@larablan
Art historian (Chinese pictorial arts/women artists/texts+images), Professor, Art & Architecture Dept., Hobart & William Smith Colleges; Chair, Asian Studies. Outside of class: baking, mending, sketching, knitting, and (occasionally) handbuilding. She/her.
—perhaps I will eventually reconcile what I am learning about light, shading, and value with atmospheric perspective, so as to focus on the foreground. Wishing I had not omitted our baby dogwood tree from the middle ground—the composition needs it!
#inkandwatercolor #urbansketchers #sabbatical
—I experimented with #mini-baguettes over the weekend! The one I made Saturday morning was a hit so I made another one yesterday.
#homebaking #amateurbaking #sabbatical
—it was warm enough yesterday to sit on the front stoop and #sketch! I started with #watercolorpencils, then I added #watercolor, then ink. The color of the sky went from blue to purple to gray in 90 minutes. Thinking more about light and value.
#urbansketchers #inkandwatercolor #sabbatical
—attended a faculty meeting yesterday and completed another round of #mending on this old shirt in good company, while listening to academic reports and voting. It developed a dozen holes in the last wash, so hand washing from now on! Embroidery thread on cotton.
#MendMarchTogether #MendMarch2026
—first #drawing is #classwork, second is #homework. I spent 8 1/2 hours on each. New this week: fabric and shutters. I keep ending up in the backlit part of the studio.
#charcoal #sabbatical
—this morning’s #notes in Islamic art and architecture. I finished the #sketch of the Grand Mosque at Córdoba after class, as it was not on the screen long enough for me to get more than the minaret! Both reading and #looking are part of #homework in #arthistory.
#textandimage #sabbatical
—a warmer day, decided to sit outside with the dog and #sketch. I’m very out of practice with #ink and #watercolor. I hope eventually I can bring what I’m learning in my drawing class into my sketchbook!
#sabbatical #urbansketching
—spent 7 1/2 hours in the studio today working on this weekend’s #drawing #homework. The #stilllifes are getting more complex!Composition & forms 2 1/2 hours, shading & erasing 5 hours. Looking forward to a weekend with no responsibilities!
#charcoal
#sabbatical
—stunned to find that I still have posters that hung on my wall in college and graduate school, all rolled up in a cardboard tube. This was tucked away with them. #whyamilikethis #arthistory
—it’s been a while since I posted my #drawing #homework. This is a view of a large #stilllife set up in the studio under strong lights. It’s an exercise in which I need to exaggerate the #values to create visual weight. Sometimes I need to draw #shadows that I don’t really see.
#sabbatical
—another #sabbatical project: sitting in on an #Islamic #art and #architecture course. Mostly frantic note-taking but sometimes I sketch in the margins of my #sketchbook (chosen for this exact reason!) Small details often omitted—each #sketch less than a minute.
#textandimage #arthistory
—more #mending on this poor #mitten that I did over the weekend—a golden band of 1x1 rib across the palm, for which I had to finally figure out duplicate stitch in purl, and a pink area on the fourth finger. The mitten is getting a little thicker and warmer with every #repair!
#sabbatical
Haha, I can still see multiple areas that need further intervention!!
—I really thought I had finished the #drawing I posted two days ago, but today’s surprise in-class assignment was to continue work on it, adding surrounding objects and background. The prompt was to get a sense of #light. So here it is after another three hours—seven total.
#sabbatical
Thanks!
—this week we’re working on value, adding to what we’ve already learned about contour lines, proportion, and foreshortening. I started this #drawing in class and stayed after to finish—about four hours altogether. #Charcoal on #newsprint with lots of erasures.
#sabbatical
—I can measure the severity of this winter by the amount of #mending needed on my #mittens. I added #darning in pink to the palm of the right mitten yesterday (1st pic): that’s the 7th mend this season. Duplicate stitch in #Noro #Kureyon #wool. The other side is intact!
#visiblemending #sabbatical
—some of this week’s Intro to Drawing classwork, #charcoal on #newsprint. Tilted round forms are giving me some trouble, even though I have a math background and still understand geometry pretty well! The third #drawing took over two hours. We also drew boxes, less visually interesting.
#sabbatical
—yet another mend to the front of this T-shirt. I wish I could say my #mending pile is shrinking, but it remains substantial, with four items of clothing that I wear regularly currently in exile. Button craft thread held double on rayon.
#neverendingmending #visiblemending #sabbatical
—adventures in Intro to Drawing from this past week: blind contour #drawings of a shoe and a pine cone, plus a preview of the homework due Monday.
#sabbatical
—second session of Intro to Drawing happened today. After the crit of last week’s homework, we practiced #gesture #lines and #contour lines. Here are three gesture drawings I did and one blind contour #drawing of my own hand.
#sabbatical
—I spent much of my snow day yesterday #repairing the holes in these #oldjeans (made in 2005) with internal #patches (sourced from another run-down pair) and button & craft thread in slate. Almost the entire surface above the knees, front and back, is now a double layer of #denim. #visiblemending
—more #mending on my flip-top #mittens. Last night I noticed that one area was getting threadbare. I still wore the mittens today while shoveling snow, only to find halfway through that I had created two new holes. But now I’m ready for the coming cold snap.
#Noro #Kureyon #wool #sabbatical
Thank you!
—a perfect #sabbatical day: morning getting reacquainted with my research, then an afternoon in the drawing studio. Because I want to get better at #drawing, I’m sitting in on Intro to Drawing this term. First assignment: spend three hours, uninstructed, drawing a still life. We’ll see if I improve!
—just now: it’s 13 degrees F and I nearly froze my fingers even with flip-top mittens. But my camera caught the #NorthernLights in my own backyard, so I headed out to the pier at the north end of #SenecaLake. I couldn’t see them with my own eyes but I’m still so pleased with these photos. #Aurora!
—small #mending projects take next to no time and yet I let them pile up. Finally got to the four small holes where the label attaches to the back of this shirt, trying to keep it harmonious with the bigger woven patch on the front. Embroidery thread on cotton.
#visiblemending #reducereuserepair
—my mittens are in heavy rotation this winter and they keep developing new holes. The new areas of #darning this week are the pink area on the flip-top of the left mitten, the olive green area on the left thumb, and the pink area on the right middle finger. Duplicate stitch in #Noro #Kureyon #wool.
I also have a solid start on the second course (Arts of Modern Japan). I still need to do a lot of reading and write a full-on new course proposal, but I have the topics mapped out. The course will meet twice a week and have more time for discussion.
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