Udvar-Hazy Center

The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall is great, but tends to be a bit too crowded and filled with toddlers sprinting around.  The NASM Udvar-Hazy Center out in Virginia on the other hand is a huge facility with some incredibly awesome aircraft on display, and a much calmer space to sketch about.

You could return there a dozen times and never be lacking for a new interesting, fascinating, and awe-inspiring subjects to sketch, from the Discovery shuttle, WWII planes, aircraft from the birth of flight and every era of flight you can imagine.

And the conservation facility shows a bit of the process involved in restoring and maintaining the amazing pieces at the museum.

Sitting Buddha

Sitting Buddha, 14th century Tibetan, at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in DC.

Sketchcrawl 34

As you may have already read, we held our DC branch of  International Sketchcrawl #34 at the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum last Sunday, and we had a pretty good turn out! (Erica had to go before we got our shot!)

We met in the Kogod Courtyard, expecting to head into the museums to start sketching, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it was "Farm to Table Family Day" which included a concert by The Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra. The band actually came over to check out what we had been up to, as they noticed a lot of people listening but with their noses buried in sketchbooks.

Afterwords we headed up to the Modern & Contemporary wing and sketched a bit. We toured the museums for a while also, but eventually most everyone found they had to head out or where tired so we called it a day.  I was happy to get a sketch of Duane Hanson's "Woman Eating" before leaving though.

And here are a couple of sketches I made when our Sketchcrawl group went to the Native American Indian Museum about a month ago.

Cherry Blossom II

I intended to get out to the cherry blossoms again this weekend but had to run into the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden when the torrents of rain came down. I ended up with a few drawings of some of the sculptures.

Raymond Duchamp-Villon: Seated Woman

Alberto Giacometti: Bust of Diego

Fred Sandback: Untitled (Sculptural Study, Twelve-Part Vertical Construction)

Roma, Madrid, & Morocco Part II

Part II Madrid

After a week in Rome I was off to Madrid for two days. Our hostel was in Plaza de Jacinto Benavente. I went to the Prado and Reina Sofia Museums during the day and ate pulpo (octopus) and churro's until I felt sick. :P

Plaza de Jacinto Benavente
I can't wait to read some of his work.

Dome of San Sebastian Church
view from hostel

Imagery from out front of the Reina Sofia Museum
Home of Picasso's Guernica

Drawing from sculpture installation inside the museum

Detail drawing of sculpture

A Gallery Pesterer

Claudel

I wish I had more time in Madrid.