Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 12 Comments

A bustling Amsterdam

I was in Amsterdam last week, criss-crossed the whole city and tried to do some sketching. I found it extremely difficult to sketch in Amsterdam. I struggled to zoom out the busyness of the city and capture only the essential in a scene. The canals are filled with boathouses and with sightseeing boats, the streets with bicycles and people and cars and trees obscuring the narrow houses. And I sometimes feared for my life as, standing on a spot with a sketchbook in hand, doesn’t mean you’re in a safe spot. I had to jump aside many a time, from the urgent ringing of a bicycle bell, just to hear the clang of the tram behind me, which had me scuffling quickly left, directly in front of some service truck, fleeing to the right, of course on the toes of some nose-ringed stranger and apologizing back onto one of the many black garbage bags on the sidewalk. That would have me slog shakily into the nearest  coffee shop or bookstore.

An interesting city, with a heartbeat of its own. I’ve come to recognize many of the gables of the buildings, as we have them in SA as well. We ate kroket and patatje and drank our blond beers with a lemon slice. I enjoyed koffie verkeerd in the company of Rembrandt and Van Gogh and had my dry cleaning delivered to one of the other many Van Wijks there in Amsterdam. I saw the seductive silhouet of Madame in the window of her “Walletjies” apartment and quickly put my hand over Hartman’s eyes. A busy time. A busy city. I now revel once again in the quiet of my home back here on the banks of the Loire.

So here are some efforts, drawn on site in pen or pencil in my handmade sketchbook and moleskine and finished at the hotel with a wash of watercolour. For some pictures(more interesting and much nicer than the sketches!) you can go to Myfrenchkitchen.

…many bridges, many canals, many boats, many trees, many…

 …and more…

…giant amaryllus…

…bulbs, bulbs and bulbs…

…in the way of the tram…

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 19 Comments

Foire aux vins(Wine fair)

September/October is time for Foire aux vins in France. Time to refill those empty spaces in the wine cellar. Try out new wines, restock on old favourites. I enjoy a good red wine. But most of all, I enjoy the grapes. My favourites being Muscat(dark) and Chasselas(green). So I’ll have the grapes now and save the wine for later.

…let there be wine…

Sabre à champagne – a tradition dating from the Napolean empire. Coming back from a battle, the cavalry would pay tribute to victory, vigour, virility and of course…women, by opening up bottles of champagne with theatrical flaunt and flare. The cold bottle is held at the bottom and with a swift movement of the sable from bottom to the neck, the “cork is popped” right under the rim. A clean chop, leaving no shattered glass.

(Edit: I just realized how crooked this sword looks with the completely “off” shadow under the blade! Yes,  I confess. I held the sword in my hand and thus cheated on “seeing” the shadow on the surface…now that says a lot for competence…and I didn’t have a single sip!)

…”en garde!”..

Some fancy bottle openers are available today. The most efficient and quickest still remains the “couteau de sommelier“, which is the all-in-one every “garcon” (waiter) walks around with in his pocket.

And how about a decanter for aged wines to separate from their deposits, or a carafe for a young wine to “breathe”

…”1 2 3 breathe!, 1 2 3 breathe”…

I did intend to do more sketches showing the fun of the Foire aux vins, but laziness got the better of me. I think I’ll just stick to finishing the grapes I’ve sketched and open a Pomerol with dinner tonight.

Sketches done in pen and watercolour on Fabriano artistico block, 22×29, 5cm.

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 36 Comments

Absent

I have been absent for quite some time and after receiving some very caring emails, I thought I should at least give some explanation here. 

I’ve run into some health hiccups a while ago, robbing me of all energy and all willpower to maintain or produce any kind of act, let alone be creative. Thank you for the concern and supportive emails I’ve received from friends out there. I hope to be back with full vigour and energy soon.

…”Wanna talk?”…

And now it feels very “flat and empty” to leave on a note like this, so since I am here for a whisper of a moment behind the computer, why don’t I use the opportunity and time well and fill it with nonsense… After all, nonsense is quite a creative invention. And a very creative excuse. As well as a creative brush-off: “Oh, don’t talk such nonsense!” Probably what you’re thinking right now.

While I am here in front of the keyboard, searching for the right keys after so many weeks, and for that matter, the right words, I might as well try and do it creatively or at least then, call your bluff creatively… I’m not sure I know exactly what I’m saying, but it sounds creative to me. Like nonsense, sort of. What is nonsense? Something that doesn’t make sense….surely creative then. Doing and saying the suspected and at the last minute, adding an unsuspected twist…cunningly creative. Or speaking in utter incomprehensible sentences, or talking about things you know nothing of…defintely creative! Or to shut up someone who is actually being very creative in the use of thoughts and words and you have no clue as to what this person is saying….stupidly creative.

Once, a few years back, I was in the company of interesting people (or so I thought), around a beautifully set table, sharing a wonderful meal.  As usual, I was the listener. At some stage, the conversation turned to people and bad driving skills(is it a skill?). So I thought I had something interesting to add to this part of the conversation and so added my humble and creative opinion (?): “I think women are more inclined to use their indicators than men…” and without being given a chance to explain the science behind my madness, I was stared upon with shocked horror and brushed off with a creative missile launching: “Now the only time you open your mouth and it is to talk nonsense…?” That scarred me for life, I haven’t opened my mouth since(?) until now…  “Oh, nonsense!”

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 21 Comments

Hydrangeas and awards

The hydrangeas in my garden are supposed to be blue, but the soil doesn’t play along. They start out with tints of blue and then turn a dark, bright pink, almost red. It makes for a very pinkish/reddish painting, but at least I had fun doing it.

This was done with watercolour on Fabriano artistico, HP extra white, 23×30,5 cm.

…hydrangeas, red and blue…

I also want to thank Mark from Paper Raven Art, Pamyla from Musings and Maggie from Scquiltaddict, for this award. I really appreciate it.

Like everybody else, I also would like to pass it on to so many people and since I feel I can’t stop at five names, I decided that I would this time like to pass it on to Cathy G at Asketchintime, who does beautiful art, experiments with all kinds of media, who often tries new directions, new techiniques, new approaches. She is an inspiration as well as a supportive friend. No obligations Cathy!

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 23 Comments

A french market scene.

 

Everydbody in our exchange group had already seen this scene posted on our FPP blog, and I just wanted to add it here too.  It was my contribution in Vivien’s book a while back. She ended her drawing with a lovely, soft, perfectly drawn feather and I picked up the feather cue from her. See Lindsay‘s creative continuation from here, posted on FPP by Robyn, and unfortunately you’ll have to wait a while to see how Robyn continued…but pop in at our FPP blog – the books are getting LONG and EXCITING and VERY creative.

I have seen all of us getting looser and looser, more original, more creative, more daring, trying new materials and mediums, playing with collages, pasting and glueing, going for beautiful realisms to beautiful abstracts, pushing and challenging ourselves.

A sketchbook exchange is a wonderful way to move a bit away from what we do normally in our art, “our signature work” so to speak and try out something different, still putting our own “signature” on whatever we do…pushing the envelope. I think that when this sketchbook exchange project is done, we’ll all look back, and discover that apart from the fun we’ve had, we will have learnt new ways, techniques and  creative playing-around , grown in directions we wouldn’t otherwise have discovered…I know I will.

…a french market scene…

Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen · 24 Comments

Posting the whole page.

In my previous post, José made the suggestion that I post the full page and not only detail. So I took him up on his suggestion to show my pages, because there may be others thinking that I post the detail and not the whole sketch. I took the last couple of sketches in my sketchbook. Unfortunately it doesn’t look more interesting and there isn’t actually a bigger picture! I think you could say I “zoom in and choose to sketch detail”. What fascinates me is a broken window shutter, the the moss on a fountain, the intricate woodwork on a wall, a dilapidated door, a doorknob, the corner of a cornice, a shadow on a table, one flower in a bouquet…. so that is what I zoom in to. My sketchbooks are 19×24 cm and I use up all the space when I sketch. I struggle to paint on small format.

When I post, I don’t use any enhancement in terms of contrast or colour correction or whatever, except for the crop tool and then only to “neaten up” the page. It can be seen in image 1 and 2, where in image 2, I only took out the background and excessive white paper. And then of course I only post one page, because I scan most of the time and the whole sketchbook is too big for my scanner. And I also get nice white paper with the scanner.

Maybe it is time I zoom out and see the big picture….perhaps life could be less stressful…philosophically speaking?

…image 1…

…image 2…

…moleskine people sketches…