Laurelines

Let's get together, we said...

And---yeah, yeah, yeah--- we did. The Gang of Five has now doubled in size and all ten of us converged on poor, unsuspecting Norfolk, Virginia for a day  (or two for some of us) of sharing work, laughs, hugs and  excessively brilliant and supremely witty badinage. Read Jenny's  and Wally's and Harry's blogs for accounts with photos. (I forgot my camera.) Cin and Jenny and Marcus and Chris unfortunately had to leave early and poor Chuck couldn't come at all, but the rest of us braved the wind and chill to do a few quick sketches outside.

Here are mine: 

Wally, looking every inch the Romance Novel Hero, sketches me sketching him.

Harry, former rock star and present genius, shivers and sketches at the same time.

Amazing Amanda, blowing in the wind, concentrates on her subject.

Lydia, Amanda's sister, fabulous artist and professional singer, after sketching, backlit by the setting sun as we had a glass or two of wine in a nearby bar.

A lovely man napped across from the sketchers:

I tried to draw the panorama outside my hotel window this morning, but had to stop to meet my buddies for a goodbye breakfast.

It was wicked fun, the weekend.

Pumpkin/persimmon procrastination ploy

Phew. or should I say phooey. Should be painting but did this instead. Odd point of view, I know. When I bought these at Wholefoods they were labelled 'tree pumpkins.' Hmmph.  Looks like persimmons to me.

Confessions of a news junkie: BCF #13

This is an amalgamation, blind contour version, of the faces of three talking heads on tv news tonight.

For far more fair and balanced Blind Contour Friday submissions, please turn to this channel.

My little cabbage

I'm having a black day in the studio, trying to meet a deadline and just making a mess. It's been too long since I painted, as opposed to sketching and drawing, and it shows in my efforts. So to procrastinate and divert, I made this little sketch of a brussels sprouts stalk. It looks like a Hindu god--- or something shrugging its many shoulders as if to say "what'd you expect, you paint-shirker, you?' 

Sweets for the sweet: BCF #12

We're back and jetlagged but happy. Here are some presents for our daughters and my mother, drawn blind, but painted in a semi-alert, sort of laggy fashion.

Postcard finale

Today we stayed close to our own (as if) little chateau and I drew while my husband read and took care of business. It rained more than I would have liked and yet it didn't rain ALL day. For that I am thankful. Here are the last postcards from this trip, including one from yesterday's visit at Fontevraud Abbey, where Eleanor of Aquitane and various other Plantagenets are buried.

A selection of plantings from the end of season kitchen garden at Fontevraud.

This is Chateau des Ormeaux, where we've stayed this week--- a lovely and welcoming place. You would love it.

These are the sheep at Chateau des Ormeaux. No, they are not exactly light on their feet and yet they don't hold a pose for very long either. You can tell, can't you?

There is a little octagonal room attached to our bedroom. This is a narrow view of it.

and this is the salon at the chateau. I wanted to draw some outdoor vignettes, but it was raining, so here is an indoor one.

We leave early tomorrow morning for Paris and our return flight home. Thank you for being part of our trip.

Postcards from the Loire Valley

We have made up for  all the sun in Paris by on and off rain here in the Loire Valley. Some of my sketches were interrupted by rain, one was done IN the rain while my husband held an umbrella over my head (canonization is in his future!), some in the sun and one while the sky was definitely in a bad mood. Here, of mixed quality, they are.

A tower at Chenonceau. A sunny start to our visit.

Looking into the garden from a shady terrace at Chenonceau.

The music garden at Villandry, just before the rain started and I had to stop sketching this.

Villandry, the Garden of Passionate Love, drawn in the rain, from under an umbrella and seen from a high terrace.

At Chambord. A gate in the middle of almost nowhere, doing nothing practical, but looking easier to draw than the whole chateau (with its kaleidoscopic and ethereal and crazy profile) would have been! Here is the moody sky I was talking about.

Chambord. Louis XIV. Or maybe the XV. He wasn't labelled. I assume we are supposed to know.

Tomorrow I hope to post some drawings of the little chateau where we are staying. I have to do them first.  A demain.

Small update

Hello everyone! We are here in the glorious Loire Valley and I have sketches to share, but will have to try to use a dial up connection in a few hours to post them. While it is beautiful here, it is not as computer friendly as Paris--- so, later, I hope!

Paris, parks, postcards from

I don't want to think about why we're having such lovely, warm weather here. Don't make me. I promise to be very good and worry about global warming (again) when I get back. For now, here are three little vignettes from parks in different parts of sunny Paris: 
Square Samuel Rousseau





Parc Monceau


a little park near rue Saint-Dominique

I think I can : BCF #11

And even though Rodin is turning in his grave to hear me say it, here is this week's Blind Contour Friday offering from Paris:

(the garden may look familiar from the post below.)

Check out all the other frivolous and sundry Blind Contour Friday drawings by clicking on Niff and Sutter's incomparable website.