Update Paris! 9 days to go.

Brancusi's Atelier

In progress

 Paris is gray and drizzly this morning, seeming so perfectly Paris. It's warmer than it's been and feels almost spring-like. A long walk is definitely in today's plan.

Monday, we finally got to Brancusi's Atelier. Why we hadn't done this before is a mystery. It's nearby and it's free. We loved it, love it, loved it. Okay, get the picture? He gave his atelier and all it's contents to the France. It was reproduced on this site when the original site was going to be changed up. All the work is as it was in the original, everything is exact. When we were in Bilbao, we saw his work in the Guggenheim and now to see more of it. Oh the thrill. Do we like Brancusi's work? More than ever.





I've been continuing to do the tiny landscapes for the Art-o-Mat and will have over 50 of them completed before we head back home in NINE (9) days. I've enjoyed doing this and want to play more with both water color and water color pencils, when I'm home.

 Here's the carousel on the Place de Greve in front of l'Hotel de Ville. When we were walking back from seeing the Atelier, it was on. The ice rink is still in place, too. You can see a corner of it on the ride of the photo. I love how there are so many carousels in Paris.

 Yesterday, we had lunch with Mme B. at her wonderful apartment full of antiques. She served us Champagne in these glasses, called Champagnards. The bubbles come up only in the center, because of the shape. They're traditional Champagne glasses, not the flutes we use in the United States. I wonder if I can own a couple of these someday. Lunch was delicious. Cheese souffle like I've never had before. Actually, I've NEVER had it before. Yummy.

#846

It was an experience we'll treasure, so wonderful to be invited to Mme B.'s home.



Here's some more mail art. I continue to make it and send it out. A passion, an addiction, a madness, it continues.

 On Sunday, we took a walk in the chill, all the way over to Place d'Aligre, where they have the market. On the return walk, passing a little boutique, I noticed this bag! Oh my, the Ikea fabric that I like so much. I've made a number of bags out of this same fabric, of course, in my own "pocket" style. The price for this is 60€ (USD  = $79) though I wonder if it'll really be sold for that. My "pockets" are a real deal by comparison. When I get home, I'll re-open my FritziMim, my Etsy shop.

Here's my work table. I'll be finishing up my Mona Lisa alterations during the next couple days. We'll be clearing things out and making the studio a gallery space for Saturday's Open Studio. But for now, here's where I work. I got a new hole punch and two tiny canvases with their own easels, and a new multi-size pencil sharpener. Fun new supplies.

Friday - only 2 more weeks!

 The courtyard of the Swedish Cultural Institute yesterday. Too cold to sit outside, so we ended up having lunch at Le Tartine again. I really enjoy eating there as the waiter is quite friendly and jokes around. We had lunch with a couple who teach in the states, whom we met at the residents' reception on Wednesday. This is our first time meeting Americans since we're here. We had a nice lunch, then they went off to Bibliotheque Forney and we went back to look at the exhibit at the Institute. Since it's the 100th anniversary of the death of Auguste Strindberg, the exhibit was his life/work interpreted by several illustrators of B.D. (graphic novels.) It was really interesting, even if we couldn't read Swedish.

 The exhibits are always so interesting there. Besides the actual illustrations as in the books, there were these large cut-outs. I like how they did them flat and then the cross piece to make them stand up. Like I used to do when I was a child and would make cut-out dolls.

 After this exhibit, we went around to rue Thorigny to see several other galleries, here, here, and here. We saw work that we liked a lot, which was a nice change from the other day when we were unimpressed with work at another gallery. I the evening, we met up with friends at Lelia Mordoch Gallerie. We liked the work in show, got to see Lelia with her new son, drank nice champagne, spoke about art, and got to meet and speak (in Spanish) with an artist originally from Valencia, Spain. We had dinner afterwards with our friends, then, because we felt so full, decided to walk back to our place. It wasn't as bitter cold, we walked fast, and before we knew it, turned a corner and there was Notre Dame. Chuck said "I know where we are!" We were nearly back to our very warm atelier.

 Mail art using a show card as the base.

 This is a card that I picked up at Karsten Greve last week. I cut the card in half and made 2 pieces of mail art. You can see the complete card on the Karsten Greve gallery link. I added one new head and eyes. I wish I had another card like this so I could do one with new mouths.

Here are the little landscapes I've been working on. I'll have over 50 completed by the time we leave. When I get home, they'll be mounted on blocks of wood and sent off the the Art-o-Mat project.
I two weeks, at this time, I'll be in the airport, Charles de Gaulle, waiting for the boarding call. Hard to believe that this time has gone by so quickly. Now to get out there and appreciate the city. It's sunny!!(21F)

Update of Thursday.

 Yesterday, after my French class, we did some errands, like laundrmat, eyeglass shop, BHV to see about printing digi prints, and stopped at a small boutique to say hello to the owner, whom we'd met a few years ago. She has a small boutique with ceramics and hand made jewelry and has this cute faced heater!

 Here are more of my tiny landscapes in progress. 2" x 3" (5.8cm-7.3cm appx) So far, I have 34 more to complete.

 When we were at Centre Pompidou the other day, I found a souvenir shop with inexpensive tourist postcard, 10 for 1,50€. I got a lot of Mona. I will go back there and get some more as I'm having such fun with them.

 The catalog for needle-point that I cut up is coming in very handy for giving Mona something to hold.

 On the way back from errands yesterday, we stopped at a bakery for a baguette and some pastry to have after dinner.

These were quite delicious. You can see that we shared them.

Celebration!

 This is how I'm feeling tonight! Powerful! It feels powerful to reach my goal. Doesn't this gal look powerful? I thought so.

 Tonight, I celebrated by attending the Art-o-Mat event at the Visual Art Center. If you're in the Richmond, VA area, check it out. The machine still has some pieces to vend. Here's the machine open so you can see the art that's left in it. Two are completely sold out.

 Here are people standing in line to buy mini-art works. That's Clark Whittington, the man behind the project, standing to the left. Yay for Clark. I love him!

 Here's the machine getting it's front panel replaced, while people wait to purchase tiny art. That's Alyssa, our local Art-o-Mat gal extraordinaire (who got the machine her originally.) Yay, Alyssa.

 People waiting and someone trying to make a decision on which one to choose. We got 5 pieces tonight. I let my honey do the choosing and he chose well, but we may have to return for a couple more.  I'll post pieces after I scan them so you can see what he chose.

We got home and our mail still hadn't been delivered. Poor Clyde has to work so late to complete his route. I was thrilled and delighted to get this piece of mail. Notice: "Free Mail" and "..tary Post Office" This was a note from one of the soldiers that I sent a package to earlier this month. I've only gotten a note 2 times before. I don't expect any so when it happens, it's soooo nice. And I'm about to send off 2 more packages to this officer since he has 3 platoons with 100 soldiers total that he can distribute things to. These are people who don't get much or any mail. They are in forward operating bases in Afghanistan. If you're interested in sending packages to the U.S. troops, sign on with Booksforsoldiers.com. Since I couldn't stop the wars, I figure I can send some lovin' to the people far from home with a care package.

the Art-o-Mat project and mail art

 This morning, I finished the sides with white paint to give a finished look to the pieces. The labels are on the back. I need to write the series numbers, 1/20 etc, then wrap with the clear wrapper once the pieces are thoroughly dry., probably tomorrow morning. Yay. I deliver them on Monday morning and Wednesday they get loaded into the machine to be kerplunked that evening. Yay, again.

#360

This painting is inspired by a Kandinsky painting that I saw at the Guggenheim. The installation was more than the painting on display, as it included information about how the painting was done, why it was done the way it was, about the time in the artist's life, all very interesting. 

#361

This painting that I just completed, is inspired by the work of Cy Twombly. We saw a large piece of his at MOMA and a selection of his white sculptures.

This is the second painted Mail Art piece for today, day 361 of the project, oh my, only 4 days to go!! It's inspired by the work of Franz Kline. I've always loved the boldness of this paintings and the minimal quality. I stopped myself from doing anything else with this piece, which was done on cardboard from a cereal box. I like the natural color of the carton as the background.

Changing skies

I spent a couple hours tonight repainting the skies on the landscapes. I decided they needed to be lighter and it sure made a difference. It made the land POP! The bottom two are the earlier skies. The top ones are the new, improved skies. I finished all 21 skies. Now to paint around the edges and put the labels on the back. I'd like to finish up tomorrow, but think I'll wait until after American Thanksgiving day.
 I can't believe I'm doing paintings!

a surprise visit

 My little neighbors surprised me this afternoon with 4 eggs from their chickens. They told me that one of these was the 2nd egg produced. They were so sweet to share with me. Aren't these lovely?

 This is our Art-o-Mat machine. On Wednesday, 30 November, it'll get filled with our tiny artwork, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of it's being in Richmond.  Now to finish my tiny landscapes!

 Day 357's mail art. My title -  "Mama said: Pay attention to what makes sense."

This is the view from my studio window this morning. There's a "hole" in the holly tree and I can see the red leaves on the tree across the street. It was a gray day, it drizzled off and on, however, the people in the market seemed pretty upbeat as they shopped for their day of giving thanks meal fixings.  

Day 356 of my 365 project!

There are only 9 more days to go in my year long project.  After a weekend with Tiny Town, I decided to go minimal today and use just 3 things that were within reach and a blank that was cut from some cardboard (carton.) I used a bit of a photo that I found very intriguing; Swans being transported in a tiny boat.

I'm still working on my tiny landscape paintings. I think I have the ground done. I want to work on the skies a bit more, brighten them up a bit. After that, I'll paint white all around the sides to clean them up. I thought tiny paintings would take a tiny amount of time, ha ha ha, silly moi!

Peaceful Sunday

 We were invited to friends for brunch and decided to walk there since they live only a mile away. The trees were beautiful colors and the air was so mild, like spring, though on the walk back home, it had changed. The sky got darker, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, oh it was not spring!

 We walked through one alley way that was planted beautifully the entire block. The neighbors must have gotten together to plan this. We enjoyed the walk, even though it had gotten cooler.

 For today's mail art, I used a base cut from a cereal box. The two image juxtaposed made me laugh, and then I realized they made a nice narrative. You can give it a title of your own making.

This afternoon, I worked on my art-o-mat project some more, adding details. I've lots more to make, but the nice thing about paint is that I can cover up what doesn't work. Perfection, however, is not the goal, getting them done, is.

The project, the park, & mail art

 This is how I'm moving along with my art-o-mat project. I've laid down the color bases of sky, clouds, land. Tomorrow, I'll start refining. This will work!

 The leaves are changing color and it's so beautiful to walk in the park, or just in my neighborhood. Today, I took my shopping cart and walked to the post office, market. tea shop, and library. It was about a 2 + mile walk ,which is what I do in the park. I met up with neighbors and friends on the walk, which was a lot of fun.

 Friday's mail art was made up of pieces from the scrap box. I kept to my limitation of 4 pieces per card.

 I like the way these turned out and will probably do more of them during these last few days of the project.

 Because I discovered I had these big heads, it was time for more Tiny Town.

I just love how the big people change up the feeling of the town and truly give it the feeling of a Tiny Town. I amuse myself easily don't I?

The new project, some mail art, and the park

 I finally got started on my Art-o-Mat project. I have to complete 21 pieces for the 10th anniversary of the local machine. Who said "yes?" Oh, it was me. So now I have to get busy. It took awhile to decide what I'd do. I wanted out of my comfort zone - don't ask why, please do not ask why.
I decided I'd do little landscapes. I hadn't painted in a long time so I thought, go for it. I did a sample landscape on paper then  I sanded down all of the blocks of wood.

 I put gesso on the blocks. Tomorrow I'll sand them down again to get a smooth surface.  I'll start painting using a production line kind of process. I plan to lay down a base of sky and land, then go in with details to make each one different.

 Today is day 345. There are 20 more days to go. Amazing! I made two cards referencing the French language. I did that because this morning I had to Skype Paris to make our deposit on the atelier at the Cite International des Arts. I was nervous as I haven't spoken French to a French person for a year and a half. Can you spell RUSTY!

 When I get nervous I speak quickly so I wanted to remember to s p e a k  s l o w l y. Another reason I was nervous was that I was giving our credit card number and had to be sure I was doing it correctly. Well, I did okay. I understood the Madame at the Compabilite and she understood me. How cool is that?!

 After my telephone call, we went to the park and it was a gorgeous morning. A light breeze, the smell of spring (because they'd cut the grass) and sunshine. The geese have moved further into the park, middle of the trail.

My honey straightened out the items on the tree stump. He doesn't know who started doing this, but it happened right after the tree was cut and the orange paint appeared to indicate that the stump was to be removed. So far, it stays. This is right on the edge of the trail, near the 1/2 way mark.  We were happy to get out as the rain came in the late afternoon and it got very chilly out.