A Pastel Glutton in Paris

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Jean

Pastels . . . Paris . . . Inseparable

I’ve been studying pastel masterpieces, drawing, doing a bit of painting of my own; and what better place than Paris to do all this? Paris is the home of some of the finest pastel makers in the world including Sennelier, where we made an early pilgrimage to soak in some of the magic, and Henri Roche, another of the best and probably the most expensive pastels in the world; both of which were reputedly used by Degas.

The Musee d’Orsay has a treasure trove of pastels. Unfortunately, they are still undergoing renovations, so only a small portion of them are on display. But what wonderful ones they are!!! And they have a roomful of Degas’, perhaps the most famous pastelist in the world.

While the Musee d’Orsay is the official repository of 19th century impressionist painting, there is also a small, but unsurpassed collection of impressionists that was donated to Musee du Louvre by Helene and Henry Lyon which includes a Degas pastel that is exquisite.

We’ve seen many pastel paintings on this trip. It was a medium used by most of the impressionists and many artists before and since. One of the advantages of pastel, according to the notes on Degas at Musee d’Orsay, is that during a time when he was short of money he was able to do onsite commissions, painting with pastels, and thus able to turn the sale quickly. But Degas came to love them and used them throughout his long career when speed and income were no longer an issue; many of his most famous paintings are pastels. His technique was unlike many of the other pastelists of the time who used mostly a blended application creating idealized images of women. Degas used pastel to paint a wide range of subjects and experimented with an array of techniques, breaking up surface textures with hatching, contrasting dry pastel with wet, and using gouache and watercolors to soften the contours of his figures.

I will put a few images of my favorite pastel paintings from Paris on this post, but be warned: one thing I have learned on this trip is that no photograph ever does a painting justice. It is important to see paintings in person when you can and to soak in what you can when the painting is in front of you. Another thing that I’ve been reminded of is that museums are constantly changing their displays. Paintings that I hoped to see again are either in the archives or on the road. As with everything in life you must make the most of the moment as it happens for it will never come again.

I’ll also include other pastel related photos and an image of my latest pastel painting, Pigeon Love.

Paris . . . Pigeons . . . Pastel . . . Inseparable

Enjoy.

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Return to The Louvre

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Paul

Yesterday was the first Sunday of August and a free day at state museums. We decided to take advantage to return to The Louvre to see the Helene and Victor Lyon Collection. The truth is that Jean wanted to see the Louvre’s only Degas, a wonderful pastel of a woman bathing.

We climbed from the Metro to find a line extending across the grounds, through two large courtyards, out the gates, and around the block. An attendant at the end of the line held a sign that said it would be a 3 hour wait. We asked someone in line how long they had been waiting and did some calculations to determine that we weren’t going to stay.

We crossed The Seine into the St. Germain des Pres district. Musee Delacroix  is there and it was on our list of places to visit. As another state museum it also was free. However, unlike its illustrious neighbor across the river The Delacroix had no line. We were waved in and spent a wonderful 90 minutes. The collection includes not only works by Delacroix, but paintings that he had in his personal collection. We had visited 8 years ago and were surprised to see new paintings that hadn’t been displayed then. We also were disappointed that some favorites were not on display at this time. That’s the reality of the art museum world.

We decided to walk to The Marais with a stop on Ile de la Cite and the little park at the NW end of the island. A sunny bench and pigeons kept us there for an hour. As we crossed Pont Neuf to resume our walk we decided to check outthe lines at The Louvre again. This time they were inside the grounds and it appeared as if they were moving. Therefore, we abandoned plans for The Marais and got in line. An hour and a half later we were in The Louvre. That gave us ample time to take pictures while in line. I’ve included a few of mine. These are taken with our small Nikon point and shoot camera because I didn’t take my Canon today.

After successfully climbing to the top floor and into the 19th century painting exhibit we settled in the room occupied by the Lyon Collection. We spent almost an hour just looking at the paintings and marvelling that one couple collected all of them. It’s worth looking for this if you’re ever at The Louvre. The big masterpieces get all the crowds and attention, so this exhibit is quite accessible and you’re not pressured to “move on.”

After our Metro ride and walk home we were both wiped out. Our favorite Lebanese take out place provided some vittles for dinner. It became an early evening as we both crashed after dinner. Today will be an easy day of lounging and painting.

Bye!

Paul

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Paris Dispatch

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Paul

It was a humid week in Paris. Although the temperature didn’t get scorching, the heavy air made exercise unpleasant. We spent a few days indoors, painting, with a few short walks to the market or to one of the neighborhood parks. One day we walked to Place de Voges where the homes of many famous people are, including Victor Hugo and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. However, for the most part we stayed close to home until venturing to Musee d’Orsay yesterday.

Our return visit to this wonderful museum was marked by the arrest of a gentleman of about my age as we were arriving. He looked like a tourist and the woman with him complained bitterly, but the police took him down, cuffed him, and stuffed him in a van without explanation. Welcome to Paris!

The museum was a bit of a disappointment because the Van Gogh room that we especially wanted to visit is closed for a week for some work on the floors. There was no Van Gogh on view! We contented ourselves with a return visit to other impressionists and the wonderful pastel display that was still on.

Upon leaving Musee d’Orsay we got ice cream cones. As we were leaving the square a young woman stooped in front of us and “found” a gold ring on the concrete. You may recall that this happened to me a few weeks ago, but Jean hadn’t seen the scam before. The young woman asked us to verify if it was gold, but we both said No firmly and kept going. I’ve been thinking that I need to learn how to say, “Ask the gendarmes” in French for the next time someone asks me if the ring is gold. I’ve included a few photos from our walk from the Metro to the museum.

Anyway, we have been painting so I thought I would include a photo of my Paris “studio” for my artist friends. My Alla Prima Pochade box that I bought last winter is working out wonderfully for both acrylic and watercolor. I use oil with it at home, but don’t have them along. As you can see in the photo it mounts on a camera tripod and takes up relatively little space. That’s good because our kitchen is tiny and Jean’s pastel easel and boxes are on the other side. I’m looking forward to using this setup for some plenn aire painting in the country in a few weeks.

Au revoir!

Paul

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Le Jardin des Plantes

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Paul

One of our recent days took us to Jardin des Plantes, a large park that includes natural history museums, a zoo, and marvelous gardens. It is a wonderful place to stroll, watch people, look at the beautiful flowers, walk long shaded tree-lined lanes, and sit on a bench to enjoy a bag lunch. It’s about a 2 mile walk from our apartment.

We only visited some of the gardens and took hundreds of photos. Here is a small sample of some of mine. Lots of inspiration for paintings here.

Paul

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Halfway Reflections

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Paul

Today and tomorrow mark the halfway point of our senior citizen semester abroad. Two weeks in London, six weeks in Ireland, and three weeks in Paris. (Approximately) It has been what I expected in some ways and different in others. While some of our experiences were predictable, many have been unexpected.

Expected: beautiful art work in museums and galleries; beautiful scenery in Ireland; difficulty driving in Ireland; lots of photographs; meeting friendly people; learning new things about painting; having some cramped living conditions with much “togetherness”; dealing with unexpected travel changes/difficulties.

Unexpected: cool rainy weather into July; mastering driving in Ireland; not much plenn aire painting (related to the weather); many new artists whom I did not know about; being more tired with all the walking in Paris than I was 10 years ago; many more panhandlers and pickpockets in Paris than I remember; missing our home.

I think we adapted pretty well to the weather situation. Now that it’s sunny and warm in Paris we can get out more freely, but the heat makes us slow down. Plenn aire painting will be more possible when we take to the countryside later in August. There will be fewer museums to eat up our days and many more sights to stop and paint. I have not been able to get my vision around painting city scapes in Paris. Rural landscapes are much more in my mind. However, as you can see below I have been experimenting with painting people. This started with sketches while out and about.

It has been exciting to learn about many new (to me) painters. The flip side is that my head is filled to overflowing with all of this information. I find I need down days to process what I’ve seen. In Ireland we would just take a day or two a week to stay at home, which helped me mentally process what we had seen and learned. In Paris the walking makes us so tired that down days come naturally.

I continue to maintain that retirement is underrated. I miss some of my friends at VA, but I don’t miss working. However, I have begun to miss our home in Seattle. We have been comfortable and welcomed everywhere and been with wonderful people, but there is nothing like home. I didn’t expect this because I’ve always been content with travel. However, this is longer than I’ve ever been away before and I can feel the pull of home. It may be strong enough to get me through the next long grey winter in Seattle.

Although I haven’t posted any paintings for quite some time, I have been painting. At Rock-a-Doon Lodge I painted some watercolors. Here in Paris we have converted the kitchen into a two-person studio. I’ve managed several paintings while here. All of these are experiments with new styles of painting as well as new ideas and techniques. Each museum visit brings fresh ideas that I try out. The attached slide show is photos of some of my recent paintings. Two impressions of Le Tour de France, two in a series I’m calling Les Parisiennes (I think you’ll see the theme); one from Horn Head in Ireland, Paris geraniums, a Paris street scene, and the Deportation Memorial on Ile de la Cite. Thereare no comments to let you know what I was trying to do with each experiment, but I hope you can see the different styles and techniques I’m trying out. I welcome any comments.

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Musee de l’Orangerie

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Paul

A short post today and no photos. Today was another art study day with a visit to l’Orangerie Museum. This museum houses Monet‘s famous panoramic water lily paintings. The artist himself designed the viewing space. It is awesome to sit in the middle of his lily pond at feel the calm insinuate itself in your being.

The rest of the museum is dedicated to the collection of early 20th century art dealer Paul Guillaume. After his death his wife, Jean Walter Guillaume, worked to have their personal collection placed in a museum for the country. The collection includes multiple works by Cezanne, Renoir, Monet, Derain, Modigliani, Gauguin, Picasso, Rousseau, Laurencin, Utrillo, Matisse, Sisley, Van Dongen, and Soutine. I was particularly interested in Laurencin, Utrillo and Soutine – all new to me. Another visit will be forthccoming, as will some photos.

 

 

 

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Musee d’Orsay

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Paul

Yesterday we revisited Musee d’Orsay. This time we visited Van Gogh, Gauguin, Impressionists, and Post-impressionists. Jean was in seventh heaven with two rooms dedicated to pastels. They included about 40 pastels out of the museum’s 531 total pastels. However, many were paintings we had not seen before.

I downloaded some images from the museum’s website. They aren’t of great quality, but since Musee d’Orsay no longer allows photographs it is the best I can do. These include oils as well as some of the pastels.

We will return another day!

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Le Tour de France

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Paul

Yesterday Le Tour de France finished in Paris. I couldn’t resist going down to the Seine to watch them enter the city. It was a warm, sunny day…finally! Of course I misunderstood the French listing of the schedule. I arrived on the Quai on the Left Bank before Noon, believing that the racers would arrive around 2:00 PM. I avoided the mob scene near Place de Concorde and Champs Elysees where the riders make eight laps to finish this largely ceremonial end of the 21 stage race.

First I found a wonderful vantage point on a block that didn’t seem to have many people. A gendarme next to my bench confirmed that Le Tour would arrive at 2:00 and I sat down to eat my lunch, watch people, and wait. At 1:45 a phalanx of gendarmes came down the street and rudely told me and everyone else around (including the street vendors) that we must leave the street immediately. No, I couldn’t go to the Pont 20 yards behind me, I must go down to the next block behind the barricade. Okay, so I should have noticed that there were no barricades on my chosen spot. The gendarme could have warned me two hours previously as well. Ce’st la vie.

Finally established at a spot along the steel barricades with thousands of others, I found a joint that I could slowly push outward toward the curb, giving me a better angle to see. A Spanish gentleman tried to pull the barrier back into line, but I held firm to my newly won six inches of free line of sight. And there we waited, and waited, and waited.

At 2:15 sirens, flashing lights and team buses flew by and we thought this was the beginning. It was…the beginning of an hour long parade. “Floats” of sponsors, teams, and Le Tour officials streamed by at 30 mph for over an hour. The sponsors are outrageous. I’ve included shots of a few of my favorites. However, I didn’t get a photo of the craziest, a float with a bunch of guys in speedos jingling their goods to loud music – advertising laundry detergent! We all had a laugh at that one.

After the parade the street quieted and we waited, looking up the street, sure that the racers would follow. The wait was over another hour. I chatted with two young women and shared stories of our time in Paris. Angie (New York City) and Emma (The Netherlands) are in Paris for a month staying at the Greek dorm of a university to study French. I took their picture, but Emma asked that I not post it on the web. If they read this post and contact me I will send them a copy by e-mail since I failed to obtain their e-mail addresses.

Finally at about 4:30 another flurry of activity (police, paparazzi, and officials racing by) it appeared as if our wait was over. The people in apartments across the street began to peek out their windows, often turning their heads back into the room to check the progress on TV. This was a sure sign that the racers had entered Paris and were on the way to us. Within minutes they sped into view with the red clad BMC team in the lead, shepherding their teammate and race winner Cadel Evans. These guys moved faster on this celebration ride than I ever could on a bike. They whizzed by us in 30 seconds. I caught most on my video camera (left hand) and missed most with the still camera (right hand).

It was fun to share the excitement of one of France’s and Paris’ significant sporting events. The tourists on the street and the residents in their apartments cheered the peloton wildly. I can only imagine what it would have been like to see them pass 8 times in the final laps down Champs Elysees, but I didn’t miss being there.

Here are some photos of the day with my own captions and comments.

Enjoy!

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Homage To The Artists of Pere Lachaise Cemetary

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Paul

It is still wet in “Gray Paree.” We got rained out last night on connecting with Jeanna and Richard, friends from Washington State who were in town for the day. Jean’s cold is lingering and we didn’t think it was a good idea to wander the city in the rain at night.

Between showers during the day we managed a few hours at the nearby Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise, one of the most famous cemetaries in this city. Paris’ graveyards are interesting on many levels: they are marvelous park-like spaces filled with trees, flowers,  and walking lanes; they have some of the most beautiful (and public) scultures in all of Paris; and they are the final resting places for so many famous people. We overheard one girl questioning her mother’s “morbid” desire to walk through and photograph a cemetary. Her mother just enjoyed the beautiful work on grave monuments.

Our first quest was in search of the graves of as many famous artists as we could locate. There is a map with general locations, but when you get in the area you just have to walk up, down, over, and through the monuments to find the one you seek. We did manage to find Gustave Caillebotte, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Honore Daumier, Jacques Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, Georges Seurat, Dominique Ingres, and Amedeo Modigliani. We failed to locate Camille Pissarro despite finding another Pissarro family in the same area. We also found Charles Francois Daubigny, who isn’t list in the cemetary’s list of famous residents!

We found a few other favorites along the way: Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde (a monument scarred with graffity), Simone Signoret and Yves Montand (together in eternity), Edith Piaf (The Little Sparrow), Heloise and Abelard, Victor Hugo, and last (but not least) Jim Morrison (of The Doors for those who weren’t here for or don’t remember the ’60s or Light My Fire). Here’s a sampling of photos. We will try to post more of the sculpture and architecture (particularly the doors) as we edit more photos.

Au revoir!

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Louvre Discoveries

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Paul

Today we ventured forth to the Louvre despite threatening skies. Jean felt up to it, so we caught the #76 bus in front of our apartment and rode to the Louvre-Pont Neuf stop. When we entered the Louvre courtyard at 11:00 AM we discovered a long line stretching across one courtyard and into the next and took our place at the end. After a 30 minute wait while we took pictures of posers, fountains, and the building, we entered the Louvre with several thousands of other people.

Once upon a time The Louvre was organized for artists, as evidenced by a couple of paintings of artists in the Grand Hall patiently making copies with a few scattered people viewing the collection. No more. There is not an artist in sight. All one sees are mobs of tourists, many in large groupts, aiming cell phones and small digital cameras at arm’s length toward paintings that the guide told them were important and, therefore, they should take a photo. Okay, I’m being a bit sarcastic and melodramatic, but it’s a madhouse and not very friendly to artists who might want to contamplate a painting for a while. (Musee d’Orsay has banned photography explicitly because the new “camera” make people bonk each other in the face.) As you may guess I don’t do well in crowds, although I did learn in kindergarten how to play with others, so I don’t embarass myself in such a place. We asked at information for pastels and were directed to three halls. Two of those halls held special exhibits of religious prints from the 13th and 14th centuries and no pastels. The third had four pastels and the rest were closed off from view. After an obligatory stop to see Mona Lisa, we wandered to the 2nd floor (third to Americans) to the 19th century rooms, hoping to find something of interest and we did.

Two discoveries today were Emile Deroy, a very young painter who only has few paintings of record online, and Pierre Henri de Valenciennes. The one Deroy painting of a young girl is exquisite. If he hadn’t died in his mid-20’s this man would have done some great works. Valenciennes painted well constructed and pleasing landscapes that were a good lesson for me. His works online are of broader scope and I don’t like some of those as well as the simple landscapes. However, here is a painter who understands the basics of getting a landscape down on paper. 

We ended the day with a stop at Sennelier Art Supplies, the Mecca for pastelists like Jean. I will let her share her thoughts and pictures of that experience. All in all a good day. It began to rain as we waited for the bus to bring us back to rue de Charonne. Salad, bread, and cheese for dinner and we’re settled for the evening.

Bonsoir!

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