Master Drawing Mondays: Week 4

This was one of the first Master Drawings I ever copied. It’s a beautiful study of a man in a seated position. I love how you can see where Pontormo moved his lines to another spot. It really gives the drawing movement and kinetic energy. #MasterDrawingMondays

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Master Drawing Mondays: Week 3

The challenge of Master Drawing Mondays is to set aside time to copy a drawing. You can either choose from one of the Dover books, or I will provide a weekly prompt from a museum collection. If you are on social media, use the hashtag #MasterDrawingMonday and tag me on Instagram @SarahHI. Let’s see how many out-of-practice artists we can encourage to take up a regular practice of copying the old masters!

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Master Drawing Mondays: Week 2

Master Drawing Mondays: Week 2. Gustave Caillebotte’s Self-Portrait with a Hat. Gustave Caillebotte is one of my favorite French artists and I love the idea of getting to spend a little time with him while working on this drawing.

Caillebotte drew this self-portrait with graphite on off-white, medium-weight, moderately textured paper. #Masterdrawingmondays

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Master Drawing Mondays: Week 1

Let’s begin with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres! He is one of my favorite draughtsman and I just love this study of a nude female figure dancing, for the painting ‘The Golden Age’ (L’Age d’Or), drawn in 1839-1862 using graphite. #masterdrawingmondays

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Master Drawing Mondays: Start Here

The challenge of Master Drawing Mondays is to set aside time to copy a drawing. You can either choose from a book, or I will provide a weekly prompt from a museum collection. If you are on social media, use the hashtag #MasterDrawingMonday and tag me on Instagram @SarahHI. Let’s see how many out-of-practice artists we can encourage to take up a regular practice of copying the old masters!

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Installing Marble Sculptures, Part III

They picked up the marble sculpture and plaster carver’s model from the US Customs inspection office in New York, trucked it down to Potomac, placed the stone and finished the job by dinner time. These big events tend to build in your mind and then they happen. Just like that, they happen on an ordinary day. A Thursday, for example.

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Installing Marble Sculptures, Part II

Sure, I designed the sculpture and sculpted it, but without the help of several models, the mold-maker and enlarger, Malcolm the stone-carver and his crew, and Andrew and the crew at Canal Street Studios, and not to mention the generous donor who has been gracious enough to give such a lasting gift to the church- none of this would have happened.

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Installing Marble Sculptures

How many people does it take to move a two-ton sculpture of the Blessed Virgin out of the studio, onto a truck, drive sixty-five miles down the road and into a niche in a church? We had quite a crew out there!

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The Story of Hempel Studios, Part IV

For the people who visit Our Lady of Mercy, the sculptures point us to the Divine. The Stations of the Cross illustrate the Passion. They don’t merely retell an historical event but attempt to uncover some of the deeper spiritual truths. The Virgin Mary is celebrated as the mother of God but also as a woman whose act of faith changed the world. Her husband, St. Joseph, stands as a reminder to fathers and husbands of the important role that God has for them.

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The Story of Hempel Studios, Part III

In my image, St. Joseph sits in his workshop with his carpenter’s angle in one hand dropping into his lap. A hammer and nails on the floor remind us of Christ’s passion. Joseph has just heard word from the angel in his dream about Jesus, and he stares into his hand, “Me, a father? The Son of God?!”

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