Paper and Threads

We had spectacular onion soup at the original Au Pied du Couchon in the old Les Halles area of Paris in November 1970.  The soup was delicious and the thick, melted layer of cheese extraordinary.  My husband and I perfected Julia Child's recipe from Volume I: Mastering the Art of French Cooking and bought these soup bowls  to use for the last minute cheese melting step and serving. 

After the Les Halles market moved out of central Paris and Au Pied du Couchon underwent a significant face-lift, the soup was the same, but the ambience of the old place was gone.  The marzipan pig was saved from my dessert plate from one of our later visits.  Somehow it survived the trip home and is now rock hard from years in the china cabinet.

Posted by Shirley at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I adore candles and all varieties of candle holders, but now limit myself to using only closed varieties, i.e. globes of some kind, because of fire hazards.  My painting of the flame needs lots more work - I should have made it bigger and just concentrated on the wonderful colors that I saw.  However, I love this Dutch brass candle holder that we bought on the Rokin in Amsterdam in 1989.  The antique brass shop had/has been in the family for well over 100 years and was then managed by a father and son named Hart  This piece is estimated to be from ca 1770 and sits in a prominent position in our apartment for my constant enjoyment.

Posted by Shirley at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

We visited the Guggenheim Sunday afternoon to see the El Greco to Picasso exhibit before it closes on March 24th.  What huge crowds!  The lighting was wonderful - a combination of light from the skylight in the rotunda and the lights over each painting.  I was captivated by the view across the open center and stood along the balcony to sketch the scene.  I had to reduce the number of people in my sketch in order to really see the paintings.  The half circle in the center of the sketch is an open area overlooking a small adjoining gallery below.

I then quickly visited a few of my favorites in the permanent collection and sketched this small portion of Camille Pissaro's painting Hermitage at La Pointoise.  I love rooftop scenes and ! was looking for something to paint using a single color triad: cadmium red, Winsor blue, and Winsor lemon. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

My husband and I love sitting in the front seat, on the upper deck, of a #11 bus as it winds it's way between King's Road Chelsea and Trafalgar Square/Strand, London.  We are on vacation when we are in London and have lots of time to really look at all of the buildings - which all look so cool from our aerial position.  I "examined" this clock on the front of the west entrance to Westminster Abbey during every busride, thinking about how much I would love to sketch it.  I had practically memorized all of the details - and therefore sketching from one of my photos was easier and more pleasurable.  I used my W-N gold gouache again for the gold on the clock.  Since I sketched it in my WC Moleskine, I had to simplify the center section of the clock because of space and it is not accurate!

Posted by Shirley at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We thoroughly enjoyed the Hogarth exhibit at Tate Britain during our recent family visit to London.  Until I watched Danny's videoclip, I totally forgot about upside down drawing of people's faces - and just had to try it.  One of my favorite Hogarth paintings was one which had multiple faces of his family servants, so I sketched one of them quickly upside down.  While it is not a perfect representation, it does look like a face.  For small things I am grateful.

Posted by Shirley at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)