Dancer

Acrylic, 100*80cm ( about 31*40 inches)

I have been tagged by Suzanne, but as I like to draw my tag answers, I'll take the time to do that properly over the Christmas break.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Gourds 2 - Courges II

An acrylic from the show.
40cm * 50cm ( about 16*20 inches)

Coffee

Another one from my show.
Acrylic on canvas, 40cm*20cm ( about 16 by 8 inches )

My First Show

I did my first own show!
Near the Town Hall of my town, there is an old house used for shows. I rented space there and put my paintings on the wall. It is a strange but exhilarating feeling to have all this space for oneself!
Morephotos to come.

Daisies

Watercolor, 3.5*2.3 inches on a 9*7 inches paper.
Another one.

poppies

Watercolor, 3.5*2.3 inches on a 9*7 inches paper.

I'm working hard for a show and did a bunch of litle watercolors to be framed in standard frames.

Free Burma

free-burma.org

David Krakauer, Klezmer

Another music I discover recently:
David Krakauer

Une autre musique que j'ai découverte récemment dans un article du Monde sur les Transmusicales de Rennes.
Très entraînant!
David Krakauer

Retro pattern- Inspiration

I love this style!

Illustration Friday: Discovery

Just in time my participation to the Illustration Friday of this week "discovery":
pen and coloured pencils.

hands

This blog show different artists through their hands and their work.
I send mine too, as shown below.
It is an original and interesting way of displaying artist's work.

5.5 Designers

On this site , in projects, then "ouvriers-designers", they show a project done with workers of a famous french china manufacture. They let strange things happen at different times in the manufacturing process. I love the resulting mad objects.

Book cutting sculptures

Georgia Russel cut books and make surprising aerial and fragile sculptures with them.
I think I wouldn't lend her a book!

Strange way to blog

http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

is a blog manually written with a whiteboard eraser.
Strange!

meme

Some time ago A long time ago I was tagged by Marie-Laure. I had 5 unknown things about me to say in my blog. Sometime later, Lesly tagged me on a similar meme, with 7 unknown things.
Hereafter is the result.
I don't dare tagging anybody, having spent too much time to answer, I'm sure the whole Web has done a similar meme. But I reserve the right to imagine a new one...

Music

In the meantime, here is a singer I love: Rose.
I love her songs.
2 titles to be listen to at:
Rose's site

Rose est une chanteuse française que j'ai découverte il y a peu grâce aux blogs. J'aime beaucoup la mélancolie de ses chansons.
2 tites à écouter sur: Le site de Rose

Take No Oujo 2 finished

Here is the final version of "Take No Oujo"



Acrylic on canvas, 100*80cm, about 40*31 inches.

A beautiful exhibition

Well, nearly a month without posting! Big ISP problems following a vacation... Murphy's Law is working well!
In the meantime I had the opportunity to visit the "Sargent-Sorolla" exhibition in Paris. (I'm linking to the Thyssen Museum site in which some of the paintings are different but the site is better organized that the Petit Palais site ) .Really impressive! I didn't know Sorolla, but Sargent is a big favorite of mine, with some of my favorite paintings included, especially Lady Agnew of Lochnaw.
The jssgallery is an extraordinary ressource on the web for Sargent.
Sorolla has some extraordinary paintings too. I prefer his outdoor scenes to his portraits, however.
It is really different to look at a painting in real life and to look at a reproduction in a book. I especially admired the fluid brushworks that cannot be seen in the reproductions.
By the way, they sold a beautiful exhition catalog:

Sargent et Soralla
49 euros
Editeur : Paris-Musées
Publication :15/2/2007
ISBN : 9782879009926
336 pages

Sometimes they are not very good, but this one is really interesting with a lot about the artists lifes.

Still progressing on "Take No Oujo2" and small watercolors

Here is the latest progress image, poor image quality I'm afraid:


I have still work to do, but now I know better where this is leading me.
I added a lot of texture medium to be able to play with the color better.
It is almost only palette knife work now.
I made 2 small flower watercolors, 20*20cm ( 7.8*7.8 inches ).
It is a pleasure to do them and to be free again with water and color after the work with acrylic!


Which one do you like better?

Progress images on "Take No Oujo2"

Here are a few progress images on the second bamboo painting.
Just a proof that I haven't switched to digital painting yet!
The first is the more recent.
I have some trouble working on so big a surface, but I think it is taking some shape now. At least I have a better idea of where it is leading me.

No more realism

I have decided to change my painting style.
No more realism for me! From now on, I'm doing digital abstracts!
This is the first I did:




You can click on the image to have access to the whole gallery of my new digital abstracts!

Bamboos finished ( I think )

Acrylic on canvas, 46*38 cm, 18*15 inches.
I have found the japanese name "Take No Oujo" which means, if the translator is right, "Princess of the Bamboos". I hope it does mean that.
Now I'm going to work on the second painting of this series, for the same show, a 80*100 cm, about 31*39 inches.

Interlude

Before putting on my blog new photos of the wip painting, here is a way to restore deleted photo from a camera card after having erased them.
It proves useful sometimes!

I once lost all the new photos on my PC recently, after having deleted them from the camera card.
After some research on the web, I found this tool:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
which is a free photo recovery tool.
I recovered almost all of my lost photos with it.
In fact, photos are not really erased from the card. It is just that the card "table of contents" is erased.
New photos will fill the space on the disc, crashing the old and creating new entries in the "table of content".
So it is very important not to take new photos before doing the recovery, to be able to recover most of the data on the card.

Bamboos continued

Hereafter are new progress images of this painting.









As can be seen in the last two images, the surface is very textured. I used this canvas for a long time to make abstract trials and use the rest of my paints to finish my palette. It makes a very intersting surface to work on.

Retro sewing book

I'm fascinated with sewing and textile.
Textures and colors, shapes, folds, I love every aspect of fabric.
As regards sewing, I have always found surprising that following the printed indications in a book you could end with a wearable garment ( at least some people do ).
I bought this old french sewing and cutting textbook on eBay.



It is a 1947 edition.
I love the cover design. It is so old fashioned.
The sub-title is delicious too: (rougly translated )
"all the necessary advices for the housewive to make her clothes, her childrens clothes and her husband linen."

Bamboos and asian figure wip

This is a new project with bamboos and an asian figure.
I'm not sure yet of the direction it will go.
A sketch:

A beginning with a rather small canvas:

To be continued...

Books : "Fanny: A Fiction, by Edmund White"

I once began two blogs, one dedicated to painting, the other to bits and odds, thinks I like and/or that inspire me.
I have decided that it is too difficult for me to have both blogs running, so in this blog there will be from time to time posts not relative to painting, at least not directly related as these other things do inspire my painting.

"Fanny: A Fiction" by Edmund White, is a work of literature that is very enjoyable to read.
It is written in an old-fashioned style which is consistent with its presentation as a memoir of Mrs Fanny Trollope, who is the mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope. I enjoyed reading "A Married Man", also by Edmund White, which told a rather somber story.
I spent an even better time reading "Fanny: A Fiction", a mock 19th century novel, full of wit and "esprit".

Many thanks to Nina Kuriloff whose help to edit and rewrite this post was very precious!

Maryvonne

A friend of mine opened her blog:
Maryvonne
She makes knife paintings with bright and happy colors and a spiritual touch.
The blog is in french but don't hesitate to comment in english, she'll understand.

Iris wip: finished at long last...

One year ago, I began an "Iris" wip.
I finally finished this painting this week.
I had a "blockage" ( is that word english ?) on it.


Acrylic on canvas, 55*46 cm, 22*18 inches

Muscaris last post

I finally found the time to post the end of the "Muscaris" wip.


Acrylic on canvas, 30*40cm, 12*15 inches

In the meantime: Jen Stark

Very busy preparing local shows...
In the meantime,here is a link to an artist I just discovered, who does wonderful paper sculptures:
Jen Stark

Muscaris continued 3

Working on the bulbs and leaves.
That is a long and rather slow work.

Muscaris continued 2

I worked on the background, adding blue and red and ochre.
I redefined the leaves and onions with charcoal to prepare for the detailed work on them.
The colors are slightly off with the halogen light.
My challenge now is that the real plant is not in the same shape today than when I began to work on this painting.

Muscaris continued

Some more work on the muscaris.
The composition sketches:

A photograph of the real object I'm working with:

The first acrylic on canvas sketch:

Primroses

Another ink from my sketchbook.
The problem is, as I do not make them quickly enough, these flowers tend to fade before I have time to draw them.
I should take pictures, but it is not exatly the same thing.

Muscaris

Muscaris - ink pen on paper.
From a little pot I bought this week end.
I bought some primeroses too, to be drawn later.

Some Sketches

From a reference photograph in WC! I did some sketches.
I find the head angle difficult to grasp and will continue trying.




Bob Hague did a wonderful watercolor rendition of the same reference in his blog:
watercoloradventure

I plan to do it in acrylics if I succeed in grasping the angle...

Bonne Année! Happy New Year!

I wish all of you a very Happy Year for 2007!
Je vous souhaite à tous une très Bonne Année 2007!