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Archive for January, 2020

Chagall and Krishna {all the rest is white noise}

Posted in art, Art Journaling, art,poetry,writing, Digital Drawing, Ink, poetry, Quotes, sketchbook, sketching on January 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Chagall_Krishna_web
Postcard from the Chagall Exhibit at the Palazzo Reale in Milano, December 2016 | Fountain ink drawing of Krishna’s silhouette on Muji thin sketchbook paper.

Art is a refuge from the busy hive of activity…and I’m lifted.

Sometimes I even float.

A fleeting instant, the diver coming up for air.

Digital painting on Sketches app. January 19, 2020.

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Dispatches from Istanbul {First Architectural Sketches on my Ipad!}

Posted in Architecture, architecture, art, art,poetry,writing, Digital Drawing, Drawing, Experiments, History of Architecture, Making on January 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Blue_Mosque_Sketch_IPAD

Hagia_Sophia_Sketch_Ipad

Istanbul. Hagia Sophia or Church of the Holy Wisdom. Digital sketch. Built by Isidorus the Elder  and Anthemius of Thrallos under Emperor Justinian in 537 AD.



Maybe Istanbul was the city in the sky where the people who were our reflections lived.
Burhan Sönmez

A quick trip to Ahmet Square in Istanbul on my way back from Italy, to visit Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. You can see my photos and a video on  @sketchbloom

These are my first architectural sketches using my new Ipad and the SKETCHES app.

( I had previously used drawing apps on my phone to sort-of draw a portrait, experiment with digital watercolor and collage).

Learning the tools and the limits of the app was really interesting, as was experimenting with all the different tools and lineweights. I completed these few days ago on the plane ride from Istanbul to Los Angeles- looking at photos i took. The first one took me 15 minutes, the second one three hours. No ruler was used, tracing or overlaying – just a stylus with different tips and a brush.

 

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A Year in Sketches ( the world begins anew each day )

Posted in art,poetry,writing on January 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Last time I was here, back in April, the subject was New York. I think it would be poetic to end begin the year ( and begin this post ) with a postcard from my latest visit.

Here are the sketches and sketchnotes from lectures I attended that I compiled in my sketchbook in 2019. I have not been good at sharing them here (or being disciplined about doing art regularly) – but here they are, proof that I haven’t given up on my art or drawing entirely; I hope you, Single Reader, never give up on me.

This past week I read that, in Norway, the period between Christmas and the New Year is called RomJul. Jul means Christmas and rom, or room, is the space one makes in his or her life for the New Year. It is a time to pause and take time to reflect and clear out our lives before the arrival of this new page, or chapter, or book we are about to write.

As Mark Nepo says in The Book of Awakening:

Creation is ongoing. The world begins anew each day. We think it is night that covers the world, but everything living is recreated in that mysterious moment of rest that blankets us all.

And each time you open our eyes, you can begin again.

My wish for 2020, for you and for myself, is for this year to bring calm amidst the pace of contemporary life – analog time to reconnect with ourselves and intentionality and mindfulness in productivity.

Be quiet, be still. Let the mind rest.

Discover who you really are.

Nina Wise

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