I had no idea what to draw or paint today. If I weren’t so committed to my September project, I would’ve been on the couch, watching a movie. It is raining, it is cold and it is Sunday. On the best of Sundays, I feel blue and foul mooded. Today was no exception. The drawing says it all.
..selfprotrait..
graphite on drawing paper (49,7x42cm)
à demain
Ronelle
I find that I am always doing nothing most of the time or everything at the same time. When this happens, I feel that at no time am I doing a good job in anything that I do and always need more time. Every time , I wish I could decide on doing only one thing at a time. Maybe that way, I at least could do something right, some of the time.
…intended to be vintage Citroen…
I am in a phase where I am now doing everything at the same time: I am putting up a post here on Africantapestry, I have also updated Myfrenchkitchen, which means I have done some real cooking and kitchen fiddling for a change, Nothing extraordinary, BUT it is cool and healthy!
I have played around with my camera too and updated Coin Perdu, a mountain home, where we drift in and out of nature and restoration in Corréze.
Not forgetting my plein air painting of hay stacks and bales and tractors…and sketching under the bistro umbrellas of people lingering around in the sun …and a cute little vintage Citroen posing. Just for me.
Some of the sketches worked, some turned out completely distorted – the Citroen is unrecognizable and the people in the second sketch resemble figures from Lord of the rings. But…Fun nonetheless.
So. Let’s ride the tide while it is high and do either something, or anything and everything all at the same time!
…lingering sun seekers…
…distorted sun seekers…
All sketches in done in moleskine in pen and wartercolour
Lastly: If you drop by here, please check that you are in my linklist – I have only come to realize how many people I don’t have in my linklist, now that the superblog is down…and of course it wasn’t intentional! So please leave me your link in the comments or in an email ! C’mon, don’t be shy..yye!
In April we joined a promenade with friends in Vernou, a quaint little town across the river. It was all about music and poetry and wine. An enthusiastic french crowd showed up – the French love their music and poetry, not to mention their wine; poems and chorals were orchestrated by our own Mozart on corners of streets, a court jester with his wonky wheelbarrow made fools of life and himself all afternoon, we learnt about bio winemaking in the vineyards, and ended the day with food and wine… how else.
With us leaving for Coin Perdu soon after this promenade, I didn’t have time to post it. Now is as good a time as any.
I’m contributing it to Sketchercise… A Ning group started by Katherine, dedicated to walking/running/cycling, rowing outdoors and sketching!
I can now file this post for futur generations under “A memory of Gramma sketching and walking herself fit…ah, don’t forget the red wine !”
sketches done in moleskine with pen and wash
…le bouffon…
…on y va…
…notre propre Mozart…
…dans les vignobles…
With everybody crawling out of their hibernation holes, sketching faces has become easy again…. in availability, I mean, not in the sketching itself.
…Spring faces…
Pencil sketches in moleskine with watercolour dabs.
This past week we had le soleil à volonté! Meaning as much sun as you want. I made sure I had plentiful of helpings of unlimited sunshine, literally drinking in the sunshine and blue skies, turning my face to the sun. And I could see everybody else doing the same. The winter grim is thown off the faces, mouths are turned upward in smiles, little friendly jokes are being cracked with the stranger opposite you and cars stop to give you an opening into traffic. We are all united by the appearance of the sun. If I could capture the effect of sunlight on people and sell it in a bottle, I would be a billionaire overnight!
So. Like all these other cheerful Francais, I also took to the streets, sat myself down outside a café and sketched the faces around me.
I used pencil, which is always hard for me. Maybe I’m influenced by the fact that I know pencil can be erased, but I DON’T want to erase, so I’m hyper careful not to make a mistake! In using a pen, I care less, I JUST DO IT. I added some watercolour, because it looked too sad without colour and after all, today is 20 March, which means it is…PRINTEMPS!(spring!)…
Question of the day: Did you hold a pen in your hand today and what did you do with it….doodle/draw/sketch/scratch your ear/ clean your toenails…?
We’re back from Helsinki and what a wonderful city, beautiful people, delicious food. I loved every minute I was there. We landed in the snow and it was a fairytale wonderland. I walked all over, or rather ice skated all over – I can now understand why they are such great skaters…they learn it in winter on the sidewalks! At first, your steps are very careful and hesitant, arms balancing sideways like a tight rope walker, until you get the rhythm and allow your feet to slide forward…and you walk.
I visited the Atheneum museum with Finnish artists and of course loved/love the work of Albert Edelfelt, especially this Children playing on the shore. And apart from walking and taking in the beauty around me and enjoying art, getting completely lost in the dark and the snow, I ate herring and cod and salmon, warmed myself with glögi, giggled and skated even better on the sidewalks thereafter, probed recipe books, waved to Nina in Stockholm, Sweden on the shore, and made only one sketch from the safety and warmth of the Café Engel on Senate square. Done in sketchbook with water soluble pilot pen and wash.
To see some photos, you can go here.
…helsinki cathedral on senate square…
…strangers…
Our international sketchbook exchange is nearing its end with only two more laps to go. I hate endings…unless I know there is something new to fill its place. Any suggestions? Anyone out th..e..ere..???
Here is/was my contribution to Nina’s(Ninajohansen.se) book. See her Polychromatic behaviour, where you can have a look at her cover and how it looks right after turning over that cover. It feels like yesterday that our FPP(Flying pictures project) took off, but it has already been almost 5 months. I decided to add scenes from le Jardin du Luxembourg in Nina’s book, a regular stop of mine to relax with a book whenever I’m in Paris. It’s one of my favourite places, with its colours, it’s water, its children, its sailboats, its shadows, and…its chairs. I’m fascinated by their chairs, standing in a “polychromatic” disorder all over. So I took my camera to Paris one day and just shot scenes all over the garden. Back home I printed them in black and white, pasted them onto Fabriano artistico and stretched the black and white scenes in colour over onto my paper. I thought that could be called polychromatic behaviour?
…the whole 21/2 pages…
…taking over from Vivien’s (Painting prints and stuff)brush and coloured pencils…
…close-ups…
…the end of my pages and off to Lindsay ( Non-linear-arts)…
Africantapestry 