Category: France

Day 568 – The Seine at Mericourt

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There are huge locks at Mericourt to let the boats sail the shallow Seine River. Everybody on the boat was up top to get a good view of our trip thru the locks. Did you knw it’s a good way to get a bath? As you pass under the lock gate it drenches you with the water accumulated as its raised from the river. 

Again a compilation of houses.  Mostly from Mericourt and Roche Guyon. 

 There was almost a disaster. There was a big black blob of ink fell on it in the pine grove. Eeeekkkk. I managed to save it by watering the blob down and painting the pines dark. Can you find it?? 

  
The locks. 

When painting these it’s necessary to use a lot of negative painting and contrasting colors to get the light buildings to show up. They can get lost on the riverbank if you don’t. 

TIP:  I check values by using my phone camera and turning the painting black and white. You will see if you have lights and darks or if everything is painted in a midtone which is what most people tend to do. 

Colors used Apatite green and hookers. The apatite green granulates into lovely purples and Browns. Quin gold and red orange in the rusty trees. Winsor yellow to lighten the greens. Greys are burnt sienna and cerulean or Inathrodone. Blacks Inathrodone and burnt umber. Sky water blues cerulean. 

Thanks for reading.

Margaret whose hoping the Savannah doesn’t flood Augusta again with all this rain. Xxx

Day 567 – Up the Seine to Rolleboise

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Don’t you LOVE the name??! Rolleboise!!! 

As we floated up the Seine to Normandy the most charming scenery floated by. Every building was unique but they whizzed by so that I could only draw one or two at a time.

 The a light bulb went on!! I could compile buildings on the hillside just like I do people. I drew several pages of them before I was done. 

This is the first one I did. And yes the hillside was surprisingly green for fall. 

Hillside is Hookers green and green apatite with Quin burnt orange and Quin gold with bits of Inathrodone blue. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret off to painting class.  Xxx

Day 566 -Quai Grenelle / Radio France

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Quai Grenelle / Radio France building as the sun was setting. It does that early in Paris because it sits at such a northern latitude. That said the walk along the quai was  bustling with people going for evening walks. 
The people were added as they walked across the path at the top of the quai. I really think people bring a landscape or cityscape to life. 

This part of Paris had a lot of interesting modern buildings which I would still like to draw. The terrorists interfered with my plan. 

This is painted with a bottom coat of Winsor Yellow and bits of Quin gold. 

The blue is mostly cobalt blue which is a good transparent color. Harder to get muddy colors if you start out with transparent colors. 

Greys are cobalt and burnt sienna or inathradone blue and burnt sienna. 

Trees are Quin gold and hookers green and green apatite with Inathrodone blue. 

Day 565 – St Maclou 

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St Maclou Neighborhood Rouen

Noodler Konrad Platinum Black Ink Strathmore 500 Mixed Media journal

I sketched this late one grey afternoon sitting under an old tree in the square in front of St Maclou which is a lovely Gothic Church surrounded by half timber buildings. People continually walked by and I dropped them in here and there in the drawing. 

St McClou was probably my favorite church. A gothic pile of confection like a wedding cake encrusted on every surface with lace and gargoyles and embellishments  of every kind. 

  The church is on the small side in the sketch  but I like it a lot anyway.   Originally I had the church too light. I was trying not to get it too dark but the house was too dominant so I had to darken it. 

I also darkened the sky which made the very light church pop more. 

Colors used. The ones I usually use aka I can’t remember which ones. Oops. Sorry!!

Thanks for reading. 

   

Day 565 – Place de la Concorde 

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Place de la Concorde where Madame Guillotine once reigned and  Madame De Farge knitted madly away as royals heads rolled during the French Revolution. The place is enormous. The statues were nearby and the fountain and obelisk a long way off. 

  This was drawn while I sat on a bench in front of the L’Orangerie in the late afternoon. I think we had walked about 8 miles that day. A LONG day. Good to put my feet up and draw. 

I used a lot of Winsor yellow, Inathrodone Blues. The turquoise green on the lights was made with either Holbein Marine blue or Cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise. I can’t remember which. Sorry. I also used a lot of Quin magenta and coral and Quin gold to make it glow. 

Once again my brain is fried from too much walking in Hitchcock Woods in Aiken today. Not quite four miles.

Stay warm. Going down to twenty tonite. Brrrrr. Break out those wooly socks!!  

Margaret xxx

Day 563 – Auvers sur L’Oise or How to make a Map! 

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Auvers is a small French village best known as the town for Vincent Van Gogh spending the last summer of his life here. He also painted 70 paintings in the 90 or so days he was there.   

A short bus ride from Paris Auvers is a part of France that has been preserved as a historic area. It can never be changed. No new buildings can be added so it’s like a walk thru Van Gogh’s last days. 

Vincent’s room is still there in the Aubeege Ravoux.  A tiny room in the attic what the British call a box room. 

Auvers Hotel de Ville July 14 1890 (The Town Hall, Bastille Day, the French Independence Day)

 You can look out the window and see the Hotel de Ville which of course he painted.  It still has the flags across the second floor Windows. 

  

Turn right out of the Auberge and walk up Rue de Sausonne. The lane the stone gate the steps and the house are still there. The only thing that changes are the trees. 

  Climb the steps and walk down Daubigny to the Eglise Notre Dame de l’Assomption. 

   

 Turn left, walk up the hill to the famous wheat field. 

Another right front the field will take you to the Cemetary where he is buried with his brother Theo.

A lovely little village. I was just sad I could not draw one sketch while I was there. zip zip zip we ran up and down the hilly river town.

Auvers je reviens!! 

Oh before I close. How do I do these. Usually I start with a rough sketch of the route walked penciling in buildings I want to include. 

  

  Then I draw it out as I want it to be. I also make a mental list of embellishments for it. People or in this case sunflowers and crows and Van Goghs paintings. 

  
Pencil sketch. 

  
Inked map. 

Thanks for reading. Off to draw in Aiken aka I am running late doing  this post. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 562- Happy Anniversary

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My blog is one year old today!! WordPress has been great!! Already twice as many followers as I had on my old Blogger blog after 9 years. 

 I have been putting off painting this sketch I made one Saturday nite when we sat under the Eiffel Tower enjoying watching it sparkle. 

So many people were there including the guys who hawked these twinkling Eiffel Towers and bottles of champagne. I imagine someone would be busy picking your pocket while you bought one. 

Pick pockets are terrible at the Eiffel Tower but we had nothing with us but our room cards, a sketchbook, and a pen or two in my pocket. No money. 

They gave up trying to sell us one when I sat down on the curb and started drawing.  Once again I drew the people as they drifted by. 

 

 
So Happy Birthday blog. Thanks for following me. 

Oh TIP: How I painted this. Wish I had taken photos. First I painted the tower with Winsor yellow and let it dry. Then I painted the people with a mixture of mineral violet and cobalt and bits of burnt sienna and burnt umber.

 Then I painted the ground and the tower with Quin gold. Shadows got added wet on wet violet and cobalt. 

The dark sky was painted TWICE Inathrodone and burnt umber mixed. Let it dry between coats. If this were not in my sketchbook I might paint it again. Last I added shadows where the girders crossed. 

Trees. Ooops forgot them. Quin gold and Daniel smith green apitite with some of the night sky color painted over it. 

Is the tower accurate? NO! But it does give the feel of standing under the tower on a dark nite enjoying it twinkle with the rest of Paris. 

Day 561 – Rouen returns?! Changes!! 

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 Final for the moment – Place du Vieux Marché – the Old Market Place in Rouen

Can’t remember if I posted this since I have painted on it for a couple of days which is why I am calling this Changes. See if you can find the changes.  I know I posted it on Instagram but not sure about my blog. 

  Earlier this evening 

This is the the market place where Julia Child first tried French cooking in one of those buildings in the background. It’s also the place where Joan of Arc was burned and the large grey roof is the church dedicated to her in the middle of the market place. Rouen is also the capital of Normandy and forty miles or so from the coast or La Manche – the Sleeve – as the French call the English Channel. 

  
 About three pm
The customers were sketched in as the drifted by doing their shopping. A lot of them had dogs or small children. It was a holiday – Armistice Day which is a big deal in France still. 
  
Yesterday!!

This was the original. Some of the figures and the trees did not stand out. So I spent the next day off and on brightening or darkening the surroundings to make the painting pop more. I used my camera a lot taking photos of it to see if something else was needed. 

Too tired to post the colors.  Maybe tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 560 A Chimera

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And I know you like I thought they were all called gargoyles. Nope this one is a chimera on Notre Dame in Paris. It’s the companion page to the Notre Dame sketch. 

  
I actually like the journal side of the page a lot. Colors hmm Quin magenta and sienna?! Quin gold and of course Quin sienna and cerulean on the chimera. 

Think I will go back and paint the left band cerulean too. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 559 Rue de Renard 

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Opposite the Cafe La Pause Beaubourg near the Hôtel de Ville in the Marais. Also down the street from the Pompidou where we had spent the morning. 

Absolutely loved the art in the Pompidou. What a massive building. With its insides on the outside odd looking among the late 19th century Hausmann style building. And this day so hot inside. No cold weather when we were in Paris during November. A very muggy 70-80 degrees with 91% humidity. 😳

I was impressed with the great masses of humanity walking the streets of the Marais.

 People everywhere and almost to a man or woman dressed in black. Evidently after September one must wear black in France!! And most had their faces down reading their phones. 

TIP: I always take a just in case photo of my drawings as I do them. I actually popped the original photo of this into Waterlogue to see what it would do and tried painting it that way.  Not easy since the colors in the ap are not normal watercolors. But fun to try. 

Colors used!! Painted with my travel pallette. Cerulean, Quin gold and Quin sienna on the buildings.  Quin magenta, burnt umber and Inathrodone for the darks and watered down for the side walks and greys. 

Red is cad red mixed w Quin coral to brighten it. I was too lazy to go dig up my Quin red.  Lol. 

A little hookers green and some phtalo blue. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx