Sketching Small & Fast: Boston

Train trip to Boston. View from the window.

I've been longing to go for many months,

with my Midori Traveler's Notebook, 4 X 51/4 "

The Italian North End. 

Dense with cafe's, restaurants,

& pastry shops.

Bricco • Cafe Bella • Ristorante Fiore

Cafe Paradiso • Ristorante Quattro

Trattoria il Panino • Ristorante Saraceno

Lucca • Dolce Vita Ristorante

And 19th century churches. And Sunday church bells.

 A distant view as we walked 

from the North End to North Station.

 Museum of Science. The Butterfly Garden with 

a hall of terrariums outside their giant room

is alone worth the admisson.

I mean, have you ever seen insect eating plants,

or a Stick Insect (that looks just like a twig/branch!!)?

Science, nature, art, enchantment, magic

as colors sparkle and flutter through the air. 

Knowledgeable & eager student assistants

are like butterfly encyclopedias.

Better than Google~ the real thing!!

It's like we were in a giant tropical terrarium.

And you had to check yourself before exiting

to make sure a butterfly hadn't landed on you! 

Butterflies on a city view window

with the Charles River right out back. 

Exhilarating day, indoors & out!

Sketching made it more so!

Sketchbooks. End of 2018: Bring in the New, Continue the Old

 I have a new, larger sketchbook!! Paper Blanks, 7 X 9"!!

I use these for journal writing, but I got an extra one on sale

so I turned it into a sketchbook.

LAMY AL STAR fountain pens. I have "a few."

In the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum. 

The annual model train village, "Share the Wonder."

Sketching the mini buildings & cars is a fun way 

to work with linear perspective.

On the left: I sketched a line drawing that Jamie Wyeth

did when he was very young. Part of a series featuring

a Christmas wreath as a "character" in a medieval Christmas.

NC Wyeth's large painting: "The Morris House: Port Clyde". 

Can't do it justice with a quick sketch 

as the colors are so beautiful!!!

But sketching gave me the opportunity 

to scrutinize it more closely, & to gaze longer.

The Wyeth Center is only open a couple of more days.

I went to say good bye to the NC Wyeth paintings upstairs.

When they are back on display sometime, you have to come to Maine to see them in person!

And to see the Maine coast on which they are based!

I've been sketching in my usual 4 X 6" 

Pentallic Traveler Sketchbook.

It also doubles as my Art Learning Journal. 

Both live sketches & notes from books, 

museums, etc. go in there.

 Earlier in the month I went to the Farnsworth 

with an artist friend who wore an adorable felted hat

that she'd found at a thrift store. She sketched 

the gold dragon in the Chinese Zodiac exhibition.

She made a lot of people happy with that hat!

 Waiting in the small town post office line before Christmas.

A relatively small line in a relatively small town.

We enjoyed good natured conversations while waiting.

And for me, sketching made it go very fast.

At the Belfast Saturday Indoor Farmer's Market.

It is my Saturday morning ritual to go there. 

The vendors are not just farmers.

They are artisans, artists & musicians too.

They are local.

 LL Bean, the flagship store is like a theme park. 

There are these real stuffed animals on display.

While waiting for J to try on clothes, I sketched 

"The Three Headless Men of LL Bean." (my title.)

 Trip to Boston in November. QUICK sketches! 

It was my very fist visit to

The Granary Burying Ground. Boston's 3rd oldest cemetary

where many notable men 

from the American Revolution are buried.

 I guess the live people interested me 

more than the dead ones, though it was impressive.

 A quick stop to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. "Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World."

Subway Sketching, 

The Red Line from Cambridge back to Boston.

 Thanks for browsing through my sketches.

I wish you the happy pursuit of your passions

& pastimes in 2019.

Recent Sketchbook Wandering

At LL Bean recently I had left my sketchbook in the car. Horrors! "Oh please, I asked the young woman in the café, do you have any scrap paper, I am desperate!" Yes, she did, so I was able to sketch out the window 

on that chilly morning while waiting for my breakfast. 

On a trip to Boston, I sat on a bench at the edge of the Commons, at Park St. to sketch. 

After years of Boston trips, 

I never before noticed a large fountain! 

A fast scribble sketch, just making notes, watching, listening.

Sitting there in the park, a great theater experience, 

with diverse characters & conversations!

 A mellow November day in peaceful Harvard Yard. 

Lots of chairs out, so I hung out after going to the Fogg Art Museum. 

(loved the museum, not as grand as The Museum of Fine Arts, but wonderful.)

People waiting for subways, and buses...

...are always favorite city subjects.

 Sketches at the Portland Museum of Art...They & the Fogg don't allow ink pens, 

so a lot of the sketches in this series are too light to post. 

 The last 2 are from the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland.

 ...which does allow ink pens. 

The Farnsworth: one of my favorite art museums!

Simple Travel Sketching

Simply, one sketchbook & one or several pens
while traveling.

Grab & Go, a little scribbly image 

to remember the moment for always...

In Boston, everywhere, EVERYwhere, 

lots of people (the majority?) with "Devices", 

tuned into electronic worlds,

maybe oblivious to their physical surroundings? 

From the Sketchbook: MFA, Boston

Going to Boston means going sketching. 

Above, the MFA permanent Impressionist Gallery, 

a place  of familiarity & comfort for me,

 a place that on this day was not crowded.

The crowds were at a temporary show of Leonardo drawings.

Leonardo said that recording observations

with your own eyes was more important

than any established philosophy or religious principles.

Leonardo's concept of beauty was found in the 

"study of the living" in all its complexity.

"Drawing was an essential part of artistic practice during the Renaissance." 

"Drawing became the artistic equivalent of writing poetry 

or thoughts in a journal."   

 Unlike some European art museums which I've visited, 

the MFA is filled with loud, LOUD adult VOICES, 

sometimes talking about the art, oftentimes, not. 

In Blockbuster shows, it is often difficult to get near the works,

 especially when they are small.

So inbetween reading & seeing what I could of the drawings, 

I guess I stepped back & recorded my observations of

 "the living."

Celebrating Arrival of Spring in Harvard Square: Photos

Harvard Square, Cambridge, facing Harvard University. 

A great place to celebrate a (FINALLY!) REAL spring day! 

Entering Harvard Yard from Mass. Ave.

Surprise! An artist who was also part performer

as he interacted with his passing audience.

He's a graduate student and 

he's going to paint various other Harvard views.

Signs of Spring on a New England college campus!

Who belongs to the little bike, I wonder? 

(Sharon, you probably have the story!)

Great public transportation in the whole Boston area.

Tiny transportation waiting for bigger subway transportation.

Transportation that is occupied displaying flowers.

All the flower shop doors are open! After months of gray:

Here is COLOR!!

 People are buying pussy willows like crazy!

 

More transportation that is taking a break with its rider. 

Benches are filled with folks reading...

 Everywhere people reading...

Aaaah, reading by sunlight with a cool breeze...

Maybe the readers bought books from one of the 7 or so book shops in the area.

 (There used to be many more. Then came the Internet...) 

One of the remaining bookstores is Schoenhofs Foreign Books. 

Founded in 1856, it's the largest foreign language bookstore in America.

Learning materials in over 700 languages & dialects & 

fiction & non-fiction & children's books in 50 languages. 

All over Cambridge you hear so many languages!

While I was browsing the French children's books 

the nice bookseller put French music on for me. 

Did you know that April 2 was International Children's Book Day?

Out of Town News is right in the heart of Harvard Square.  

It almost went out of business due to the advent of online periodicals, but

in 2009 a new owner saved it. And I am thrilled he did. 

 Folks on this fine day are reading in outdoor cafés...

And chatting.

 These guys are eating & chatting too. But not reading...

If you stop to carefully look, they are really pretty.

This sunny day reminds me that soon it will be summer hat season.

For an authentic Panama Hat go to the gorgeous Goorin Brothers Hat Shop,

a family business established in 1895. And they have a nice selection of 

pretty feathers for your cap (for a pretty price, though).

 Don't forget your sun hat when you are hanging out in the park at Harvard Square,

listening to music (& reading or chatting).
If you & your spirit have never done that, I highly recommend it!