Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

(I was unable to attend so Sue took photos and did the writeup on her blog, http://suesharples.blogspot.com/2020/02/british-museum-25th-february-sketching.html. I've copied and pasted the post, so if any images etc are missing, please go to the original site.)


The Islamic Gallery was the meeting point for myself, Janet Knechtel & Judith.

Carole went to the Hellenistic Crafts, Joyce was upstairs in Room 90 for 'Living with Art', 'Picasso to Celmins'.

Here are pictures of our work:
Carole's 2 studies:

A 'shrine' 350 BC from tomb @ Olbia, Crimea, & Aphrodite & Eros terracotta 300 BC.




















Joyce's page 1:
Matisse 'Bending Head & Fishbowl' 1929, Joan Miro 'Figure in the Sun' 1936-9



Joyce page 2:
Left: Brice Marden Zen studies for cold mountain 1991 & Right: Victor Passmore 1948



My choice was a Ceremonial Axe with interesting shadows. Omdurman Sudan 1800-1900
& an Egyptian wooden comb 900/1100
   

Janet K sketched a lovely detail with an ibex Iran 1450-75 from a ceramic piece in the Islamic gallery.



Judith 's study was of a decorated shield in sheet bronze, 400 -300 BC from  
River Witham near Lincoln.

Lastly, an extra-mural - Joyce showed her interpretation of 'A Fairy' 

- one of a '30 day sketch' subject! 

susan.sharples@btconnect.com

Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

Ancient Cyprus was the gallery for meeting up.

These statues caught my eye, and I hoped to draw half a dozen of them

 but time permitted only three, in two brownish colours of inktense pencil -

Jo, kept outside the building by a horde of people simultaneously arriving by coaches and needing to pass through the narrow gate of the security bag-check, found some ideal subjects in some builders, who stood still for a long time -

 and, more lively, some young women eating their lunch -

Janet B didn't have the problem of the subject moving - this portrait was done in stone, in ancient Cyprus -

 She rendered the jugs in 6B pencil -

 Janet K captured a variety of painted or sculpted animals -

 Judith found a triple-bodied warrior -

 and a young Roman man -

The variations of colour are from wetting the ink (Rotring cartridge).

Extra-curricular activities

Jo acquired a Thames foreshore permit

Janet B has been making banana bread -

Janet K took her sketchbook to Kew Gardens and looked at different types of foliage, including some that we identified as Metasequoia (dawn redwood) -

The group is meeting without me for the next two weeks and I hope someone will be taking photos!

Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

Most people were in the Captain Cook exhibition (Pacific Perspectives) in Room 91 (till 4 August) -

Headdress from New Caledonia by Mags

Ornamentation - including a tattoo collar - by Najlaa

Chief mourner's costume by Janet K

Contemporary embroidery drawn by Joyce

Maori signs by Sue

Japanese figure by Janet B

My canoe (it was a model)

 Tool of the week - a gamut of coloured pencils! -

 Extracurricular activities -

Judith finished last week's rained-out view of Southwark Cathedral

In his print Entanglements, drawn by Judith, John Pule reflects on the exchanges and interconnections that result from the arrival of Europeans

Mags' layers of mapping ...

... and some of her daily drawings. She also had been to an exhibition of work by Junko Oki, and seen a re-created Bronze Age boat made of planks sewn together

Najlaa too has taken up daily drawing

Janet K has been creating a parrot puppet for a school play

Sue has laid out fabric for freeform kantha stitching

Enlightment Gallery, British Museum

Some things that caught the camera's eye, amid the cabinets of curiosities collected by the gentlemen of the 18th century  -

Exotic feathers

... and the rest of the bird

Pearls in the shell

Terrets are a bit of horse harness - the reins pass through them.
These date to the Iron Age, 8th-1st century

A Chinese bowl with amusing animals

A pot in the shape of a chinese book - the spine is on the right,
and the "pages" curve round to meet on the left

Roman glass with a lovely patina 

Drawing Tuesday - British Museum

We found our way to the new Islamic galleries and settled in...

I couldn't resist the gleam of gold in these glass tiles ...

 ... and the morning quickly became a hunt for patterns ...

 ... somewhat crude, it's true, but not without self-critique and paying attention to where/how to improve similar drawings "next time" ...

Along with the "matchbook" people in boats, and an example of archaeological stippling, Jo found a couple who obligingly, if unwittingly, posed without moving for quite some time -

Judith's ceremonial axe...

 ... and a section of a contemporary linocut -

 Carol was drawn to the shoes -

 Sue found an incense burner...

 ... and a hat decorated with loose strands of cotton -

 Janet B's vase -

 Joyce's cones, by Tunisian painter/draughtsman Khaled Ben Slimane -

 Najlaa's vases and axe -

Janet K's dandy (love those curls!) ...

 ... and various animal representations ....

 Extra-curricular activity

Joyce has been intensively embroidering -

 Janet K has been watching the willow outside the window come into leaf...

 ... and rearranging her double-sided throw to best effect ...

 ... and capturing her pot of tools -

 That pot led to the (optional) "homework" - to notice the things you use every day.

Sue brought the pedestrian crossing near the Barbican to our notice -

 Not was that the only crossing worth a second look -

 Afterwards

Popping in to Contemporary Ceramics, across the street, we found Robert Cooper's latest work had been given "top shelf" status -

This gallery/shop has many other lovely ceramics... In the back room was a show by Rebecca Appleby -