False Bricks

I put makeup on the facade of this Normandy style house situated in the courtyard of a private mansion (town house) in Paris. The masons, after installing some pipes, patched up the hole. The dark red patches were left from former workers although why they bothered coloring the concrete is baffling. The guys I spoke to asked me if they should also tint their cement but really, a gray patch doesn't seem any more offensive than the dark red ones.

Anyway, these panels are made up of false bricks. I just had to repaint them and redo the joints. I filled in the brick color than painted in the mortar the following day with a ruler and a bevel brush using a whitish/gray/ slightly pink color. All in acrylics and permanent. Just call me fast and furious!

False Marble Repairs

Repairing imitation marble walls in a friend's apartment.

Plastering cracks, priming then patching an existing decor with oil paint. Work I hadn't done in a while but luckily and surprisingly, the hand doesn't forget. Check out my palette and groovy brush which looks homemade but is store bought.

More Flowers and a Tree

I just can't believe how old-fashioned my painting is. I've got to get modern!

So these are from Villandry, the Loire Valley and also Paris, metro Javel.

Wild flowers at metro Javel

Metro Javel is on the left bank along the Seine in the 15th arrondissement. A modern neighborhood; lots of new buildings. I give an English class on the 24th floor in one called the Crystal Tower (pretentious name I must admit but really nice people). 

There's this strip of land that's neither a park nor a wasteland separating two roads. Normally dusty; a place for dogs. But one day in early summer I came across some wild flower plantations that seemed to have miraculously sprouted up. Poppies, daisies, little carnations, high grass.  It looked like the garden workers of Paris rebelled and threw all their extra seeds in these plots of land. I was enchanted. Thus these paintings.

Un hommage

Here are a few drawings a made ten years ago, somewhat in shock, after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Voici quelques dessins que j'ai faits il y a 10 ans, dans un état de choc, après les attentats du 11 septembre.

Wedding Drawings

the bride, her father and George

twirling


I finally made these wedding drawings. I had been thinking about them for awhile. I first mixed a warm gray foundation color that I unevenly applied on white Canson paper. I worked from photos drawing with a rather thick charcoal pencil.

J'ai enfin fait ses dessins du mariage de mon frère. C'était un de mes projets que je voulais réaliser depuis longtemps mais...
J'ai mélangé un gris avec de la terre d'ombre naturelle pour le réchauffer puis je l'ai appliqué sur du papier Canson. Sur ce fond j'ai dessiné avec un gros fusain pour pouvoir garder de la spontanéité.

Venice

Help! I seem to be stuck in the nineteeth century! I've had some free time recently and was speaking to friends about Italy. I started working on paintings from photos I took when I was there in late 2009.

I'm trying to push them away from planet Impresionist. Part 2 will hopefully follow.

Au secours! Je suis apparemment coincée au dix-neuvième siècle! J’ai du temps libre en ce moment. J’ai parlé d’Italie avec mes amis et j’ai commencé une série de tableaux basés sur des photos prises sur place, fin 2009.

J’essaie de m’échapper de la planète Impressionniste. Il y aura une suite, je l’espère.