aix en Provence, many years ago, I noticed a familiar print by Dufy hanging on the wall next to the window. Accompanying the print was a note saying Raoul Dufy had painted the watercolor from this window. Yes, right there, I was looking out the window at the same scene painted in the 1920’s. Of course, I had to paint that scene. Now, my watercolor is framed and hanging in my daughter’s house. In August, I painted the another view in France, with her daughter. Here are three interpretations of the same view.
“I think a painter is happy because he is in harmony with nature as soon as he can express what he sees.” Vincent van Gogh
Bordeaux Toes Paired with Abstract Tool Shed – Southern France
Tool Shed by Carla – shapes and complimentary color (click on image)
While collaborating on this blog project for two weeks, my grand daughter and I covered the basics of drawing:
Line, Form, Value, Space, Texture, Pattern and Color. We ended our drawing sessions with free, expressive figure drawings working with live models. Thinking about subject matter, we covered Landscape, Figurative, Still Life and Abstract Art using a variety of materials. We talked about the importance of Variation: variation in line, form or shape, value, space, texture, pattern and color. We had a great time together. For me, having a buddy to sketch with was the best!
Bordeaux Toes – Megan’s first drawing in her Moleskine sketchbook – Value
