To Paris October 15, 2013

On Oct. 15, we said goodbye to the country and headed to Paris. I enjoyed my journey with my pen and my mini memories.
Along the route we passed clusters of villages, all the same at least that is what it looked like from the bus. The rolling hills and golden fields each village had a church steeple. It was a bright morning sky even though the weather person said that it was going to rain today!

We arrived in Paris dropped our group off at the hotel and then hopped into a taxi and went to find our accommodation. We had rented an apartment, 20 Rue Saint Sauveur, and were excited to see that it was all we hoped. It was. Our friends from Denmark were to meet us there. Their flight landed at 14:45 at Charles de Gualle . They hadn't made arrangements for their transfer so spent time looking around the airport. They were approached by a man who said he could take them to 20 Rue Saint Sauveur and they thought the price was right. Always a problem at airports. They accepted a ride and travelled into the city with a non-licensed driver. They probably paid more then they should of but the adventure was interesting and they arrived safe and sound.

You can see that the second mini is looking out the window at our apartment. It was into a court yard. We spent the rest of our holiday enjoying Paris.

Oct. 14, 2013
Monet's Garden...An amazing day.
No painting in the garden is allowed except by special permission. Our guide was especially good. I felt I really had a door opened to the life of Monet and his family.

Things I remembered she said:
Monet had 6 gardeners on his 8 acres. The water gardener had to wash the leaves of the waterlilies in the middle of the night, so Monet if he wish to paint could capture the light reflecting off them. They were near a dirt road with lots of traffic, causing lots of dust.

Visiting the garden is wonderful and an experience most times of the year. Spring for tulips, Summer - waterlilies, and Fall - asters, daisies. Summer of course is the busiest time of the year for tourists. In July and August you could wait in long lines to move from one garden to the next through a tunnel, single file.

The Benches in the garden were designed and built by Monet. They looked brand new!

He painted light and did a series of paintings in the pond / waterlily garden. Ten paintings at one time to reflect the change of light every 7 minutes.

I will take my sketch book next visit as I saw many school children carrying theirs and some of our group had a pleasant time sketching near Monet's home.

Walking in the garden is like walking in his paintings, it would have been difficult to stop and not see it all.

The following sketch was in the village of Giverny before we went into the garden. We were asked to sketch something and then pick out a small part of it and paint it. This was to show us how many paintings are in one and how important it is to simplify.
It really is amazing when you give it a try. Even more so when you are painting you actually remember to do it.

continuing on

Did you ever think that if you left something the necessary information to continue, when you are ready would not be there? That is what happened here. I have been trying and trying to get back to sharing my travels but just couldn't work it out. BING it came to me.

Hello all!
When I left you it was Oct. 10, 2013. Imagine. I was travelling in France on a watercolour workshop.

So here we are it is never too late to share the excitement of travel. As you can see by the notation on the side we were in Honfleur October 12-13 2013. Our accommodation the "Le Hotel Cheval Blanc" was right in the harbour and we couldn't ask for more. The weather wasn't the greatest but our spirits were high so out we went paint brush in hand.  The next page in my sketch book is a sketch and if far from being done so I would include it. What you need to know is what is written around the sketch. Oct. 13, 2013 forecast sunny to cloudy, mostly cloudy and cold but so much to see, so much to paint - blue shadows pink midtown, lunch on my own 'crepe poullette at 'Creperie des Arts ' Our day included a visit to the Musee Boudin, a popular stop for artists out to capture the essence of Honfleur. The Sainte Catherine's Clock Tower an amazing wooden structure in the middle of the main square had all the history that you could want. My problem was I spent too much time worrying about the perspective and not enough with my brush. Next time I will work faster. It is certainly an interesting challenge.

Samuel Champlain departed from this harbour in 1608 to the Americas where he founded 

 Quebec City" 

It has been so long but time to get back to this.

luggage..

April 23, 2014
I am preparing for my watercolour workshop in Turkey with Atanur Dogan. After adding all the watercolour paper, brushes, paints etc. I am forced to take a carry on piece of luggage also. Not great for a traveller. I should be able to do 18 days, with just the carry on, but then .. I will be back here to finish the trip to France. In between, I am hoping to post while travelling in Turkey.
Till then!

I should have brought a chair!

October 10, 2013

The weather was co-operating today! Our instruction was to walk down the main street of Hambye past the shops and find a location that we would like to sketch.

I walked looking for someplace that I could sit as I didn't have a chair. At the end of the village was a sloping hill at one side of the road and at the other, a view of the countryside. It wasn't the view that caught my attention but the number of people coming and going from a house in the distance.
Old people, young people, driving, walking, carrying food! The sun was shining and it was a beautiful scene. I sat to paint. The small building across the road from where I was sitting caught my eye. I learned later that it had been the bread ovens for the village. As all things, in our changing world it was no longer in use.
The sun bounced off it's tiled roof and the hills behind were oh so green.

People heading to the gathering stopped, talked to me (in French ) smiled pointed at my work and tried to share with me something about what I was doing, or maybe where they were going. It was a special time. We seemed to understand each other in a simple way. We were all happy to be out in the sun and enjoying the day. I don't know why they were heading to the house down the road but decided because of all the smiles that there was a very happy occasion taking place. I will continue to feel that sunny day and the sunny feelings.

Five in one hour!

October 10, 2013, Chateau Hambye

When you are taking a workshop there is always something new that excites you and Lin's direction today was just that for me.

"Challenge: Paint/sketch 5 things in the Chateau that interest you, in one hour!"

Off we went. One hour is a very short time when you have to make a decision on what you feel would be a good addition to your memories and help you create great paintings back in the studio so there was no time to decide. Find a place where you could sit and get to work.

My first sketch was of Anna's (our host) liquor cabinet. It was in the corner of the formal dining room.
Covered with a purple and gold cloth and certainly had a feeling of the vintage of the house. I am wondering now how I managed to sketch five things in the house in the time allowed. I started in the dining room, moved to the kitchen where next to the huge cooking fire place hung the chestnut roasting pan and the fire place spit winder. I am not sure of the names of either of these two things but they both had the age of the house. There was so much to sketch but I wanted to experience more then the kitchen and the dining room so moved to the foyer.

In the foyer I found another of our group. I found a place to sit and settled down to sketch what I thought would be a very good reference of the house. As all the furniture had been found and placed by Anna and Rob when they renovated the door locks were there, and by the look of them had been added to as the necessity for more security came to Chateau Hambye by each owner and since the beginning. So many bolts, handles and latches!  I am not sure if each night they slide all the bolts but it certainly gave you a feeling that you were safe for the night if they did. I think it took me longer to sketch this lock set then anything else. Loved it!

I had four and needed five. Time was running out and so was the space on my page. I found a candle stick in a built in wall cupboard in the games room and quickly sketched it between the spit and the lock.

We now could look back at the history of the house, store our liquor, lock our door, turn the cooking spit in the kitchen fireplace, roast chestnuts and do it by candle light.

A great way to remember where you have been!

Over the fireplace was written:

AED*A*LE TULLIER_ADV us & J8F* ALLIET CONT*1772

What does that mean? I really can't tell you but it did add the age that we all were looking for to our beautiful home in Normandy.