Spent part of my day at a friend's baby shower today, sitting with some of my teaching colleagues. We were reminiscing about some of the trips to Europe that the school has hosted over the years. When our daughter was younger, we took her. I have been reviewing my photos. Here is a photo of some children with nanny or granny in the Jardin de Tuileries. I loved this image; looks like days gone by. These children are frozen in time for me, but are in their teens now. I looked up the word for "siblings" in french. It showed freres et soeurs "brothers and sisters".
This is my hundred ninetieth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest.
A few years ago, my daughter and I took a school trip to France. She was enthralled with the chandeliers on our trip. As a result, I have photos of a number of opulent lighting fixtures from our trip. This is a chandelier hanging in one of Versailles multitude of rooms. I loved its crystals, sparkling in front of the window. Every inch of each room in this palace is decorated, dripping with detail and beauty. A feast.
When we arrived in Paris, we met our local guide for the days we were there. I will always remember her elegant appearance and her first statement to our busload of tourists. "Bonjour. My name is Helene avec un "H"". It sounded like, "Bonjour, my name is Elaine avec un haiche". She was terrific. She is pictured here below.
This is my hundred thirtieth daily drawing. As always, thank you for looking.
A few years ago, we visited Paris on a school trip. I fell in love with the city. It is sparkling and elegant. The buildings have sweet details, stories above the street. Their profiles are lovely and beg the viewer to sit, have cafe, and observe. The last night we were there with our group, we spent some time wandering the streets of the left bank, sat at an outdoor cafe and ate. I can stumble my way through some rudimentary, decades-old French. Our waitress addressed me and I bumbled along with her encouragement, succeeding in getting everything we wanted, including some escargot. I used pen and ink to lay out this drawing, then some watercolor pencils and some pastel pencils. The pastel pencils were my mothers, and have beautifully chiselled points, by her hand. It is very nice to hold them, knowing she did, too. I remember seeing a Charles Woodbury drawing show at the MIT Museum with her years ago. Mom pointed out the variety in his pencil marks, and told me they were the result of how he chiseled his pencil points.
Here's an example of Woodbury's drawing with distinctive points on his pencil.
Thanks for looking at my 109th daily drawing. I appreciate your attention and comments.
A number of years ago, I was in Paris on a trip with school. We had a free afternoon and headed up to Montmartre. I can remember the air, even the way it kissed my face on that beautiful afternoon. There are certain memories that stay with you... we were traveling with a friend and her 12-year-old son who was reluctant to eat anything that seemed unusual. To her credit, Mom handled it beautifully, whisked him down an alley occasionally to ply him with pizza or a hotdog, and they were back within a few minutes. We were sitting outside eating crepes above the city. It was luscious.
This is my thirty-eighth daily drawing. As always, thank you for looking.
Our challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint during October is "chiaroscuro" which is a pictorial representation of values without color. (Click the word for the entire definition). I have been doing a series of drawings using ink for the #Inktober challenge, this being my 31st. I decided to create an image in approximately five values, one being the tint of the paper I chose. I drew this image of Paris in ink, then used a brush with some india ink for the darkest value, following with white conte crayon for the lightest value. I also used my warm gray marker and layered combinations of the warm gray and lightly applied conte to soften the black and the edges. The black is a little heavier than I prefer, but I am very interested in the experiment. Chiaroscuro drawing traditionally involves tinted paper and an indication of values. As always... thank you for looking!.
About a decade ago, I was in Paris on trip with school. I need to get back to spend more time. The city is take-your-breath-away beautiful, in scale, design, in its grandiose structures, but also in the smallest of details. This is a study of the base of a lamppost I noticed as we waited to cross a street.
When we slow down, spend time looking, heighten our senses, there is beauty in the details, in unexpected places.
This is my fifteenth #Inktober entry. Thank you for looking.
Spring break... love this time of year and reminiscing about some trips we took during our April breaks a few years ago. Paris was wonderful, lovely, exciting, the air, the architecture, the art, the views. I loved exploring and seeing the city through the eyes of my then pre-teen. Everything was sparkling to me, including the marble on this terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Getting the travel bug.
Thanks for looking.
Continuing to explore some old photographs as potential painting subjects. Back in 2009 we took a school trip to Amsterdam, Lucerne and Paris. It was wonderful... every minute. It's fun reminiscing. I'm enjoying the subject matter, and the drawing. Thanks for looking.
The December challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint was to paint with Matisse in mind. I am most familiar with his paper cutouts. Some of you may be aware of my interest in cutting paper so it crossed my mind to do a Matisse-inspired paper piece. However, when I spent some time researching Matisse paintings and images, the paper idea slipped away.
I learned that Matisse studied law, and became interested in art during a year of convalescence in his very early twenties. His artistic evolution is so interesting to explore.
Look at this still life from early in his career, Fruit and Coffee Pot, a long way from the pattern-laden, abstracted nature of his work I was familiar with. Seeing "Fruit and Coffee-Pot" pulled Gustave Caillebotte's painting "Fruits sur un Etalage" (see below) from some dusty corner of my brain. Caillebotte was 20 years Matisse's senior, not sure if they knew one another.
Back to the GJWP challenge:
My painting is loosely based on Matisse's "Harmony in Red" below. I set up a few red objects, and included a couple of Matisse bookmarks as backdrop. I tried to flatten the perspective, relying only on placement of objects in front and behind to define the space, to keep the shades of red very close in value, and to explore an outline of many shapes, which I applied after, with mixed success. I substituted the dominant black and white figure from the paper cut out for the high contrast woman in "Harmony in Red".
By the way, look at the beautiful repetition of shape in "Harmony in Red" - blue designs on the table cloth to the undulating fruit/flower piece on the table to the back wall - almost like two raised hands cradling an object. It was certainly an interesting exercise, and the research was fascinating. Thanks for looking and Happy New Year.
Here are a number of may daily
drawings from the month of November. It's been an interesting month,
few sunny days, but I found some chances to be out in the sun when it
did show. And, I did a couple of drawings from favorite old movies,
"All About Eve" and "Charade". I didn't see "All About Eve" until I was
an adult, and hadn't seen many Bette Davis movies aside from "Whatever Happend to Baby Jane?" which was super scary. Come to think of it, I also saw the Bette Davis movie "The Nanny", so well-written and suspenseful. Imagine a 10-yr-od boy barricaded in his room while his Nanny tries to kill him... an lots of other suspense building within the apartment prior to her going for him. Terrifying. Add "Rear Window" to my list and what were my parents thinking? Who was watching my television consumption? I am up to my 424th daily drawing. Thank you for continuing to see my posts?
