Laurelines

Inordinately fond of fountains

It's true--I really do have a thing for fountains (go away, Doctor Freud.) I drew several on my last trip to France---and on the one in October, come to think of it. I've sketched this one before, too, but in black and white. What a beautiful day it was/is today. Heavenly as can be. Hope yours is or was. 

Small bridge, arboretum

Drawn with Cretacolor Aquamonoliths, minus the agua

Skinny landscapes

One thing I love about drawing so much is that I end up using a lot of art supplies that I've collected over the years. Today I found this small, skinny sketchbook in my studio and thought it would be perfect for landscapes.  Its extreme horizontality and small size reins me in the way I need reining in. The toned paper is good for use with colored pencils, too.

Early morning near the golf course.

Mid afternoon across from the Episcopal church.

I'm not yet used to the camera we bought to replace the one stolen in France. The battery evidently needed recharging---hope that means the top sketch and the one from the arboretum can be rephotographed with more clarity. If not, I'm getting a camera just like my old one. I thought it would be better to give you some idea of what I was doing, even if the images are a bit fuzzy, temporarily.

A tiny breakthrough!

You might have deduced, from my relative infrequency of posting the past few days, that things were not going as easily in Exterior/landscape World as one could wish. And you would have been right. It's not that I don't enjoy looking at landscape paintings---it's just that I've never been all that interested in painting them myself (except as part of general travel sketches.) I felt the same way about painting interiors. So for the past few days, I've made some awful drawings and was beginning to feel icky and incompetent. But today, this one happened, and while it is nothing spectacular, it is better than the others. And now I don't have to dread doing more of them!   With this, I've learned a lot about why and what I DO like to sketch and paint. More about that on another day---it might be of interest to some of you who struggle similarly.

At the university arboretum

Now, where were we?

Back into Themed Sketchbook World, that's where. I'd assigned myself exteriors and landscapes for May, which worked really well when we were in France. Back home, though, everything is green, green, green---middle tones of green. Nice to look at, boring to paint. No curlicues on buildings much, either, and I'm not a fan of straight lines. So, I'm whining, yes.  I've decided that for the rest of the month, anything outdoors is fairish game---buildings, parts of buildings, landscapes, parts of landscapes, architectural elements of any description.  Whatever it takes to get me through the next two weeks!

So, three glances around the outside of my house:

Sections of my front garden and door

Twilight, view over roof line from the back yard

Roses on trellis, green chair. Terrace.

Postcards from Paris, springtime

I've already used Postcards from Paris as a title of a post from a trip I took last October, so here I've been more specific. I've been intending to make a separate album of travel sketches for a long time, to add to the growing list of Photo Albums at left.

Anyway, here's the latest batch.  I started the theme Exteriors/landscapes for my May sketchbook and I'm going to use these outdoor scenes as part of that series. Outdoors is outdoors, you know what I mean?

These were the worst musicians I've ever heard in my life, bless their little, earnest hearts. But they were loud, I give them that. The guy in the lower left hand corner got up shortly after this and, with a look of hauteur and disdain, stalked off.  Everybody's a critic.

These two nice young men had no idea I was doing their rearview portraits.

The Jardin des Plantes is a fabulous garden, but not a lot was blooming, just some tired tulips and things. Wait until summer, though, and then you'd see heavenly floral profusion!

Saint Sulpice, a slice of its interior.

Postcards from the Cote d'Azur

Better late than never! Some little vignettes from our---shall we say---eventful trip.

View from the house in Agay

A few things to see and sip and eat:

I seem to have a thing for fountains!

St. Paul de Vence was as lovely as I'd heard, though dismayingly commercialized.

These are the red rocks I mentioned in an earlier post. Not the rusty red of ochre  in the Luberon, these rock formations, made of porphyry, are a brash, peachy orange--depending on the light and time of day, of course.

(The blue in this middle one is the sky and not the sea. I just realized the point of view might be unclear.) More sketches to come tomorrow.

Nous sommes encore des amis!

We've just arrived in Paris and are waiting for our hotel room to be ready, so I'm checking out the events here chez Laurelines. Am so glad international relations between France and the USA are restored again, with a particular entente cordiale having been established between Guy and Amanda---whew! I also took the opportunity to correct a couple of errors in the last post. The French keyboard is different, yes, and the overstimulated American brain (to wit, mine) isn't doing all that well leaping between two languages. Off now for strolling and lunch. A beautiful day here in Paris---hoping the same for you. Thank you again for your supportive and kind comments, tout le monde!

Red rocks and blue skies, smiling at me...

nothing but blue skies (and red rocks) do I see (with apologies to whomever wrote that song ;D.) First, please read my response below to all the wonderful, caring comments, for which I thank you again so much. We're enjoying heavenly weather and lots of good food and wine. The coast here is flanked by dramatic red rock formations, large and small--- the result of ancient volcanic action---and I've drawn a few of such scenes. The blues of the sky and of the sea are really celestial. Leaving for Paris Saturday morning. A bientot!

It happened to Napolean

... and it happened to me.

'Here after being feted on arrival in St. Raphael, Napolean and his coach were robbed of all their valuables while they were on their way out of town heading towards Paris.'

The descendants of those highwaymen live still--- and it is thanks to them that I type now, from an internet cafe and not from our own computer, and that I cannot share with you  right now the sketches that I'm making in this beautiful part of the world. But I will, when I get back next week. I'll be posting verbal sketches from internet cafes, though, and checking in from time to time. When you travel, you take chances that something unusual and untoward might happen--- and when it does, you deal with it and carry on cheerfully. 

So, voilà----Cheers to one and all.