French river

This is a spot where we lunched, painted and napped. Lovely spot in a town I cant remember the name of!

My" girls just wanna paint" challenge entry for May-"marsh"(sorry I cannot link that blog here - you will just have to go to it)

This is the most marshy I could find here in France!

I return today- we are hosting a brunch for all the amazing and wonderful hosts. Truly this has changed my life. My host Monique , or " mamma" as we are all calling our hosts, is warm, sweet, extremely chic, very generous, great cook, beautiful, her home is gorgeous and she is  tireless. Irena roman and I lucked out to be here. Wow. I could go on and on. I feel like we gained a mother!

The French do it right!

I could get used to this! Our lovely host Monique. We call her mumma now because she takes such good care of us! When she comes to Scituate with the people from Sucy en Brie we will spoil her rotten!

Barbizon

Yesterday the group took a trip to Barbizon .The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movementof the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name from the village of Barbizon, France, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where many of the artists gathered. Some of the most prominent features of this school are its tonal qualities, color, loose brushwork, and softness of form.

Portrait of Millet.

One of the  many charming street scenes.

The streets of Barbizon are so pretty -it seemed almost like we had stepped into a painting!

Market, painting and Paris

Another full day yesterday- visited a  wonderful farmers market in Sucy the morning ( when the French artists at come to Scituate  I'm thinking of taking them to the marke at SOWA in Boston- or Hingham- theirs has so much more than our little local ones but I have to remember there really are no big supermarkets here.

We painted in the afternoon- had a picnic by a river and ended up at the floral gardens, just outside Paris, where we met French artists and saw their beautiful exposition( as well as gorgeous flowers). We recruited a couple to come to Scituate in September!

Although we were exhausted we said yes to a car ride through Paris at night!

How amazing- and so many people out and about enjoying the most beautiful city in the world!

Paris and painting !

This trip has been such an adventure so far! We are packing a lot of activities into each day seeing so much. It's great to be with artists and planning time to paint every day. Staying with a host family is really gives you a taste of the culture here in France . The people here are so warm and friendly. We are being treated like queens! Yesterday we went to the museum D'Orsay which was beautiful. So many paintings that I've seen in photos in the flesh. Unfortunately I can't put the photos from my phone on this blog since I can't get on Wi-Fi with the phone for some reason-there's been a little bit of a glitch there -but I can use my iPad where I am staying.When I get home I will be posting many more photos.

My sketch from the Tuilerie garden yesterday of the Louvre with the Eiffel Tower in the background....

Just a lovely flower pot from where I'm staying

Street scene from Sucy en Brie.Voila!

France camp!

This is the group in Scituate before boarding the bus- what a blast every part of this adventure has been so far! 

Below is the group with our hosts after our day at the local cultural center in Sucy en Brie ...Monique , our "mom" has been so good to us. We feel like foreign dignitaries. They make us feel so special and welcome. The food and wine are amazing here I'm getting fat and don't care! I've been painting a bit - we had a tour of Paris yesterday and monmarte (sp?) and today we get to paint more in Paris.

Marie Flaherty is my personal photographer for this trip lol- She brought the big camera ... Thanks Marie!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day I hear the weather was great- yay!!!!

Paris bound

Next week I'm embarking on a big adventure- I am part of a group of amazing artists who are visiting sucy en brie-outside of paris- a sister city of Scituate ma. We will be staying with artist hosts there and painting every day, as well as sightseeing, eating and exploring. 

I will hopefully be able to post from there.

This is a tray I painted for the upcoming north river arts festival next weekend- first festival I'll be missing in 27 years!

This will be with other artist painted trays and buckets and all for sale.

Sunrise

I've been waking up early and driving to the river to see the sunrise. This is from the marina at the bridge on 3A in Scituate.

First bike ride and painting excursion

I woke up early and decided to head out on my bike to third cliff in Scituate for some exercise and painting fun. Beautiful sparkling day!

Happy Mothers Day!

Still spring cleaning and documenting older art. Here is one I did while spending time with my friend Carol in Cortona, Italy in 1985.  My version of the Annunciation. 18"x24" mixed media on paper.

Other BIG news- I saw a whale the other day at Hummock beach. Theres a pod of right whales that have been hanging around for a while. Amazing and endangered creatures- Really puts things in perspective.

( thanks to Masslive.com for photo)

letting go

This week I've been very busy cleaning out- lots of things-art and miscellaneous- and some of those things  tough to see go- but necessary. Art can become a storage issue. its great when the art finds a new home and is loved- and that is very very good.

collaged trays- my students made these with my recycled art

And this chair is being loved at a preschool!