africantapestry – Page 16 – Africantapestry

Posted on May 7, 2015May 7, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 8 Comments

EDM art 7: Envelopes.

Whenever we receive one of these official “Republique Francaise” envelopes, proudly printed with la Liberté Egalité Fraternité, my stomach turns a knot. Even though I love la Republique and la liberté it stands for! But these envelopes always mean trouble. Or most of the time at least. It is either taxes coming your way…and who doesn’t hate/fear those? Or it is something you did which you shouldn’t have done. Like speeding or some other infraction. And so we received one of these proud, but dreaded envelopes a while back. In its usual, very formal and polite but nonetheless slighly accusing tone, it stated that the driver of the vehicle.. bla bla bla….bla bla bla.. ran a red light. That of course meant mon chéri. I started on my tantrum, throwing my hands up at this obscene amount we now have to pay and en plus...lose 4 points on the driving permit for a whole year! Zut!! I, being perfect and all, started lecturing mon chéri about responsible driving, paying attention to the signs and manners of the road. Until he frowned and pointed to the date. Zut!! He was in the States on that date! It meant he was far from that red light. It meant that I was the one who ran this red light. But that is of course impossible. I mean, really… being perfect and all, me? Oh c’mon….impossible!

..envelopes..

nib pen and J. Herbin inks in Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook, 22.9×15.2 cm

à demain avec “something with a handle”

Ronelle

Posted on May 6, 2015May 6, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 13 Comments

EDM art 6: Bristles

Some time during my school years I read a book on Frans Laarmans, an office clerk who decided to quit his job and start his own company. Full of optimism he started planning; his office equipment, all the tools he needed such as printing paper, letter heads, pens, everything he thought a successful busniness should have in his office. He was so frantically busy setting up all that office, that he never got around to what is really important, his business. This book made such an impression on me. So when I walk into an art store, picking up another watercolour brush or oil brush, or pen, I stop and ask myself…do I need it? Will it really turn me into the legendary artist of the 21st century? Well, you all know THAT answer, because we are all at some time or another a Frans Laarmans, acquiring one art tool after the other.In the end it comes down not to the amount of bristles you have, but to doing what needs to be done. But maybe…just maybe that Kolinksy brush in the art store will make my art soar…

..bristles on an art table..

watercolour and dip pen with ink in Daler rowney skatchbook, 21X29.7 cm

à demain

Ronelle

Posted on May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 6 Comments

EDM art 5: A hot woodburning stove.

Few things are as comforting and warming as an old woodburning stove, or coalstove as we used to call it. during the day it gets stacked with wood and at night with coals which can simmer all night long with closed vent; Coming down to a kitchen, smelling the heat from the coals and just moving the kettle over for an old fashioned coffee,…it is a joy few people know about today and many might remember it form childhood. In winter this is our chef in the kitchen.. For heat, for comfort, for a homely ambiance, for cooking , for keeping the kettle ready, and warming the hands. Of course this thing can push out some mean kilowatts and I have a few scars as evidence. But boy, a tajine or a boeuf bourguignon or a rosemary leg of lamb coming out of that little oven…it gives total a new meaning to the term oven baked. As the thermostat is long gone, I am obliged to step back in time and test the oven temperature by sticking in my hand in the oven and counting….warm, hot or freakin hot!

..kettle and woodburning stove..

watercolour and pilot prera pen in Stillman & birn Alpha sketchbook, 22.9X15.2 cm

On this hot note I leave you until tomorrow when I will hopefully be back with “bristles”.

Ronelle

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 4 Comments

EDM art 3: – Curtains.

Urgh, curtains. Those lovely, but awful things we hang in our homes to dress our windows. Beautiful to look at, awful to maintain. They gather dust, their hooks and ties break, they get stuck after after many openings and closings, they fade like I do with age, they have to be taken down to be cleaned, they knock over every thing in a home like mine where a closed window doesn’t exist…need I go on? But nonetheless, me too, I have some curtains. While we live in the barn , restoring our home here at Coin Perdu, I have curtains serving as little closets under the wash basin, hiding those pipes and other uglies. Old kitchen towels bought at the brocantes serve as little curtains everywhere. They can be washed and rehung in a jiff, they are pretty, cost next to nothing and serve as playground for the cats. They suit me just fine, these miniature versions of a curtain. I’ll probably just move them over to the house later….along with the make-do bathroom sink which is concocted from an old wooden ladder lying around when we moved in. Our lives get simpler and simpler.

..curtain..

watercolor and dip pen with nib in Daler Rowney sketchbook, 21X29.7 cm

until tomorrow

Ronelle

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 6 Comments

Every day in May – (1)a favorite food and (2)a tree.

“A favorite food,” says the list of the art group EDM for this month of May.. Only one favorite food? That is a huge punishment! I can draw a favorite food for a whole month and even beyond. How then to choose between all my wonderful favorite fruits, the colourful vegetables, the meat…(yes, you Greenies, I love my meat!) And then there are fish and shellfish and how about a slice of cake? Or a cookie. And dessert. I never skip dessert. I won’t even mention chocolate and that first cup of coffee in the morning. Only one favorite food?

However, I can sometimes play by the rules and this time seems appropriate enough to do so. So one favorite food it is. I confess my weakness for macarons. Those beautiful, sensual, romantic and utterly delicious delicacies our patisserie in Beaulieu so shamelessly flaunts in the display window. By just looking in my eyes, they know I am there for a box of macarons. Yellows and purples and pinks and reds which vary between red fruits and blueberry and strawberry and lemon and vanilla, chocolate, coffee, caramel and my big favorite, that green one, the pistache. I love them all. I leave the patisserie on an euphoric cloud and with my precious macarons gently tucked next to each other in a quaint box and artfully tied with a pink ribbon. All that is left now, is to nail this sketch, so I can retire with my box of macarons to my favorite chair in my favorite corner…..sigh. I rest my case.

..macarons..

watercolor and dip pen with Sennelier indigo ink in S&B alpha sketchbook, 22.9×15.2cm

***************************************************************

I can totally understand why there are nutcases walking around hugging each tree they come across. sometimes I am one of them. Cause a tree is not just a tree. It is a friend, it stirs our emotion, it is a refuge, that safe place under/or in its branches where we hide from all that scorches us..the sun, the world. The olive tree is all of that for me. I do hug my olive trees and talk to them, touch them, stroke them, care for them, love them. They make me think of sunshine and heat. They makes me hear the cigales. They bring me the scent of lavender and wild herbs in the fields and I see colourful vegetables drizzled with the golden oil from its olives, glistening with crystals of fleur de sel. That is my olive tree.

..olive tree..

watercolor and Prera pilot fountain pen in S&B epsilon sketchbook, 14×21.6 cm