Laurelines

At Clermont-Ferrand and after

I was late getting to Clermont-Ferrand, thanks to the train strikes and a tension-fraught rental car drive from Amboise. We've driven all over France, but wouldn't you know that the one time we HAD to be somewhere by a certain time,  it took us 3 hours longer than it should have to get there?? I won't go into all of the troubles we had, but if you've ever had the nightmare that you're supposed to be someplace (like onstage) at a fixed time and you CAN'T get there and you CAN'T get in touch with anyone to let them know, then you know what I'm talking about.
Finally, we made it and I got to the Polydome where the exhibition was mounted.
What an AMAZING event!! I really had no idea what it was going to be like, because there were no photos of the installation on the website of the biennale when I applied.  There were two floors of the most sophisticated, bountiful displays of travel sketchbooks, by 130 artists---so many styles, so many formats, with scads of accompanying materials---it was a FEAST. Really, a total, full-bore, awe-inspiring feast. But I was there to stick to my display area and to talk to the many, many spectators who came to see the show. I participated in the panel of foreign participants on Saturday evening and that went just fine. I managed to sneak a quick peek at the other work on Sunday morning, thank heavens. I even bought a couple of published sketchbooks and ordered more from amazon dot france on my return. Many, many of the sketchbooks I saw were large (AT LEAST 9 x 12) and ambitious and powerful, with lots of text. A good number, maybe the majority, of the participants had been in the biennale numerous times. Their presentations were highly polished and really, really fun to see. I was like a kid at a three- star confectioner's!
I didn't take photos but I made sketches, above and below, of some of my visitors and neighbors.

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And here's my portrait, drawn by Jeanne, aged 8, whose portrait I drew and gave to her. "Madame, je vous adore," she said. I've got a fan! Here's a selection of the many sketchbooks, both self- and other-published that were available. I admired SO much of what I saw there. A couple of my favorite artists did NOT have books or websites. They are Ejoumalé from India, whose painting appears on the catalogue's cover (above). He is immensely gifted and prolific. There must have been thirty of his paintings (not sketches) framed and hung in the Polydome, outside of the exhibition space proper. And there's Nicolas Jolivot, who had the most beautiful, huge (folio sized) woodcuts of China, scads of them, filling several vitrines. There were Stefano Faravelli, Enrique Flores, Irma Kennaway, Michel Montigné, Elodie Studler, Geneviève Marot, Veronique Groseil, Martine Chantereau. So many, too many to name them all. It might sound odd to say this, but the thing I was most inspired by (other than the tsunami of sheer talent everywhere) was the exciting materiality of the work displayed---the large size of much of the work, the heft of many of the sketchbooks, the wild variety of papers used (and of drawing materials, too!) I'd seen the work of some of the artists, like Enrique Flores and Stefano Favarelli, online, for a while now. The show reminded me that there's nothing like seeing work in person. You just can't get the total picture, as it were, from looking at blogs. I'm still digesting all that I saw and felt. I know that in 2008 I'll be going bigger, braver, and with more variety in the mediums I use. We'll see what develops!

In Amboise with Casey

Well, what with the arrival of Thanksgiving and readjusting to home territory, I'm late in posting French sketches. But better now than even later, right?
I had the great fortune to spend extra time in Amboise with Casey and Ronell. (See previous two posts for explanations.) My time with Ronell was WAY too short--her schedule and intermittent cell phone problems very sadly tripped us both up. We vow to make up for lost time the next time I'm in Amboise. Casey and I set out early on a frosty day and walked to the chateau, where we mostly sketched bits of the interior, but managed a spell outdoors sketching before our fingers grew numb. Here they are, in roughly chronological order. Check Casey's blog for her versions of many of these.

I love the prickly trees in France. The French method of pruning produces wildly calligraphic shapes that fill the landscape with phrases from some half-remembered, stark, elegant proto- language. These trees are on the grounds of the chateau.
After a cold day of sketching, we went to a café across from the chateau, where I sketched tea things arranged on a hutch behind the banquette where Casey sat.
Next day, even colder, we managed a quick trip to the Musée des Beaux Arts in Tours, where we eked out one sketch each of polychrome fireplace figures.
I have some sketches and stories from the exhibit in Clermont-Ferrand and my scant stay in Paris. Stay tuned!

I am so inspired!

This has been an incredible trip, in good and not-so-good ways. The good ones far outweigh the bad, never fear! From practically the first day I arrived in France, there have been transportation strikes that have made confetti of my plans and itineraries. Though I missed the first week in Paris, I had more days in Amboise to visit with Casey and Ronell---- that's where I was first inspired. I'd met Casey in September, so I knew how lovely and vivacious and just plain fun she is. This time I got to meet her family and see her gorgeous, large studio in a former stable next to her house. I also was lucky enough to meet warm and gracious Ronell and to see her beautifully appointed, cozy house and HER spacious and inviting studio, too! My space is much smaller than either of theirs, but I'm determined to go home and read the riot act to my so-called studio. I want to make mine as cozy and Casey-and-Ronell-like as I can. They are both fabulous painters, too. I saw many pieces which have never appeared on their blogs and I was very, very impressed.
I will post sketches from the trip in the coming days. For now, here's a shot of Casey and me in which I'm trying to coerce her into some foul misdeed, the nature of which I cannot recall. I feel sure she resisted.

By taking a taxi 150 miles (!!!!!) from Paris to Amboise (the only way he could get out of Paris to where I was since the trains weren't running), my husband was able to join me in time for us to rent a car and drive to Clermont-Ferrand for the art show I participated in. Another set of train tickets bit the dust. We missed most of the first day, however. We got lost. Enough said.
But, oh, what a fabulous event it was!!! I saw wonderful, ambitious, powerful, large, complex work over and over and over. If I hadn't had to man my own stand, I could have seen even more than I did. Oh my word, it was inspiring!! I am on fire with ideas for the coming year. I fulfilled my duties in the panel discussion I'd worried about. I met interesting and kind people. I talked about and showed my work to the many visitors who stopped by to see it. I feel so grateful to have been included in this exhibition. It was one of those life-changing occurrences, I think.
And back to Paris, at last, for one day before leaving tomorrow for hearth, home, and new baby in our family!
A couple of photos of Paris before I start to pack. Sketches have been sketched. They will be shared as soon as I can. Happy days ahead to all of us, each and every one!

Poems, paints, and best-laid plans

I SO wanted to have one more Schmincke bonbon to show you before I left, but nothing worked out. You know how that goes.  So, I'm leaving tomorrow for France.  Because of a temporary health problem of a member of our family, my husband will not be going with me.  Also, on Tuesday there will be another nationwide railway strike in France and no one knows how long it will last. This means I've had to cut short my stay in Paris, because I canNOT be stuck there when I'm supposed to be in Clermont-Ferrand at la Biennale du Carnets de Voyage! Your attendance is required if you're in the show--- plus, I'm going to be a speaker on a panel there, as I've mentioned before. I'd planned to take the train to Amboise the day the strike starts, to visit Casey, Deirdre and Ronell for one day and one night. But I'm now staying for a couple or three days, hoping to ride out (as it were) the strike. If the strike is not over by the time I have to be in Clermont-Ferrand, I'll rent a car and drive the 150 miles from Amboise. My husband is going to try to make it to France in time for the  show's opening day. See what I mean about plans going awry?  Still, I'm going to have a blast in Amboise with my buddies, artists all. We're hoping to paint together and I will post what we come up with!
Speaking of paints, here's my new Schmincke tin of bonbons, with its added pans and half pans from my old palette. I wanted to show you how it can accommodate extra pans.
This week, I received copies of a new book of poems by my brilliant friend Margaret Rabb, latterly of Seattle, currently professor of creative writing at Central Oklahoma University.  She's a wonderful, excellent, multi-prizewinning, stupendous poet and one of my dearest friends in all the world. The cover illustration  is by someone you know---any guesses ?

Wish me luck, please, on my much-altered, many-legged, hopscotching trip to France!

Schmincke Chronicles Part 4: Crazy for orange & making choices

The oranges and yellows in this Schmincke 24 paint set are glorious. I didn't have to look far in my house for orangey, yellowy objects to use as subjects to test them. I slapped a couple of pumpkinish orbs onto a turquoise, dimpled glass plate and voilà!  I also grabbed a couple of odd
little things for another round with blues and violets. Here we go: (In real  life, the  pumpkin sketch, at 8" x 11", is a good bit bigger than the spoon one,  at 6" x 9".

  I still have not EVEN begun to play with Prussian blue and have barely cast a glance at phthalo green and Naples yellow, but, since I'm leaving for France again in a week, I had to make some palette choices. I removed the pan of Schmincke black and added the following colors:

Daniel Smith cobalt teal ( I can't do without this one!)

Daniel Smith blue ochre (perfect for all sorts of things, including buildings in Paris!)

Sennelier cerulean (much duller than the Schmincke one. I'm so used to it and use  it more than any other color.)

Schmincke dark cobalt. This isn't included in the set, but I NEED it. So I have it.

So for now this is the  palette I'm using. I'll be fine-tuning it as I go. I will have to let one of the ceruleans go. It will probably do me good to learn how to use the Schmincke one to get both subtle and rowdy effects!

Schmincke Chronicles, Part 3: Singing the Blues

...and greens and yellows and reds and.... . I can't tear myself away from these paints! Right now, I'm mostly playing with the colors out of the tube and seeing what's what. After that, there's a lifetime of mixing. I wish I were a cat, because I'm pretty sure I only have what's left of THIS one lifetime.  Still, I've starting some mixing---you'll see it in the pods painting and a chart I'm posting as evidence of my obsession, I mean, earnestness.  Speaking of obsessiveness, I'm compelled to tell you that the vase in the blue sketch is narrow and elliptical in real life. The vase is a Swedish design---it's not a wonky drawing of a cylindrical shape.

Here's a chart where I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'd ever use Schmincke's helio turquoise. It is SO intense and charged! Turns out it mixes beautifully with manganese violet and indigo and venetian red and sepia brown! 

In the midst of all of this, I'm figuring out which of the colors in the set, other than black, I'm going to omit---and which from  my old palette I'm going to add. I have at least one more post on this subject, so bear with  me!