…le Boss is away!!…
It has been quite a while that I held a sketch pen and book in my hand, but now that le Boss is in Paris for the week and I am alone at Coin Perdu, I took my chance to go from …
…this…
…and this…
…to this…
All sketches in rotring pen and watercolour in moleskine.
This writing is all about ME. So, if you can’t stand self-indulgence, then you should move on immediately.
I was used to intense birthday celebrations since childhood. Making a fuss of a birthday was a milieu I grew up in. My mom went to a lot of trouble to make it special, to make the birthday boy/girl feel special, whoever it was. She also made her friends feel special. Somehow she felt special too by seeing everybody else feel special. She had a good friend from childhood. They both got married at different stages, had their families and ended up living far away from each other, which resulted in less contact. But they religiously called each other every year on their birthdays until my mother died at 84 years old. And on these birthday calls they chatted away, catching up on the year’s news, and time and distance fell away. Isn’t that special...
…l’orage approche…
oil on canvas, 30x30cm
After leaving home, my birthday celebration years continued. With my family. With a small but close circle of friends. And a few traditions. I have a friend celebrating the same day as mine. Every year on our birthday, Naomi baked(and still does) this incredible black forest cake. Only this one time a year. And it was tradition that I would go over to her house for a quick coffee(before all the visits started) and the two of us would feast on a slice each. With another friend I shared another kind of tradition; I baked her a cake on her birthday and she bake me one on my birthday…I once got a sticky marsh-mellow cake from her and on her birthday she got a giant pink and white cake smothered in rose petals from me. We laughed. This very same friend, Colette, booked an airoplane ticket a few years later to share my 40th birthday with me in South Carolina, US. Isn’t that special…
I had a surprise one year, organized by Mariaan, one crazy, deliciously fun friend. Nobody called me on my birthday that year. It was a strange phenomena. It just didn’t happen. I was always spoiled with phone calls and drop-ins and cards from very early morning on every birthday. That year…nothing! Nada! Except of course for my family living far away. By the evening I was in such a bad state of depression that I decided to leave town the next day, never to return. I would go live with the animals in the bush. On our way out to “dinner” that evening(my last meal in civilization, I decided…), I opened the door and stared into the laughing faces of my whole circle of friends. Each with a huge dish of food and drinks and coloured gifts with huge bows and even huger smiles. We ate and drank and danced, they washed dishes and we kept the neighbourhood up until early hours. Isn’t that special…
Then we left South Africa. Celebrating birthdays changed face very suddenly. The next birthday was only the four of us and our good friends Cecily and family in Felixstowe, who were there for one year. I tried very hard to be original, making us a meal in grandiose style..so many courses, wearing evening attire with french perfumes, sat down to a pristine set table…just to have an over the top, overcooked meal with the dessert literally running off the meringue! But the memory of laughter and jokes and joy of sharing with family and two good friends in a foreign country stays firmly on the plate. Isn’t that special…
Since then, birthdays have been quiet and I’ve been spoiled by my family with love, gifts early morning in bed, breakfasts, and intimate dinners in chateaux, dinners by die fire and a far away call here and there. Isn’t that special…
...le forêt…
oil on canvas, 24x33cm
This week I was surprised with facebook wishes from all over the planet, with Marta being the leader of the pack..starting it off already a day early! I was bowled over by the wishes from people I have just recently met, or never met yet , or only seen photos of, or only exchanged emails with and even people I never thought would care to send me wishes! I received a mail from a friend who is away on holiday in Corsica, who cared enough to take some time from precious sunny days to send me good wishes. I received an international mobile phone call from a good friend in SA who couldn’t reach me at home in Montlouis, who will have a horrendously expensive bill to pay very soon!! There is a gift waiting for me in the mail and by opening it, my house will be strewn with glitter stars and I will find a star on the floor somewhere until next year when her next gift will show up, decorated with glittery stars! After all the quiet years with only my small family here in France and a call here and there from my family and friends far away. Now isn’t that special…!
Maybe you receive a lot of special attention on your special day in the year and might think this is peanuts to the attention you receive! It is possible. Maybe you’re reading here and thinking peeved how lucky I am for you don’t even receive a single note or call! It is possible. Which makes this writing then not so selfindulgent any more. Because at some stage or another, we all have the need to feel special. To have a memory of one day in a year that belonged only to you, a day that you can look back onto and say: “Now wasn’t that special..!”
Maree passed the Kreative blogger award on this way a few weeks ago…THANKS! – and now I have to tell seven things about myself. I don’t have seven interesting things to tell, but I can name hundreds of things that I love that give me joy in this lifetime. So I’ll name a few of them.
Apart from loving my family, I adore my cats, Tokala and Ayiani. They are highly intelligent, as you’ll see from the sketch, and they teach me how to be humble and considerate andhow to respect others’ time and place. I know they see me as a very intelligent creature and recognise my superiority to them. They laugh at all my funny talk and come immediately when I call. I never feel like a fool around them. They hasten to fulfill my every will. I am royalty in their presence.
I adore being a plein air painter. I never really loved landscapes, until I went out and did my first one, which was a complete blooper by the way. But the process of plein air means much more to me than the result. Sic. Of course I’m lying! I love an awesome result! I don’t want to do it just for fun. I want to be extraordinary! I want to be gooood! That is why I go out there again and again. In search of that high that comes with the process . In search of the experience. In search of that complete knock-out that will one day come with a stunning result…hopefully.
I love my bicycle. I look quaint and adorable. My backside rests small and dainty on the saddle. I don’t wobble and I don’t bobble. The uphills are SOO easy and the downhills have people fleeing from me. It says that I am in command. I feel powerful. When I was 5 years old, I ran away from home with my bicycle and a clean cotton panty in my little suitcase. I decided the corner of my street was far enough away from home. Not much has changed. I still wear cotton and my bicycle still takes me away from home. To every corner I choose.
In my next lifetime I am going to be a professional photographer. They make a lot of money and never have to work. They never go hungry. And they are always well dressed. They always travel in style and see the world. And it is all fun. For that they get money again. And they look professional with all their equipment. Everybody has respect for someone who carries a lot of stuff. They immediately think that person must be good. I want to be goood. And it counts in my favour that I’m trigger happy. So I will be a photographer. After all, I’m not scared of animals. Or people. Sic.
I can name many more…Africa holds my roots, France holds my heart…travelling to far-off places was invented for me…listening to other people’s stories of their lives enriches me…nature gives me space to breathe…our mountain home sets me free…
Let’s stop here. Life is too short to only name the things we love. Let’s go do it.
I am passing this award on to:
Cathy at Cards and stuff– she is a lovely french Madame, now living in South Africa and does extraordianary African art and just had an exhibition a hwhile ago of stunning African portraits!
Cecily at Butterflyhands – she is a good friend of many many years and her blog is fairly new, but I know her talent and skills from way back and I have always admired it.
I’m not making the same mistake as with the poppies. The sunflowers are out and I’m ALL over them with eyes brushes and lenses!
I’m posting one or two photo’s here and you can see all the rest of the sunflowers here.
For those who don’t have access to sunflower fields or who are stuck in cities or those who want to work in their atelier, I invite you to download any of these photos and PAINT it, or SKETCH it, or DRAW it. If you want a photo bigger than 500 x 333(what they are posted in here), drop me a note and I can send it to you in bigger format. BUT PLEASE! these photos are only for those who want to draw or paint it! For any other purposes, feel free to ASK me…I can be a very nice person!
I am off to the sunflower fields myself tomorrow with my easel and paint and will hopefully turn up with something worthy of the sunflower’s exuberance!
Enjoy!!
…sunflowers to paint and sketch…
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!
We arrived in Puy d’Arnac where we’ll be staying for the rest of the summer and longer. Still struggling with internet connection, we are using a GPRS mobile card, but reception is a nightmare; I can feel myself aging while waiting for downloads. I suppose it only leaves me more time to paint and sketch…and work on the house. Forgive me for not visiting and commenting much, as images and large files are impossible to open without getting thrown off internet. As it is,it took me 2 days to get this post on Africantapestry! We were promised by France telecom to have a fixed line connection by August. It remains to be seen. Life has to be accepted here as it is…nothing gets done today, for tomorrow is another day.
Dancing to the tune, I spent a morning at le marché in Beaulieu, waiting for Hartman who took off with the remorque to load building material. I bought fresh apricots and sweet cherries, du vin, saucisson and crusty baguette, which soon seduced me into nibbling. I sipped a coffee and took out my long-time-not-used-sketchbook. I felt quite productive.
…marché a beaulieu…
sketch in pen and watercolour in moleskine
With still no sign of Hartman and his remorque, I continued with my heavy load…and baguette…and sketchbook…onto la place de l’eglise where a busload of tourists arrived shortly after, pretending to listen to the babbling guide. He, Monsieur le guide, was so bedazzled by his own performance that he continually stepped onto my toes and my half eaten baguette in his effort to be theatrical. I was sitting on the low wall, trying my best to capture the anitiquites opposite the church. We were obviously in each other’s way….I was there first though.
…antiquités…
sketch in pen and watercolour in moleskine
Africantapestry 