Drawing in Europe 1964

At the end of four years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts I went to Europe.  An Aunt had given me a gift of money so that I could travel.  Other people from school were traveling on the Queen Mary, so I did as well.  I planned to begin my trip in Paris.  Another painter, James Gadson, was also starting in Paris so we traveled together.  

We went to museums every day.  James asked me if I planned to draw in the museums.  I had never done that but it sounded like a good idea.  We went to museums and galleries all day every day and we drew.  

I saw a Balthus painting in Paris.  I hadn’t even known of Balthus.

Goya

In Spain, at the Prado, in a room of paintings by Goya, on one wall hung two very large paintings, “The Second of May”  and “The Third of May Executions.”  Between them was a small late self portrait.  I remember the self portrait and I remember the Third of May painting.  Up close I could see that the blood on the ground was laid on with a palette knife.  The paint looked new, clean, bright.  I could almost smell the paint.  I did not draw, I could only look.  The next day I returned and I drew.

I made the drawings with a fountain pen in a small notebook.  I used chalk sometimes for corrections and later a brush to lay in grays.  Sometimes I just used spit to make gray and once when my pen went dry in the middle of a drawing of a Velazques I used an eyebrow pencil to finish the drawing.

Museums were the high point in Spain.  But out of doors I was disturbed to find people looking at us strangely, glaring.  In museums and restaurants people were perfectly nice.  It took a while to understand.  James is black and I am white.  When we spoke to someone or were overheard people figured we were Americans and then they didn’t care.  But on the street, because of my dark hair they must have assumed I was Spanish and it seemed they didn’t want a light skinned Spanish woman walking together with a dark skinned man.

Titian

Velazques

Morandi

Morandi

Europe 1964 is a unique book 7.5 x 9.5 inches, black ink, pen, brush, spit, white chalk and black crayon, eyebrow pencil, on grid paper, corner tucked in johannot paper, mounted on stonehenge. 1964 / 2022