Paper and Threads

We ate at small bistros during our visit and enjoyed a few we've been to in earlier visits.

First Dinner at Le Petit Chatelet:  It is a lovely bistro near where we stayed on the Left Bank.  It had good food and a lovely ambience.  Both drawings were done during dinners there and painted at home.

Second Dinner in Le Petit Chatelet which was opened in 1951 by the grandfather of the current owner.  We enjoyed it so much the first time, we went back the night before we came home.  These drawing were done in the upstairs dining room which was the garret bedroom of the original owner.

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Visiting the Pompidou:  There is a major renovation ongoing at the Pompidou and we were so lucky that we bought our tickets online!  Once inside, the collection was as wonderful as always, and the views from the 6th floor restaurant were spectacular.  The Eiffel Tower thrilled my Grandson this summer, so this photo was for him.

I loved this painting by Marc Chagall, and quickly sketched as much as I could while my husband and friends were moving on.  Some of the heads had to be left out and the painting is an approximation done later.  It is an unusual painting by Marc Chagall which was what interested me. 

Juan Gris:  This was a multipart painted sculpture assembled from flat pieces of metal - not quite life size.  I loved it!

Lunch at the 6th floor restaurant does not disappoint - the views over the City are gorgeous, even on a cloudy day.  I enlarged the image on my phone to take the photo.

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Guess Who Planned a Meetup for Sketchbook Skool Students last Saturday, in Washington Square Park, New York City? 

When I partially retired from Medicine in 2005, I discovered Sketchbook Art and Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters Yahoo Group.  Several months later, I started this blog to interact with other group members, and I now am a student of Sketchbook Skool (SBS), a very professional, online art education program.  Danny and Koosje Koene are the co-developers of SBS and it was fun to finally meet Koosje who was visiting from Amsterdam.

Double Page Sketchbook Painting: It was a cold, but sunny afternoon, and I sketched the Washington Square Arch and then some of the musicians who are always playing in the Park.

Wonderful Concert at Juilliard: That evening my husband and I went to a concert at Alice Tully Hall.  The Historical Presentation Juilliard Students played two Telemann pieces and the Chorale was sung by Yale Sacred Music members.  I started by sketching the first Violin, and then wanted to add the Conductor.  Obviously I left out many musicians and singers.  But there is enough on the page for me to remember the evening and the Baroque horn (of which there were 3) which we had never seen before.

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I carried my Paris Sketchbook with me everyday, and almost always sketched something while we were visiting a museum and in a restaurant.  When it is just my husband and I traveling, we periodically stop for 45 minutes and he does a New York Times Crossword Puzzle while I sketch a scene I want to remember.  We were traveling with friends this time and walking outdoors instead of sitting - so almost all of my drawings were done indoors during this visit.  By posting them a few at a time, I'm painting my ink sketches from Paris while also finishing sketches from New York City.

Memorial to SHOAH:  This is an amazing museum, located in the Marais, and detailing both the fate of French Jews during WWII and the details of the French Resistance.  I was intrigued by this illustration which showed the round white and black badge (worn on the dress) that Jews had to wear in France in 1218.  On the right is the Yellow Star which the Nazis made Jews wear during WWII.  40,000 of these stars were made in France by Chas Wauters et fils in the Occupied Zone.

Dinner at the Brasserie de L'Ile St Louis that evening.  This artist character was painted on the window next to my seat as a decoration for the restaurant.

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We're Home!  We had another wonderful visit to Paris - walking the City for miles, seeing some wonderful museum exhibits, and eating delicious meals.  I made a special sketchbook for this trip and carried it with me all day.  We were traveling with good friends, and I only sketched when we were in restaurants or exhibits, and usually in pencil - followed by pen.  Now that I am home, I will slowly paint all 15 of the sketchbook pages from photos I took.

I regularly draw a grid of 2" squares near the front of my sketchbook, one for each day of travel.  I fill those with one specific small image each day - just reminding me, in another way, of how we spent our time. 

The only sketchbook page that I painted in Paris was in the restaurant where we had our first dinner.  It was a modest neighborhood restaurant, with a wall of organic wines in front of me.

This is the longest period of time I've gone without blogging since I started my blog in 2006.  We walked 5-7 miles each day, enjoyed lovely restaurants, followed the news back home, and went to bed tired each night.  Our two longest walks, seeing everything along the way, were from (1) Notre Dame to the Arc of Triomphe and back to near Notre Dame via Pont D'Alma and (2) home from Sacre Coeur, walking around the Opera House, Place Vendome, and Faubourg St. Honore back to our street near Notre Dame.  It is so sad to see Notre Dame after the fire. 

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