Yesterday afternoon, I headed up to Tarpon Springs' St. Petersburg College Campus, and I visited the Leepa Rattner Museum for a solo SketchCrawl. After three hours, I came away with one spread and three additional drawings, so it felt like a good day.
The first drawing was an abstract compilation I did from impressions I got while spending some time in their Challenge of Modern Art Interactive Gallery. I sketched and painted while my daughter made art out of words and images on their giant magnet wall in there.
Two of the other sketches I did were of works by Abraham Rattner, located in the large gallery in the back of the museum. I am fascinated with the design of the building. In this gallery, there is a window that is ankle-high and runs the length of the room, which gives you a peek of the water outside- very cool.I sat in the comfortable chairs in that gallery and sketched Abraham Rattner's bronze sculpture, titled Torso, which he completed in 1966. I also sketched an impression of one of his paintings, titled Fairmount Temple (Anshe chesed), 1956.
My daughter and I then headed out to the lobby area of the building, and I had just enough time to draw one of the wooden sculptures by Esther Gentle, titled Painted Figures, before the guard threw us out at closing time.
I have viewed some Modern Art collections that seemed somehow cold or un-relatable, but I find this collection is very approachable and easy to enjoy.
I didn't have enough time to thoroughly look at the fiber exhibit that was going on, because there was a gallery talk going on in there, and I really wanted to draw rather than listen. I will have to go back and check out the rest of the exhibits on another day before it is time to change them.If you are in the Tampa Bay area and get a chance to go, the Leepa-Rattner is definitely worth a visit!
