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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
I'm not really ready for Fall or back-to-school school openings...So I'm escaping off someplace I should have gone this summer..
Up to David Dewey's watercolor workshop in Maine.
I've been 4 or 5 times.
I thought at first, that since I'm focused on still life I didn't need to look or
think about landscapes again.
Too late I woke up and realized of course, a still life IS a landscape!
A bunch of shapes sitting on a flatish surface = a landscape.
Most workshop mornings begin with THE DEMO by the instructor.
You crowd round to see the magic performed in the relentlessly hot sun.
Then you go off for the day and try to perform a little magic yourself...
The bay out my motel window in '01...
Thomaston's boat yard in '05
At the end of each workshop day comes the group crit.
You learn heaps here.
I could use an end o' day group crit in my New York studio...
The real end of a Maine day ends with a Lobster.
If you haven't had a lobster roll for lunch that is...
Up to David Dewey's watercolor workshop in Maine. I've been 4 or 5 times.
I thought at first, that since I'm focused on still life I didn't need to look orthink about landscapes again.
Too late I woke up and realized of course, a still life IS a landscape!
A bunch of shapes sitting on a flatish surface = a landscape.
Most workshop mornings begin with THE DEMO by the instructor.You crowd round to see the magic performed in the relentlessly hot sun.
Then you go off for the day and try to perform a little magic yourself... The bay out my motel window in '01... Thomaston's boat yard in '05
At the end of each workshop day comes the group crit.You learn heaps here.
I could use an end o' day group crit in my New York studio...
The real end of a Maine day ends with a Lobster.If you haven't had a lobster roll for lunch that is...
Or for lobster aficionados, every meal should be Maine lobster...
OK I'm ready for Fall now :)
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Today is the first day of school.Kids will be learning handwritting.
I ignored that early training to my own detriment.
I was too busy drawing pictures on the paper to pay attention.
Now I can't read my own handwriting nor can anyone else.
I fell back in love with handwriting when I discovered French wine labels.
British Copperplate calligraphy or what the French call "Anglais"is used everywhere and has such a classy look to it.
5 years ago I took myself off to calligraphy classes with Elinor Holland.
It's not too late to run and sign up if you have a few free Sundays!
You practice and practice like scales on the piano, the same letters over and over.
It's a lot like meditation, but your hand is moving constantly. And you're making these lovely swoops and swirls.
It's a lot like drawing...
You also have a good excuse to buy lovely bits of pen paraphrenalia!Last trip I fell victim to the Marie Antoinette inkpot here
and I don't even practice anymore...
I wish all the new kids on their first day in school the best of luck.I hope they pay better attention than I did in handwriting class...
"If only Carol would just pay attention"
Bet you never heard that one?
The French still love fancy handwriting
And so do I.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Every 2 years a huge international wine exposition takes place in Bordeaux
The crowning event at the end of the expo is a grande soiree,La Fete de la Fleur
Only the creme de la creme in the wine trade attend:
chateau owners, distributors, celebrities etc.
Each year it's held at a different grand chateau in the Medoc..The year I went, it was at the lovely Chateau Cantenac-Brown.
I wrangled an invite by suggesting I should take photographs
for Wine Enthusiast magazine.
A tradition at the Fete is the prestigious awarding of new memberships into
Le Commanderie du Bon temps du Medoc
New and old members get to parade about in claret red velvet robes..
Hugh Grant was one of the recipients, but alas, I did not get his picture :(
Here are the St. Emilion Bon Temps members parading...
After Champagne and hors d'oeuvre on the grounds
there's a grand dinner inside.
In 1997 it was held inside a tent in case of rain.
Between courses there was Cirque du Soleil-style entertainment.
Performers on stilts dressed up as Bon temps members paraded...
Acrobats decked out as corks flew through the air to keep us amused.
I did this party doodle after the Fete...
The dinner menu served was quite simple - just 5 courses.
After all there were 1500 guests attending!
But I was amazed to see the cheese course/fromages served to each guest
individually by special cheese servers, rather than 6 chunks of cheese sitting on a plate.
The piece de resistance was of course, the wine menu shown here.
13 wines served to go with the 5 courses! ! !
I noticed while sitting at the Wine Enthusiast table,
A tradition at the Fete is the prestigious awarding of new memberships intoLe Commanderie du Bon temps du Medoc
New and old members get to parade about in claret red velvet robes..
Hugh Grant was one of the recipients, but alas, I did not get his picture :(
Here are the St. Emilion Bon Temps members parading...
After Champagne and hors d'oeuvre on the grounds there's a grand dinner inside.
In 1997 it was held inside a tent in case of rain.
Between courses there was Cirque du Soleil-style entertainment.
Performers on stilts dressed up as Bon temps members paraded...
Acrobats decked out as corks flew through the air to keep us amused.
I did this party doodle after the Fete...
The dinner menu served was quite simple - just 5 courses.After all there were 1500 guests attending!
But I was amazed to see the cheese course/fromages served to each guest
individually by special cheese servers, rather than 6 chunks of cheese sitting on a plate.
The piece de resistance was of course, the wine menu shown here.
13 wines served to go with the 5 courses! ! !
I noticed while sitting at the Wine Enthusiast table,
quite a bit of tipping of the waiter to get very large glasses refilled
with some of the world's finest wines...
Hmmmm...
Here is the sad secret that has kept me from following in Ms. P. Hilton's footsteps...
Here is the sad secret that has kept me from following in Ms. P. Hilton's footsteps...
My alcoholic capacity is about 2 THIMBLES FULL!
THAT IS IT!
Anymore than my quota, say 3 thimbles full
and I am known to become dangerously flagrant.
Plus I suffer massive hangovers!
So I did not get to leave the soiree drunk and disorderly :(
But I did get a very nice claret red umbrella (it started to rain)
And the truly amazing fact is
I still have this umbrella 10 years later!!!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
J'adore les cupcakes sounds so...Well, FRENCH!
I was the "picky eater" in the family.I refused to eat cake, including birthday cake and CUPCAKES!
I mostly played with my food, lining things up in rows, making designs etc.
How I wish I was still a "picky eater"...
The French really do adore the American cupcake.Look at these unique cupcake/cones from Helene of Tartelette!
Helene took this beautiful photo too.
I found this interesting 2-layer birthday cupcake from Robyn ofThe Girl who Ate Everything.
I love the anatomical view that Robyn took of her own birthday cupcake! 
I'm not the world's biggest cupcake eater,But when ParisBreakfasts reader, Paige L. wrote me,
You don't like cupcakes?
But they're cakes made for one!
You can put them on little pedestals with glass domes...
And, they can sit out in view all day without going stale, so the anticipation builds.
They're art!
So I had to go out and get a CUPCAKE! for Gawd's sake...
and paint it...
Just around the corner IL BAMBINO has CUPCAKE ARTon their walls.
Plus trays and trays full of CUPCAKES.
I think I may be fonder of the Crayola birthday candles than actuallyeating cupcakes.
I must admit they are fun to paint :)
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