Mary Cassatt as printmaking inspiration (and more!)

San Francisco Legion of Honor hosted a wonderful retrospective of Mary Cassatt "Mary Cassatt at Work" and it was a fantastic experience. I wanted to see in-person works that I knew from books and they as usual elevated my relationship with the art piece because of the level of details that one can see in person and by the experience of looking at an artwork on the wall, in space and imagining the process of making it. I specifically enjoyed looking at the brushstrokes and colors on the edges - away from the well-defined features. 

I did not know what to expect from an announced section of prints but was excited to learn more about printmaking recently and had a companion who was willing to explain and discuss all the intricate nuances of what is innovative in her work, how she did this or that and what we can deduct from these prints and what is still a mystery. Legion of Honor put together a comprehensive article about it with lots of visuals: How-To with the Conservators: Mary Cassatt’s Color Prints by By Christina Taylor, paper conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

And a great video about the process:  Demonstrating Mary Cassatt's Color Printmaking Techniques

It would be unfair not to mention some wonderfully colorful and free pastels. And a lot of information about Mary Cassatt: a woman impressionist, the only american in their circle, human, artist, feminist. 

It was so good that we did two takes!

Here are some of my notes from the show.

Drawing with Friends

This year I already had several wonderful chances to draw with other people - exchanging news, ideas, new color loves, various techniques, impressions from different events. Or just drawing side by side or sharing a cup of tea and a quiet moment.

Two quotes from the conversations that happened while I was drawing these portraits:

"you know how you work on something for some time, and then you are done and it is ok - but you want your sketch back? that is where blue line enters". 

"Try this gold. I did not expect it but suddenly there are so many uses for it around me"

Gerald Durrell. And Durrell's Mum - Louisa.

Gerald Durrell is one of my favorite naturalists and authors and I read all his books front to back at some point. I searched through the blog and found out that I almost never mention him and rarely post from my ongoing project "Portraits of my heroes". I keep it on a slow burner but it is a long list of people whose portraits I draw through every year to honor and remember them - and I will share more of them. 

Gerald Durrell was a human whose passion for the animal world continued from a very young age till the end of his life. It brought him to important work of conservation and preservation of wildlife around the world, he traveled the world, met and made friends with thousands of people and animals, and inspired generations of naturalists. His work continues to illuminate our world through Jersey Zoo (note Dodo in the logo) and through the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. But even more so through his writing which ignites a passion in people of all ages and from all backgrounds and connects them to nature near and far. His ability to tell a story simultaneously funny and full of interesting facts and make me fall in love with an animal I never dreamt I would see in real life is what made me a Durrell fan as a kid. And it continues to this day. 

This past week, on January 7th, was Durrell's birthday and he would have turned 100. I drew these two portraits - of Gerald Durrell and his mother Louisa Durrell - with the super quick addition of some of the animals that first come to my mind when I think about these two people. The story of a pelican and Louisa is always on my mind when I think of what one might consider to be a result of good parenting.

If you never read Durrell's books I suggest starting with "My family and other animals". 

Forest Bathing - My Report on the Holiday Break

Forest Bathing aka Shinrin-yoku is a great way to describe how I spent most of my in-between-holidays time this year: in nature, with minimum connection to the world outside, attending to what I hold dear, in good company. 

I hiked a wide range of landscapes, drew some on location, took naps, tried lots of interesting teas, cooked with new and well-tested recipes both, napped, drew some, looked at the sky a lot. Here are some of the sketches from this break:

Holiday Decorations

This year I got a new holiday tree: it is smaller, made with cheerful tinsel, and gorgeously reflects all the lights it can catch at different times of the day. We put it up with some old decorations (whatever survived a decluttering of the last year) and added a few new experiments too. I tried to draw the silver-ness of the tree and all the ways the light jumped from one sparkly tuft to another. But feel like the tree needs to stay till spring for me to make real progress :) As this is not happening I will have to start again next holiday season!

On My Table: Beginning of January 2025.

The arrival of the first of the month caught me in between moving between computers, tables, and years at the same time. In practice this means that at the moment work a lot "from my backpack" and am trying to sort through a lot of things before either taking them with me in 2025 or leaving them in 2024. The resulting disarray is displayed below it will tell you what I am doing right now - with comments - and without. 

Year in Sketchbooks - 2024.

Putting together a summary of a year takes time, and I start  this process in December and continue to January - because the year ends on December 31st and also just because it takes a lot of time actually to go over all that I planned to do, all that happened and try to see it objectively and subjectively: it in numbers and feelings. I enjoy knowing how many miles I ran, how many books I started vs books I finished, projects I did, and places I visited.  

One of my metrics is the number of sketches and also the number of sketchbooks. One of these numbers went down this year (number of sketchbooks went from 4 to 4 1/2 - I am about 2/3 through Sketchbook number 158 now) and another number did not actually change. I think these are the "fattest" sketchbooks I've ever had! The weight is usually gained from all the additional sketches that I tape and glue in - see the picture below! I think I was trying to slow down the rush of time and change that was happening in my life this year and it was hard to finish sketchbooks and move on to another one when so much of my life was still in the previous sketchbook - preserved in sketches of everyday moments.

I started way more personal projects than I finished this year but I did well on the client side of things and finished all that I promised. One of the clients projects was finally put up as a physical object in real life and I even got to visit it and take photos - I will be writing about it soon. I found a rhythm and a supporting wave of energy by drawing with people online regularly in several groups. I drew in person with my wonderful sketching friends quite regularly and met some of the artists who became my friends on the internet in real life which was super exciting! I traveled, took my parents to uncountable number of appointments and drew through it all. My gouache adventures took a slower lane with the move to a new studio during summer, but I developed my portable printing kit further - to a point where it became my constant travel companion. I went back to some extreme sketching with a bit of kayaking and scuba-diving adventures with a pencil in hand. I drew people and plants, buildings, and forests and enjoyed sharing my new experiments with people online and in person. I put up a little community art show at the end of the year and sent some work for consideration for shows and projects. And kept sketching every day so it's a win!

Sketching Under Water: Maldives 2024

All of the following sketches were done at a depth between 100 and 60 feet underwater in the Indian Ocean during my scuba diving trip to Maldives, in December 2024. After each dive, I would tear pages with sketches from my notebook, wash them in fresh water several times, let them dry, and then take these photos. A few scans below will give you a view with a little more details so that you can read my notes and see how I incorporate my underwater sketches in my sketchbook with additional notes. A separate post about materials contains information about my set-up.

Why do I draw while scuba diving? I think the simplest answer is that I just like to draw and I do it everywhere. But a little more complex version is this: the world underwater is very different from the world above the water, is very densely packed with information of all sorts and it is impossible to see and process all that is happening to you there. Drawing allows me to focus on things and pay attention for a little longer than is natural in a situation of such overwhelm. And it allows me to make notes and remember at least some of the questions that come up and all of this helps to remember and come back to these thoughts and images later. Nature journaling underwater goes on a whole new level!

Normally I make both sketches of the surrounding landscape, and aquatic life and also some a little more detailed ones with notes of a naturalistic nature: mark what depth I was at, possible position or situation with current, etc., and add information about patterns/textures/colors/behaviors that I observe. However, on this trip I did not have a chance to stay in one place and observe things - I was with a group of people who were moving all the time, and keeping with them was one of the priorities for me. So most of my sketches are super quick gestures trying to capture the movement and feeling of the place - with very few notes. I saw lots of different sharks (some disturbingly close), witnessed close-up some shark feeding and manta ray feeding, saw manta ray on a cleaning station, sting rays and eagle rays, several octopuses, eels, lots of fish in schools (swimming through one is a special treat - I am hoping there will be a video at some point and I will share it!). Also first ever meeting Mantis Shrimp! I wish I could draw all of this and for a longer time! 

Click on the images to see them larder and read the text.

Underwater Sketching Kit

Between my previous experiences of sketching while scuba-diving and some new ideas, I created a whole set of tools that I wanted to try on this trip. They included several papers to try, several pencils to try, and a new way to add color: oil pastel! While getting ready for this adventure I went to a refresher class for scuba diving (our last trip was before the pandemic) and that is where I tested my oil pastels set-up and was super excited to bring them with me! I knew that there would be at least 15 dives so I planned to try one tool at a dive first and then pick what worked the best and continue with that set-up till the end of vacation.

Here is what the plan for the tools looked like:

Three Papers: 

1. Right in the rain all weather notebook (Plain. This is what I've been using before in all my scuba diving sketching but I am not sure it is still available so the link goes to the closest thing I found).

2. Terra Slate Waterproof paper, 5 mm - I  got a pack of loose sheets and folded them in half for my support board. This paper was recommended to me by a Rory O'Keefe | SURVEY DOWN - an amazing underwater cave cartographer. 

3. Wire-Bound Stone Paper Notebook which I cut to match my support board (which is based on the size of my scuba diving pocket). 

Oil Pastels were a collection that I created from several sets - but Faber Castell box was plastic and convenient for both transporting and keeping them in place underwater.

Pencils:

Color pencils were two no-name multicolor ones (presents from friends actually!), double-pencil is Mitsubishi Vermilion and Prussian Blue and others are short prismacolor pencils. 

Graphite Pencils were chosen for all-plastic body which means they would not rust. And here is some info about them:

1. Pilot Croquis 6B (Pilot AP-CR4-6B Croquis 6B Sketch Pen - this is a closest link I found through it leads to a very pricy version - I got mine for $6 at some point) - a pleasure of soft graphite cannot be underestimated but at depth not too many pencils keep it - this one does! 

2. Morning Glory Sketch Mechanical Pencil provided a lovely option of making thin and thin lines by having a rectangular lead 1.8 mm flat,

3. Aqua Pencil from Reef Check - picked up at the local dive shop in a pre-pandemic life. 

4. Stabilo all Aquarellable Pencil - which writes on all sorts of surfaces 

5. Carpenter pencil allows for a wide variety of marks and I used wooded ones before - this was an experiment with an all-plastic housing - Swanson Tool Co CP216 AlwaysSharp Refillable Mechanical Carpenter Pencil. The pencil is too long for my comfort and I did not get to actually test it under water. 

However, things didn't go as planned. While preparing for scuba-diving in Maldives I looked up all sorts of information about aquatic life I might encounter, water temperature, and famous diving sites. But I did not register the fact that the Maldives are a place known for the abundance of currents, sometimes treacherous. We did not encounter anything worth mentioning ourselves but got a lot of warning during dive briefings. And there were many sites with current strong enough to take my mind off any drawing - we used hooks to stay in place or move in the direction where our guide would be going. And he would always be moving - which was also not conducive for drawing. Sticking with the guide was important as the boat was tracking groups of divers, and surfacing with the guide was key to ensuring we were picked up by our vessel. As a result, I did not go through all my sketching tools and did not get to try oil pastels. So they will have to wait for my next scuba-diving adventure :) 

Here what I actually used:

Here is how my tools looked after one of the dives where I got to sketch:

Note how my wood pencils cracked (I think that water pressure at 100 feet depth plus saltwater working on the glue which holds pencils together made this happen). The mechanical pencils that I tested performed excellently, and I will keep them in my tool set.

And paper notes you can see in these images:

What is in the pictures but might not be obvious is a plastic board for support and subber bands of all sorts - to hold paper in place and to hold my drawing tools.