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
What do you do with all thosepostcards you pick up on your travels!? Mine usually stay in a cubby hole in the desk til I have a clean up and toss them.
Sad to say I the only thing I bought for this book was the Eiffel Tower on the front when we were in Les Andelys and of course the postcards.
I collected a lot of ephemera like the items on the back. I have two bags full. I needed a map for the accordion part of the book. Did I bring ONE map back. Not a one.
Luckily I found some copyright free maps on the internet and printed it out. I printed several but only used this one.
The accordion was also made from the map.
Here’s a shot of the book with the accordion extended. Each postcard is backed with vellum so that you can journal on it about your trip. Thinking I may glue some more of my ephemera in it.
I have a large bag of stamps left from when I did a lot of mixed media. Could I find it?! After hours of looking I did and NOT ONE French stamp. Finally I did yesterday morning. An hour and a half of going thru the bag – stamp by stamp – I finally found about a dozen. I actually had separated them back when I got them but put them in with the Italian stamps.
I had several that were larger than the rest and wanted to use them anyway so I cut them down and mounted them on some paper that I already had. Since of course I now had a surplus of stamps I had to add a few to these pages.
This is the book that has the directions for the accordion postcard book. Fairly easy to make. And only took about five hours to assemble.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Ok so it’s not really pink. I just like the way the alizarin looked. All yellow ochre was oh so boring. Cerulean and some Quin sienna in the shadows.
Drawn with a sputtering skipping Noodler Ahab. I bought a new one because my beloved old standby was leaking. This one is worse than the first one. Going to get the leaky one out and put in some new seals. Maybe that will fix it.
Anyway. Got to knit the yahd guy a hat so he won’t freeze in this lovely cold snap.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
A slick restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It means Beed on the Roof. Delicious food. Glad I finally got this one painted.
I used lots of Quin gold, also Quin sienna and Phthalo blue. Quin coral. Grey hair is burnt sienna and cerulean.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Line the streets of Paris. The French like to prune them into odd shapes. I don’t like trees that Americans prune like this but in France there are so many I grew to like them. They line the Seine River and many streets.
In the 1880s it became fashionable to take the air but one did not want to get a tan so trees were planted and pruned to indulge this whim especially in Paris.
Colors used. Leaf French ochre w Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange. Cerulean. Splattered with whatever soup was on my palette. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
🇫🇷Or breakfast at the Rochester hotel.
A lavish spread. Heaps of croissants and tasty rolls. Several kinds of delicious cheeses, quiche, home made yogurt and the list goes on and on. There was even some kind of baked chicken and veg. 👀
🇫🇷If you didn’t like what they had you could order whatever you wanted. I always ordered an omelet. We were up so early I did’t want to get hungry before we found a place to eat lunch!! And of course since it was a buffet we tried lots of goodies-perhaps only a bite.
🇫🇷This lady sat next to me at breakfast one day. I knew she would not notice me drawing her since she was engrossed in her IPad.
🇫🇷Strathmore mixed media 500 paper, Noodler Konrad pen, platinum carbon black ink, Daniel smith, winsor Newton, and Holbein watercolor.
🇫🇷 I think I left my heart in France when it’s not in Decatur with my grandkids. 😢 I dream about it a lot!!
Merry Christmas🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄
Thanks for reading.
Paris Day 1 – Giddy with excitement.
Now but since I am once again traveling will parcel them out and hope I get some more done. Not easy with an adorable three year old grandson “helping” you out. Lol
Like the layout. It evolved. The right page was done first sketched while we waited for our food. L’Artoise is a sweet little restaurant on Rue d’Artois around the corner from our hotel the Rochester. The Yelp reviews were spot on. Food was passable but not memorable.
Debbie and Tucker also cruising on Viking and staying at the Rochester.
The Proprietors were sweet and oh so French. The eggplant entree w a slab of store mozzarella was not great. The chicken an improvement – cow au vin I think.
We were so excited that dog food would have been wonderful lol. We imagined we were Phil who we followed on his adventures on PBS What is Phil eating. A hoot. Phil would not have eaten at L’Artois.
Dessert créme brûlée. Yummy. Then we walked the champs Elysees. I think we walked five miles even with out jet lag.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret off to make Christmas cookies but dreadfully in need of a long winters nap. On the 26th right?! 😊 xxx
Figured out the title page for my France travel journal. I filled up two Strathmore 500 mixed Media journals but still have a lot of pages to paint in what I call my coloring book.
The light was bad on the boat for painting so I mostly drew with my Noodler Konrads while I was on board.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret making headway in her journals finally. 😘
One of the fountains that have replaced Madame Guillotine which stood here during the French Revolution.
Off to Dr Sketchys.
More Manana.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
St Gervais a beautiful odd church near the Hôtel de Ville. The facade is neoclassic but the rest of it is gothic with flying buttresses like nearby Notre Dame.
Hôtel de Ville – the city hall. Where else but in Paris would you find an encrusted crenellated palace for a town hall?
Lights on the plaza.
From Rue Rivoli.
The riverside. It sits right by the Seine.
One of the three back doors. Probably 12 feet tall. Amazing huge things. Statues of famous Parisians march across the facade.
Riverside in the sun.
Riverside no sun. 
The front from the river.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 
