Day 496 – 🇫🇷🇫🇷 The French remember🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 18, 2015Leave a comment

The Canadian D Day cemetery at Bény Sur Mer. It seems appropriate to post it today with the fighting in Paris. War again in France. Our guides grandfather was a French resistance fighter killed by the SS when he was caught.

Today I heard a silly journalist on CNN say Parisians were not used to fighting in their streets. If you asked our guide she would tell you they still remember WW2. Bullet holes from WW2 still pock mark the buildings. The church at Ranville was full of bullet holes and huge chunks of it were missing from WW2 fighting.

🇫🇷 The French remember with three museums to the D Day invasions. This is the Canadian museum at Juno Beach were 5000 Canadians died.

🇫🇷 There’s one at the American invasions site and one at Pegasus Bridges were British paratroopers had to seize a bridge BEFORE the D Day invasion.

🇫🇷Our guide’s grandmother found bodies of 132 Canadian POWs who were murdered and buried in a mass grave in her yard. They still find WW2 bodies routinely in Normandy. So yes they remember!!

Day 495 -🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Last leg home 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷So sharing some photos I took from the terraces at the Pompidou Museum which is just a few blocks south of the bombing sites at Place de la Republique.

🇫🇷Almost done with my repacking. Could have taken what I packed for Atlanta because it was warmer in Paris and rainy instead of leaving it behind in wet cool Atlanta. The last day in Conflans near Paris was the only day we needed warm clothes.

🇫🇷 But first a WIP of the different meringues I are from Paris to Normandy and back. Yummmmm
🇫🇷My favorite snack while in France. No idea how many meringues I ate while in France. I should have counted. Enough for a diabetic coma when u add in the wine we drank like water. Ps no hangover. Supposedly the lack of sulphate a makes all the difference.

🇫🇷 From the Eiffel Tower our view was rain rain and more rain but those preordered tickets worked like a charm.

🇫🇷Straight to the head of the blocks long admission line for a quick zip up the tower where it actually had the gall to rain on us!!😢

🇫🇷The tracadero. Still Gray and rainy.

🇫🇷L’ecole militaire. No sun insight.

🇫🇷Saturday at the Pompidou the views were amazing. The sun was finally out!!! So was the art.

🇫🇷Eiffel Tower on the left far far away.

🇫🇷My favorite. Montmartre and Sacre Couer glowing in the morning sun. Yes we finally saw the sun after two days of rain. 👍🏻😊

🇫🇷The plaza in front of the Pompidou

🇫🇷 Lower level. Paris was out doing what Parisians do on a warm sunny fall day. Enjoying the city.
🇫🇷 Bubble fun
🇫🇷 I want one. The kids loved it.

A few more from the fifth floor of the Pompidou.

Interesting square with several kinds of buildings gothic to modern. Quite startling. There were very cool acrobats and a lot of street artists on the square.

The wild assortment of buildings on the square next to the Pompidou.
Awesome art work in the fountain. Looks a lot like Nikki in the gArden a few years back at the Atlanta Botanical Society.

One more drool over the meringues. Isn’t the cat face to adorable. I have to get these painted I think. A little cerulean and yellow ochre will make them even more delicious.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 494 -Vive La France!! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 16, 2015November 16, 20152 Comments

🇫🇷Feel free to use this image. Posting France sketches on my website and will continue til they are done. 🇫🇷

Gussie and Bob in front of pregothic Saint Sauveur Eglise in Les Andelys.

First a Bob joke. We discussed whether or not to do the climb to Chateau Gaillard. Bob told me it was the third worst climb on the trip and many were known not to ever return from it. Lol.

Started in 1220 and finished 100 years later Saint Saveur Eglise was one of the first churches with Gothic elements. A rooster or chanticleer tops the spire as they do most churches in France. They represent the denial of Peter and from the blog myfrenchheaven.com “Thereafter, the kings of France will adopt the cock out of bravado. When meeting their rivals who treated them as roosters, they would say that the cock is a brave and early rising fighter.

The cock is also the bird of light and faith, the enemy of evil and darkness, etc….”

🇫🇷As most of you know we are just back from the best trip ever is Viking from Paris to Normandy and well not quite back because of the bombings. We stayed in Conflans near Paris and disembarked from there instead of a few blocks from the awesome Eiffel Tower. 😒🇫🇷

Leonard Porkchop Zimmermans Happy sticker I stuck on a street post near the Eiffel Tower. He’s blanketing the world with these free stickers. Check him out on Facebook.

🇫🇷A chilly nite in St Germain en Laye section of Paris. 🇫🇷

The day after the bombing Parisians were out doing what they do best enjoying the city.

Richard the Lionhearted’s Chateau Gaillard in Les Andelys. The chateau and the town were built in the lye twelfth century. Of course they had to build the chateau before he permitted them to build the town. Hmm

Les Andelys from the boat. So charming. Did I say that already!!?

Map of Les Andelys borrowed from the Viking bulletin board. It changes with each port of call.

Garden in Conflans
  The rooftops of Conflan From the Chateau Mountjoie. All the chateaus sat above the river to command the river.

The Cpunt of Montjoies tomb in the Conflan church. Too cool. i have read about crusaders tombs but never seen one.

The tomb below the church window. The Viking chefs favorite fromagerie in Conflans and Tetons de Venus. Yes it means nipples of Venus. Wonder if hers were encrusted with mold? Guess they are by now. Lol

More mold encrusted cheeses.

That’s a lot of mold to make that delicious cheese!! 😳 Of course my son Ben said that’s how they make cheese. I guess like everything else in the US ours is sanitized before we see it.

The Viking chefs favorite chocolate shop in Conflans. Lots of deliciousness there.

My sis at the Eiffel Tower on a rainy gloomy day.

Sacre Couer.

Well enough photos for the day. Go forth and book a Viking cruise. They are awesome. There were people on our cruise who had been on six or seven. Some had done the Seine cruise more than once.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret in Atlanta recovering jet lag!

Day 480 – one day till

November 3, 20152 Comments

Lift off. My suitcase is packed and I have plenty of room for art supplies. When I went to key west I actually needed more sketchbooks. Not this time!!

So why am I taking to sketch with?!! I know u r dying to know!!!

My two small palettes. Been painting with them and they really have all the colors you need. The whiskey painters palette has all the basic Winsor Newton colors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral which I love for skin tones and two ceruleans because I use it A lot!!

The cotman is full of quinacridones and a couple of paints that should be in the Whiskey painters palette the yellow and Thalo blue.
Paint brushes. Taking the good ones since I have room and just in case. Most of them are Isabey sables including the mops but the big sable is my cheap Joes legend which I love. Curious to see how much the Isabeys cost in France the land of their birth. They are made in Brittany and are Charles Reid’s favorite brush. I wouldn’t mind another one or two.

Back up colors in case I run they the ones in the palettes.

Pens loaded mostly with Platinum Carbon Black. Top to bottom Kuretake Brush Pen, Black pitt pen Fine, pentrl brush pen, sepia pitt pen Fine, two Noodler Konrads (one has Deartementis document brown ink in it) Platinum Carbon pen, and two of my favorite pens the Noodler Creaper ahab.

I am taking these with me in case I want to paint as I sketch. I usually paint when I get home because I hate to make my sister Jan wait while I paint. Bad enough that she waits while I sketch.

Lots of ink and cartridges.

Lots of paper. The two hand made sketchbooks have Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro, 3 strathmore mixed media sketchbooks(my current fav) a tablet of Fabriano squarely 149# cold press, some Canson post cards and some Strathmore 500 watercolor cards oh and a stack of accordion folded Stonehenge paper to draw strings of people and maybe a chicken or two on?!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret who is taking clothes I her suitcase and backpack too!!

Day 479 Two days to Paris 😳

November 2, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

Well at least we leave then. Lol. Be in Paris by 2 pm Thursday.

Been raining cats and dogs do I am posting all of the family dogs but one today.

A quick sketch of my lab Honey. She walked off before I finished it but decided to paint it this am. Painted with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.
Grant – my sons newest put bull. Drawn with a Lamy Vista using Carbon Paltinum Black ink.

Drawing a new dog is always a challenge. To top it off he’s black and white. I smeared the ink with my finger to try to make his black more solid. I actually drew him three times before I was happy with him.

I wish I could give u some dog drawing tips but the only one I can give u is that a dog like a person or a horse is just geometric shapes. Check out Richard Schmidts wonderful Alla Prima book which is what he says about drawing anything. They are all just shapes.

Livia my sons other pitty. Small sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded w Platinum Carbon Black ink.

Lucy dog my youngest sons Briard Colie mix. Such a good puppy.

My other dog Zoe watching me pack. Maybe I should stick her in the suitcase?! I have enough room.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 478 – finishing up

November 1, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

WIP??? Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie 11×14 super Aquabee tablet

Not sure these are done but at least they have some color now. Getting into travel mode so I used my travel Palette with Winsor Newton colors and my cotman palette with quinacridones.

The background in this painting is cerulean and yellow ochre. I may darken with ultramarine or inathradone to make the mermaids pop.

Remember this is what it looked like?

WIP – Mistress Princess Augusta – 11×14 drawn when I was done with one of the long mermaid poses. Her right arm still has problems. She was not posed so she was moving a lot and I drew her right arm too long. I shortened it with negative painting but now I think it is a smidge too narrow.
TIP: Really love her skirt. Both of these paintings were done wet on wet after watching a how to impressionistic watercolor video on Marcon Chews website http://www.marvinchew.com/ (You will have to scroll down for the video. Could not copy the exact irk for u! 😐) about wet on wet painting.The skirt turned out especially well I think. Done with ultramarine and burnt umber added to a wash of water that I painted on the skirt first. The background was done the same way.

I added the bowler hat to the original sketch.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 472 – A Toasty Day

October 25, 2015Leave a comment

Aquabee sketchbook with a fine point sepia Pitt Pen.

And more Inktober. Danny Gregory http://www.dannygregory.com the guru of Sketchbookskool and Everyday Matters is posting a Friday Challenge. The first one was draw your toast in INK. You should try it. Takes a while to get all those books and crannies.

Thought u might like to see it I stages. I also did a flipagram of it that I will post at the end.

Lots of seeds on this Costco multigrain organic bread.

And lots of holes for non artisanal bread.

The seeds as something to the sketch but the bread made with cane syrup is too sweet for my taste.

Everything seems to have sugar added to it lately whether or not it needs it – like chicken salad and pimento cheese and Krogers pie crust. Sigh.

Almost done.

All done. It took about an hour. The sketch is about 5×5 inches.

Now get those pens out and sketch your toast!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 464 the last Best of Augusta #4

October 18, 2015Leave a comment

Another favorite of Bill Karp. Bytw he’s playing at the Cotton Patch in downtown Augusta this Saturday nite.

I really like Bill’s stance in these. Especially the first one.

Hand is a little rough but otherwise I like it. My excuse??

It was 9 pm and I was tired and on a sugar high from all the sweets at Best of Augusta.
Oh what was my favorite food?? T’s out on Mike Padgett Hwy. They kept the hot hush puppies and fried catfish and tartar sauce flowing. And it was perfectly cooked. Everyone else had chicken chicken and more chicken.

The last sketch I did of Bill. Not a perfect hand but I like it.

We left loaded up with cake, cookies and Krispy Kreme donuts. All those sweet treats still sitting on the kitchen counter.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 461 -Best of Augusta

October 14, 20152 Comments

And a good excuse to add to the Inktober sketches. Best of Augusta is the restaurants and musicians who were voted best in the Augusta Magazine and is held annually in Sacred Heart- the old Catholic Church I drew about a month ago.

I drew at least a dozen sketches last nite. These are two of the audience members.

A lady in the audience enjoying the music. I loved her Hair and the hat. Done with my Pentel brush pen.

The shading was smeared because using just the black ink would be too dark. Think she would be fun to paint but I am getting way behind on the painting. 😳

This man was in the queue to get beer. Then he sat down right behind me. 😜 I drew him with my new Noodler Creaper ahab but was having problems. So after a few sketches I switched to the Pentel brush pen and my drawings were much better.

Sacred Heart