Tintoretto Exhibit, National Gallery of Art

Yesterday,Vicky and I went to the National Gallery of Art

to enjoy the large, in more ways than one, Tintoretto Exhibit.

It was a 500 year celebration of the birth 

of this Artist of Renaissance Venice.

Jacopo Timtoretto was born in 1519.

 I am particularly fond of drawings and found 

this preliminary drawing .....

used in a small spot in a near by painting .

I did not take many pictures because I was more interested 

in seeing and reading how he developed his paintings. 

He had many sculptures of human forms in his studio where 

he could make drawings in various perspectives .

 This small hanging sculpture was above the painting so one could 

see the relationship and how he used his various sculptures.

 I could see how he must have used actual models or sculptures 

to have the variety of positions and perspectives 

of the many bodies in some paintings.

So many of the male bodies have that muscular development 

one could see in Michelangelo's art.

 Had to include this writeup and b & w photo of the 

70 foot finished painting in the Doge's Palace.....because....

 This called an oil painting sketch of Paradiso 

must have been his maquette for the 70 foot final Paradiso. 

It appeared about 10 feet long to me., maybe more....

To end this short tour of the Tintoretto exhibit I wanted to show 

Tintoretto's version of The Last Supper. 

With the square table it is so very different 

than the more familiar,  to many,  Last Supper of Leonardo.

I enjoyed the whole day spending a long time with Tintoretto. 

From drawings to a stained glass window

Late last year a friend, Shirley Derrick, called me as she had remembered 

that I had drawn hands of many and various people for a large art work.

I kept a sketch book with many hands, drawn with colored pencils, in it. 

She was designing a window for a remembrance 

of her late husband, Lonny. 

It would be then translated into a stained glass window 

that would be the centerpiece in an entry alcove of

the Bethesda United Methodist Church in Bethesda, Maryland.

 Shirley looked through my sketch book and found two hands that she liked.

 I must admit that these were rather crude drawings of my husband, 

Clark's hands, but would be the forms that could be created in stained glass.

I remember drawing them with the palms up.

She decided that to fit the theme the hands  would be rotated.

She took the two drawings to the stained glass artisans .

 And, this is the result. The quotation at the bottom says, 

"We Are God's Hands"

The room is quite light but I was using my phone 

to get the image and was pleased to see the sun shining through.

The window is about 5 feet high. 

I was pleased to feel that a tiny bit of my work was

used to create this beautiful stained glass window

in memory of Lonny Derrick. 

Pencil sharpeners and drawings, old and new.

For years I have bought and used pencil sharpeners I either 

chose myself or they had been recommended. 

All of those shown above worked perfectly for graphite 

and usually for my colored pencils.

They worked with battery, electricity, or were operated by hand.

However, I was always looking for the perfect sharpener 

for colored pencils. 

 Recently Jeanne Benson gave me a new hand manipulated 

sharpener, that came from England.

 The pencils at the bottom were sharpened with my old sharpeners

and those above with the new hand cranked sharpener from the UK.

 Over the years in planning my embroideries I would often 

draw the image first with colored pencil.

 The drawings were never complete as they were just 

a design for a future embroidery. 

Since I started using my new sharpener 

I looked back at the old drawings and reworked several.

 It is a pleasure to use these very sharp colored pencils 

on the textured papers, filling in the white that shows through.

 This lily was drawn fairly quickly in Gladstone, Australia, and 

the orchids, below, in Melbourne when on a teaching tour in 2001.

I have enjoyed adding contrast, fine lines, and definition 

to these old drawings. 

Although I am using up my pencils a little faster than before, 

it has been a pleasure to spend this past month 

with very sharp colored pencils.

Ironic Identities, drawings and embroidery.

Sometime ago I drew these colored pencil renderings of

tools I found around the house and garage. 

They are actual size in the sketch book.

I started this small quilt, based on a rack of tools I found 

in the garage, a while ago. 

They are smaller than the original drawings.

Finally finished it and just had it photographed.

There are things you don't see before quilts are 

photographed. I may have to redo the upper right corner.

The bunch of ropes is not a noose.

The title is Ironic Identities. 19 by 26 inches.

Adding the non-tools along with the hardware gave me 

another chance for an odd juxtaposition of images 

as well as the title.