Sunday, September 12, 2010
"An Artful Day"
1:52pm

I'd been planning to go to the Phoenix Art Museum's exhibite of Cézanne and American Modernism , but when I read that yesterday was a special sketching day featuring "still-lifes, live models and in-gallery work-stops", I decided that was the day. We got going as early as we could manage.

Julia took turn driving first, and I got my first sketch done:


September 11, 2010, 8:38am, "Entering Maricopa County, Julia Driving"

I took over at Gila Bend, and we arrived at the museum shortly after 11 o'clock. We began with the Cézanne, and took advantage of the oral lectures, available on a rectangular listening device. We enjoyed sixteen Cézanne paintings, along with more than eighty works by thirty three American artists. The exhibition organizers brought together pieces from many different sources. It's fascinating to see how he inspired them all.

After seeing these pieces and a tasty lunch (Wild Mushroom, Spinach and Leek Tart with Fossil Creek Goat Cheese and Mozzarella served with Herb Garden Salad), I happened on a sketching room and got busy on a still life. I'd only brought graphic pencils and a moleskine, so I was glad they provided colored pencils and larger paper:


Even Julia had a try at still life. (She sat, rather than stood, and they changed the still life from when I began)


Apples were featured because Cézanne preferred fruit over flowers in his still lifes as flowers wilted too quickly!

After having a few tries at the live model, a young man in bicycle shorts, I found Julia and we headed for the modern art galleries. Yes, I found Calders!

   
Moon and the Oar, 1974
Painted steel and wire,
Phoenix Art Museum, #1991.141
Bequest of the Estate of Orme Lewis

You can see how the three forward 'petals' are balanced by the larger 'petal' behind the chair-shaped element.

Julia and I had fun seeing our reflections in Kapoor's "Upside Down, Inside Out". You can see the reason for the title, because the concave section gives upside down reflections:

Upside Down, Inside Out, 2003
Anish Kapoor, British, born in India, 1954
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