July 29, 2017 -- AGO

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There are underground passages lined with stores beneath some of the streets of Toronto.  From the lower level of the Royal York one can venture into the shopping areas.

I was able to buy kleenex without going very far.  This was a good thing -- I needed lots, and I needed the kind that doesn't shred your nose when you have to use it early and often, all day, for several days.

July 29, 2017 was not a bridge day.  I thought maybe I was feeling up to venturing farther than the convenience store, so we tried again to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario.  It was a nice day.

The AGO had a nice exhibit of Georgia O'Keeffe's work.  They showed some of her early work, as well as her later work.  It was a good show.  Unfortunately, they weren't allowing any photography.



The AGO has a fabulous staircase designed by Frank Gehry.  If you google AGO staircase, and look at the images, you can see a lot of pics.  I neglected to get pics when I wasn't standing on it.  Others did, and they are well worth seeing.

These are images of what you see as you climb the stairs..............

The AGO has a lot of contemporary work.  Someone spent a long time drawing marks on snow with some sort of vehicle.  Then they took pics of deer crossing the marks.  (I'm presuming they used a drone to get the camera up there.)

While I think this result is cool, and I bet it was exhilarating to draw these huge marks, I am not down with wasting irreplaceable fossil fuels (not to mention polluting the landscape with fumes, particulates, and NOISE) to make the marks, nor to collect images of the marks and deer..............................  Sigh.



The Textile Museum is near the AGO.  We went over there and had a look.  It is a tiny museum, with some nice work.  Japanese kimono.

North American quilt.  I do think a textile museum ought to concentrate on work by women.  I think this is the only piece I noticed which was made in North America by a woman.........

Texture outside the museum.  The stones are cool.  The cigarette butts are decidedly NOT cool.............

Looking south toward the lake.  Note CN tower.

Nice variety of colors and textures in the planter.

Remember a couple of days ago I talked about Chicago, and about the urban sketcher conference going on in Chicago?

I was tickled to spot this urban sketcher in Toronto.  I tried to talk to the artist, but unfortunately he and I did not share a language.  He indicated it was fine if I took a pic of his excellent sketch, but I was unable to ask his name or to talk to him about the community of urban sketchers in Chicago as he sketched in Toronto......

Here's the view he was looking at.  The light was cool.....

Dominion Building, with the sort of planters one sees in Chicago.

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GPS Doodles --Turn Your Workout Into an Art Project

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"Stephen Lund considers the Canadian city of Victoria his canvas and a bicycle his brush. And the paint? Strava, a GPS tracking system which marks his routes with crimson lines."


What a great idea.  I never cease to marvel at the breadth and scope of the human imagination!

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scribbled faces

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Again -- drawing in Scribbler, and then letting Scribbler do its thing.

I didn't catch my original, for this first one.

 My original sketch.

 After Scribbler collaborated.

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sketching

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I am surely enjoying checking in with the Sketchbook Project every day. The pros who are running the show have a post every day. They show their own work, and often give tutorials or demos.

It's very interesting to see the range of media, "highly valued" subjects, and the degree of finished-ness that different people choose. Some are as sketchy as mine, and some are frame-ready.

I was thinking that I've felt a sort of academic satisfaction with what I've been doing, but no real ... pleasure ... in it.

Then I realized what was missing.

This is certainly the wrong time of year to be adding more black&white to my life!

(There is so much I have to learn about what I like and don't, with this new medium!  I like the way the "fine point" Sharpies -- as opposed to the extra-fine point I've been using -- slide across the paper.  And -- isn't it interesting how very much more oomph the dots have, having been surrounded by the black lines?)



Holding that "need more color!" thought --


Remember these? I took this pic in La Rochelle, France, at the end of August.

Here is my "big souvenir" from France.

Love the color..............................

Hot pink has to be warmer than a neutral color, don't you think?

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