Category: Travel journal

Day 485 – La pause de beaubourg

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 Le Brasserie La Pause Beaubourg near the Hotel de Ville and  Georges Pompidou Contemporary Art Center. Delicious food and wonderful staff. This is the view out their window. We are there again today – so delicious. 

   Despite being exhausted and walking 7 miles today I drew two sketches when we ate there again after our visit to the Georges Pompidou. I even drank a Coke. Something I rarely do. 

  

 

   La Pause Beaubourg where u can eat in the window in the most charming barrel chairs. Tiny furniture in France unlike supersized everything in America. Always too big pour moi!

  
 La Pause Beaubourg

 We did sit resting our aching feet and recooperating before we took off for some Marveilieux au Fred on Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe three blocks from the Hotel de Ville in the Marais.   

 Can I say Heaven!? Delicious meringues filled with what might be marshmallow fluff?! 

Tiny cakes called Marveilleux that melt in your mouth. Wonderful staff. The young homme who helped us spoke English like an American. When I asked him where he was from he said he learned English from American tv shows. 

  
Beautiful churches abound. This one is interesting because it has a gothic flying buttressed church with a neoclassic facade. Gorgeous lit in the afternoon sun. 

   
 
Hotel de Ville the crenelated embellished jewel also know as City Hall. Amazing building. This is the Seine River side. 

  
Hotel de Ville from the plaza side. 

  
Even the lights, the metro signs and  

 the advertising kiosk are amazing in Paris. 

 

Notre Dame across the river from Hotel de Ville was amazing. The building is just incredible.   So large! I am sure it’s bigger than a football field. 
 
The Rose Windows and all the stained glass unbelievable. We just sat in awe of quite a while. Well worth getting up early and beating the crowd which stretched across the plaza when we exited the building. 

To think that only Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame kept it from falling down in the 183os/.  Thank you Victor Hugo and Quasimodo. 

   
  Views from the fifth floor of

The Pompidou were worth the admission alone.   
Parisians packed the plaza in front enjoying the sunny warm fall day. 

 
The children loved the bubble lady and so did we.  

 
The architecture near the Ljmpidoy was quite eclectic. Gothic to modern in a row. 

 

A few more views from the Pompidou.   
  Ze Eiffel Tower. 
We are off the Viking Pride today and the Louvre. No hopping night club to keep us awake tonite on  the quai.  

Day 484 – Champs Elysees

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What better place to start than this gorgeous avenue of world class shopping.  

 
Despite two hours of sleep on the place we managed to walk five more miles including a rainy after dinner walk to the Arc de Triomphe which is gloriously lit at night. Well worth the walk!!

  
We ate dinner at L’Artois around the corner from our Hotel  on Rue d’Artois. A sweet little place with the nicest owners. A nice way to dip our toes into Paris dining. This will get watercolor soon but not tonight after another six mile jaunt thru the drizzly beautiful Parisian streets. 

  We did a waking tour of the Marais today. Originally the Jewish district before World War II we know what happened.  The Nazis actually rounded up the children at their schools to transport them to the death camps. There are plaques dedicated to them all over the Marais. 

   
Charming Patisseries. This is the Marveilleux de Fred. We hope to go tomorrow. Fabulous cakes. Yum!
  One of the oldest buildings in the Marais. A half timber building much more typical of Rouen than Paris which was rebuilt after the third revolution of Les Mis fame with its sweeping boulevards. 

Built in the 1400s the buildings were not allowed to be all wood for fear of fire. 

 It also used to have several royal residences. Place des Vosges is all that remains of the home of Henry 4 and Catherine de Medici. She burned the palace when her husband died from jousting wounds and established this park. 

  

  
We finished the day at the Eiffel Tour. Our tickets were pre purchased they parisinfo.com. No waiting in the block long line. We went straight in at our appointed time 2 pm.

   
It is amazing. 
   The building incredible. 

  And just enormous. More than 1000 meters tall. 700 HUNDRED TONS of steel!!😳 
The view from the Eiffel Tower. Still raining sadly. I would like some photos taken in the sun. Please Thank you!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret hoping in the shower.  Xxx

 

 

Day 480 – one day till

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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 447 Kerchoo

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Undoubtably the best time to sketch my grandson is when he’s watching Disney.   He becomes almost immobile occasionally moving his body but mostly staring at the screen. 
 

 
These were drawn in my Aquabee sketchbook with my Lamy fine point loaded with Carbon Platinum Black ink. I have been meaning to paint them as soon as my cold clears up. Hiking in the rain in the WNC Blue Ridge is not conducive to good health. Kerchoo!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 447 Kerchoo

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Undoubtably the best time to sketch by grandson is when he’s watching Disney.   He becomes almost immobile occasionally moving his body but mostly staring at the screen. 
 

 
These were drawn in my Aquabee sketchbook with my Lamy fine point loaded with Carbon Platinum Black ink. I have been meaning to paint them as soon as my cold clears up. Hiking in the rain in the WNC Blue Ridge is not conducive to good health. Kerchoo!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

At some point I changed to my noodles Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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  This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

  I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

  At some point I changed to my beloved red noodler Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 

  
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

 I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 438 – Fishing time 

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This was sketched on the docks of Laretto Creek across from Fort Palaski on Tybee Island. 
One of my favorites painted recently because of all the whites I think. 

  

He had noticed me sketching and asked if he could see them. I had been wanting to draw the fisherman but resisted because I might get caught undercover Sketching. As soon as he started fishing again I whipped this sketch off and quickly turned the page. I knew he would not mind. 

It was painted with my Isabey squirrel mop #2 in a strathmore mixed media journal and drawn with my noodler cheaper ahab with platinum carbon black ink. 

The bright fall sky was painted with cobalt and a bit of cerulean. Trees were painted with Quin gold and hematite with dabs of hookers green. So was the marsh grass.  The water is Andrews turquoise with dabs of cerulean. Skin is Quin red and yellow ochre. Shirt hookers green and inathradone.  Pants no idea. Yellow ochre and burnt umber w inathradone?! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 433- WIP Savannah Riverwalk

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 pleased with progress off to class so moh later as my grandson Henry says. 

  Calling it done.  My weapons of choice were an Isabey #2 squirrel mop and a Lamy Vista fine point with an ink converter lapsed wit carbon platinum black ink. Mop is from Cheap Joes expensive but worth it and cheaper than Dick Blick. I got the pen and converter from Amazon but the ink from Goulet. The Amazon ink was NOT waterproof though it appeared to be the same ink. Another good waterproof ink is Noodlers Lexington Grey from Sam Flaxs Atlanta and de Artrementis DOCUMENT Brown from Goulet pens. 

  

Colors used cerulean and cobalt sky. Aurelion yellow, Quinn gold in roof. burnt sienna quin burnt orange inathradone for the Sphinx. Quin gold hookers green olive green and green hematite with burnt umber in greenery. Piemonte and cobalt blue shadows on buildings and sidewalks. 

 

The sketch Lamy on strathmore 500 mixed media

If you like this style of sketching and painting aka urban sketching sign up for Marc Holmes class on Craftsy. Sign up thru his site http://citizensketcher.com/2015/08/29/travel-sketching-in-mixed-media-lesson-sneak-peek-silhouette-shapes/ for a $10 discount. A good deal for $20 and do it at your leisure. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx