Christmas. Helen Frankenthaler.

Here are a few images of my daughter's house on Christmas Day. I love the video of an "open hearth" playing on the flat screen. The Buche de Noel came from a bakery in Hillsdale. I recommend it.

Here is a recent post from the New York Times about Helen Frankenthaler.

And here is the google image page for Joan Mitchell. What a painter!

A quote from Hemingway

I'm not a big Hemingway fan but I'm reading a good book right about being a pedestrian in Paris and each chapter has a quote.

Here is one I really liked:

"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."

Recent work

I recently hung a new show with my critique group at the Lexus dealership in Beaverton for the month of November. The show looks great and I forgot to bring my camera! Again.

But here are some photos of the new pieces. The last one looks good either vertical or horizontal, your choice. The first two images are hung as two pieces vertically. The next image shows how it looks horizontally. I did wire it so it can be hung either way because I couldn't make up my mind.

I'm enjoying working in a new more restrictive format. The two smaller pieces are 6 by 36 inches. The larger piece is 16 by 48 inches because I joined two 8 by 48 pieces together.

Return to painting after a long absence

It has been a long time since I posted to my blog. After returning from and recovering from my trip we had a long bumpy road to travel with my husband's medical problems.

This week I returned to painting for a few hours. The top picture is before starting and the other two show the mess that quickly develops when I'm painting. The pieces are not finished but I'll post some photos when they're done.

Good to be back!

Paris sign

I just had to take a picture of this lovely old building in the 6th or 7th district. It says a lot about Paris, globalization or fill in the blank yourself.

Here are some reviews of the movie "Buck" which I saw on Sunday and heartily recommend. And if I were a good writer I would have written what Joe Williams and Roger Ebert have already written.

And here are the previews and trailers.

Don't miss it. It won awards at Sundance and is showing at Cinema 21 right now.

The neighborhood

A wonderful pastry and chocolate shop about three minutes from my door!

One of their pastries---wonderful!

Here's a photo of a street cleaner (on a Sunday) cleaning with his strange looking broom. I could hear the sound of the broom from my apartment. They drive around in green little carts and can turn on a spigot that sends a small river of water down the gutters and into the sewers. I had zero desire to tour the Paris sewers! Why would anyone do that?

This is the stair case in the apartment building. On the far left is the elevator which I used when I had a lot of groceries or suitcases.
The front entry with two doors with buttons to unlock them and the outer one had a number pad for putting in the pass code.
My apartment was on the second floor without the balcony.
Longer view of the apartment building.

Neighborhood shopping streets.

I shopped at this bakery a couple of times and the first time a French customer helped me with my questions. The second time I knew what to ask for in French. Easy to say "I would like two croissants, please". I also understood why the customer had helped me earlier. Not only did the clerk not speak English she had a speech impediment. The croissants were good but the pastry was not.

Apartment pictures

My friend Mary requested photos of the apartment I rented and here they are. I didn't have a photo of the second bedroom. The view from the second photo was of a 1970s apartment building. The photo below was from another window and required leaning out a little. I was on the second floor and the building had an elevator. About the size of a small broom closet.

From the kitchen into the living area
Tw0 small photos of the living area from the apartment site.


Kitchen cupboard.

Laundry and storage room.
Bathroom. Really enjoyed the rain shower head. Guess where the electric plug in is. It's behind the medicine cabinet door on the left!

Parking in Paris

The the first picture is an example of creative parking in Paris. The second photo is the car just in front of the more creative example in the first photo. Even the smallest cars have problems parking.

This park below is by the nearest Metro to where I stayed. This photo shows a family having a child's birthday party on the left and on the bench on the right some homeless people sleeping. The time was about mid-afternoon. And this area is considered a very upscale area so go figure.

Joan Mitchell DVD

I recently watched a DVD about Joan Mitchell which I checked out from my local library. It's a film called "Portrait of an Abstract Painter" by Marion Cajori. It was by Arthouse Films, 53 minutes long or so. I highly recommend it and there were some good photos of her work too.

Copper

I ordered this 5x5 set of patina sheet samples recently and can't wait to try them in some paintings on board!

Luxembourg garden

Here are some random pictures of the Luxembourg gardens. The buildings overlook the park.

There are cafes, tennis courts, fountains, pools for children's boats, bee hives, an orchard, pony rides, live music and chairs to sit in. But you are not allowed on the grass. Notice how great the grass looks. There is a dim photo of the park police striding off after blowing a whistle at some people who had wandered onto the grass.

I had to get a photo of a woman strolling along all dressed up and in four inch heels. Did she come to the park for exercise? I'm so slow sometimes.

And the French do jog and wear colors other than black especially on a Sunday morning in the park. There were tons of joggers that day.