A Day at the museum

My cure for a visual creative block is to visit an art museum or gallery. I spent a whole afternoon recording inspiring sketches or making notes in the moleskine journal yesterday while at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

The museum is so big and there's so much to take in. I focused on paintings that attracted me because of their strong linear designs and bold colors. One such favorite is by Matisse. The description posted near the work mentions "pulsating color with a variety of lines that energize the work."

Link to Matisse painting

It's not easy sketching in a museum but I make an effort because drawing from the actual work is so much better than drawing from a photograph. When I walked into the room that displayed the Indian maiden sculpture, I was taken by her form carved out of marble. She really didn't look like an Native American girl to me, more like a topless Venus wearing mocassins and trendy Santa Fe style skirt! But she held a striking pose and was larger than life, I stood in a corner and drew her just to give myself the practice.

Link to sculpture






The view of the Alex Katz work was seen through a doorway as if it were framed by the architecture of the space. Katz inspires me because his portraits are so stylized and tightly cropped. I made note of the negative space in the picture plane which helps to organize the composition.

The last page has no drawings because I was overwhelmed while touring the exhibit of French paintings borrowed from the Met. The galleries were very crowded and the works were all masterpieces - Ingres, Delacroix, Daumier, Breton, Corot, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas, Gaugin, Picasso, Modigliani.... oh my!!

Link to highlights of the exhibit