St. Patrick's Day Parade

I went to the St. Paddy's Day parade last Wednesday in midtown to do some drawing. It's been awhile since I've been to the parade, but it hasn't really changed, except that it was warm for once! My favorite people to draw are the bagpipers because of their plaid kilts and knee socks and, oh yeah, their bagpipes!





The leaders of the pipe bands always have a swagger in their step.


But there are plenty of marchers that are just wearing suits and sashes, grandees from County Clare and County Wicklow, like this fellow,


as well as Ancient Hibernians, and their ladies. If the ones I drew don't look very happy, it's easy to understand. I was at the end of the parade route and by the end of the day, they'd walked a far piece and I'm sure were pretty footsore. Soldier on, Ladies of the AOH!

Paradegoers are fun to draw as well. Everyone was wearing green, even the dogs!


In addition to our little canine fashion plate there, we had lots of tweeds, Aran sweaters, and football (by which I mean soccer) jerseys.

Paris Redux

Sorry for the long hiatus, I'm not sure what happened! I think I was art-hibernating for the last month or so. But the spring weather has awakened my art blog impulses again!

My class is planning a trip to Paris in the summer, so I've been looking back through my sketchbooks at my last trip in 2006. I thought I would share a few drawings I made there.

The Louvre was definitely a highlight of the trip. I love the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York, but the Louvre is like the Met on steriods. It's probably three or four times the size—like art-heaven! It can be intimidating, though, I won't lie. But I did calm down enough to make a few drawings in the European sculpture section. These lovely ladies were gracing tombs, and they seem to take the opposite approach to presenting themselves to posterity. The first was all piety, raising her eyes heavenward in humble supplication, dressed in rich looking clothes, but with an austere design sense. The other lay on one elbow, with an open book, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. I had to draw her because she seemed so modern.




I can't wait to see the Louvre and these two ladies again!

Help for Haiti


Urban Sketchers put together a beautiful poster calling for donations to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders for Haiti (above). Please be sure to visit their site and spread the word. The poster is available for download to print and post to remind people to donate.

Also, Studio 1482 will send you a signed 13"x 19" limited edition print from one of their amazing artists for every $50 donation to CARE. Visit their site for more info.

Ye Olde Information Age

Back before computers and the interweb, the printing press was the cutting edge technology that circulated information to the knowledge-hungry people. So here's to those creaky old cast-iron giants! I've been on a kick lately drawing big, dirty machinery, so these fit right in (though I made them more Deco than dirty). I'm particularly intrigued by all the gears and wheels and inner workings, which is why these are details.