Seagulls. des mouettes.

  I tried something different today. With closed eyes I randomly pointed to one of many old journals on my shelf to see what I would find. 

It was my 2008 book with my pages of seagulls from Port Clyde, Maine!  Serendipity? Psychic event? I had been thinking strongly of these pages when, 2 days ago, I received a most beautiful postcard from my dear French penfriend, M. I had been thinking that I would love to show her those very pages, but had no idea which journal they were in! 5 years ago I had observed one lone gull down at the ferry landing, industriously procuring his breakfast. It was very early morning & it was just we two. How often do I remember to be still & to observe something or someone for an extended period of time? Not often enough! It leaves an impression when I do.

This postcard is called "La chaise bleue et ses sept mouettes." "Seven Seagulls for One Blue Chair", photo by Pierre-Hugues Polacci in the series called "Un autre regard sur la Côte d'Azur". "Another Glance at the Côte d'Azur". 

Two penfriends, deux correspondantes, share two coastlines & two languages.

Sketching at the Lobster Pound

 For people on summer vacation in coastal Maine seem to like To Eat. Even better, to eat local seafood, even better to eat by the water, even better to eat outdoors on a breezy, clear day.

  

Sunday I hung out in my red folding chair & J in his green one under some pine trees at Swan Lake State Park (a peaceful lake that is a bit inland, with few motor boats!) Afterward, I got a hankering for seafood. I'm not big on going out to eat, however, with out of town guests, I do as the vacationers do.

So we headed south to Lincolnville Beach's Lobster Pound Restaurant. From our window table I sketched while waiting for my haddock. This sketch was done directly, but I added color later. The green gizmo in the distance is part of the transfer bridge at the landing for the Islesboro ferry. 

Chippy

During breakfast, there was a repetitive chorus of chip-chip-chip-chip-chip out the front door.

There, again, was my new neighbor, on his favorite rock.

He was distressed about something or someone in the shrubbery below. Chip-chip-chip-chip-chip! 

So I took photos & made an observational style sketch, rather than quick, gestural sketches.

Chippy fears us not, in fact I'm guessing the previous person here used to feed him. 

Oh, about his name... Original, no? Poor guy, one of a million Chippy's in the U.S.

 As far as animal stories & drawings, do you remember E. H. Shepard's drawings in

Grahame's ORIGINAL Wind in the Willows? The Best!

Or his drawings in the ORIGINAL Winnie-the Pooh? 

Charming, enchanting, also the Best! 

(Forget the subsequent versions!)

How about Garth Williams' loveable characters in the ORIGINAL Charlotte's Web?

Yes, the Best, & no one else has come close! 

Were you wondering if I would finally mention Beatrix Potter? She did serious observational studies of

real animals as a foundation for her characters.

There are a gazillion other loveable animal characters in contemporary children's books.

Do you have any favorites?

(Just don't mention the Disney Pooh, OK?)

Concert on the Commons

As I was leaving the library, I noticed a sign for a

free Saturday evening concert on the Commons, 

which is just down the hill.

Off I went with my little red folding chair.

Fire Hydrants in a Coastal Village

As you as you go around exploring,

or doing daily chores, 

you keep seeing them, like friendly little people. 

They call to you,

reminding you that public safety & protection

is part of this healthy town. 

And being so bright & shiny, they seem to tell you

that this is a happy town as well.

Away for Awhile

Arles

I'm involved in some other projects,

so I won't be able to add posts for awhile. 

Paris

I'm leaving a selection of drawings from the Maine & the France series,

most of which have sold.

Portland

 South Portland

Portland

Maine Coast

South Portland

Scarborough Marsh

  

From the Vegetable Series

 

Dear Readers, I so appreciate you!

(I'll continue to be open for comments

& will try to leave comments on your blogs!)

See you soon, I hope! A bientôt, j'espère! Do zobaczenia!

Québec City Illustrated

The Théâtre Capitole de Québec is one of the most imaginative examples of architecture in Quebec City. Its colors were dazzling during our visit: golds, oranges & carmines with green accents against a brilliant blue sky. Apparently this building was in a decline for a time, but now it not only hosts fantastic shows, but it is designated as a historic Canadian monument.

I've only recently learned to look up, in my own city as well as when I'm travelling. This tower is the highest point you see when you are looking up from the Marché de Vieux Port, the indoor market of local farmers & entrepreneurs at river bank level (the Saint Lawrence)  to the colline, the hill on which much of Quebec City is situated. 

Walking down the hill to the Marché we spotted some old style buildings that contrasted sharply to the modern construction that surrounds them. They seemed a bit lost in the midst of modernity. They are "holdouts". Perhaps they are a bit like me...

Paper Doll Story in Progress

Using the above toys I'm playing with a little series that might make a story.

(the circle things are double sided dots, the heart & star things are shape hole punchers... 

"Write (draw) about what you know," said the Library Mouse in my previous post. On Valentine's Day (Heart Bandit post) a guy on the street asked if we knew that hearts were dropping from a window on Commercial Street! We didn't, but I was thinking that perhaps some one caught them...

 ...and continued on her walk,

 ...and continued...and I don't really know what happened after this...If you do, please tell! And I don't know if she will end up in a book with pages, or a tunnel or accordion book or a diorama box...Perhaps you do? (Please tell!) What I do know is that Maine College of Art Professor Judy LaBrasca,
who got me started on this, is a very inspiring teacher!

New Blue & White at the Art Museum

Sketch in 5X7 paperblanks book. 

At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston yesterday I wandered unexpectedly into "New Blue & White", a show with giant paper cutouts, textiles, & mostly ceramics. Oh glorious surprise & delight! For so long museum art has seemed so serious. I love the way I smile & laugh viewing many contemporary objects.

Nakashima Harumi: "Work 0808". Ceramic, "departing from his Japanese traditions,

making an abstract statement, says the curator. I say, "Totally fun!" 

About Blue & White in art: It was first used to describe cobalt pigment applied to white clay. More than 1,000 years ago blue & white ceramics emerged from the Middle East & Asia. In the last 15 years, 40 artists & designers from Latin America, Asia, the Netherlands, the US, looked to various blue & white traditions & interpreted them with various ideas.

There is a "diverse array of art" but for me the best part was being surrounded by the imaginative abstract designs & colors. Even the air seemed blue & white! For more information on the show, click here.

 The last Exhibition I visited was The Postcard Age. Even though I adore postcards, & even though there was a huge selection of Postcards from Paris, I was fatigued. I had spent some time on a French language guided tour & some "serious" time in other galleries. So I relaxed & looked at the lookers looking. Next time I'll start with the postcards.

  

This young couple came dressed up, he in shiny black hat, she wearing a crown. Maybe they were themselves contemporary art, in the midst of more traditional attire.

Functions of Sketching

Sometimes sketching in a journal has functions other than drawing for pleasure. Last night, at a town meeting about a pending proposal for allowing tar sands to the pipelines of South Porltand, my opportunity to sketch saved me.

It was an outlet for nervous energy, allowing me to take in information & comments on a disturbing subject.

 The beauty of it is that I now have recorded information to refer back to. And I got to observe people in their poses & their costumes, perhaps like a bird-watcher observing birds. So, I DID get to draw for pleasure as well.

A note about my technique: Once home, I filled empty space  with writing to balance out compositions a bit. The beauty of this is that I got to study the information by reviewing it & by copying notes that were handed out. And, here & there, I added some personal reflections as well. 

(PS. In the drawing above: "The Three Little Pots" are soup pots from a restaurant where I'd been the day before. Sketching while waiting, also a way that sketching enriches life.)

Playful Bird Sketches

I so love the blogs I read in which people share their photos of nature & their journal drawings from their country lives! Thank you! Several people whom I know & love are bird watchers &/or birders & I love listening to the stories they tell. On this journal page I wanted to get a sense of some different bird poses, so I sketched a bit from some bird book photos, & then added colors & features from my imagination.

26 Mugs, 100 Monkeys

A drawing from my "Private-Play" Journal. 26 coffee mugs from imagination, drawn in one session.

Noah Scalin in "365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day & Change Your Life!" has inspired a number of bloggers. Quantity is generated by this practice, but more importantly, I think, perseverance & continuity. It's a daily workout of creative muscles. 

I'll never forget the art show at the Smithsonian in the 80's, "Yani, The Brush of Innocence" by a Chinese child prodigy. Her prolific calligraphic paintings included a scroll in which she challenged herself to paint 100 monkeys in 100 different positions in one session. I'm not a child, nor a prodigy, but I enjoyed my 26 mugs. And that's the beauty of the accessibility of art & education & books in our culture: the enrichment of individual lives, no matter what the degree of inherent talent.

Shaun Tan has a new book, "The Bird King: an artist's notebook". Tan is an accomplished artist of very refined graphic novels such as "The Arrival". This is a powerful story of the experience of the displaced immigrant. In "The Bird King" he features selections from his private journal of "doodles" & drawing experiments. There is only one thing to do to confront "artist's block", he writes. "Just start drawing", where the meaning of the drawing is secondary to the "simple act of making". Klee called it "Going for a walk with a line."

Will I try  to draw more than 26 mugs in a sitting at another time, in the style of Yani? Probably not. But a little series involving something else? Yes!

A Carnaval Tradition~ en Provence

My sketch, 6 X 9 inches

One March, in the hilltop village of Venasque in Provence, while on an immersion trip with Valérie Guillet & the Language Exchange (click here to see this semester's French offerings) we were surprised by music & costumed villagers (des villageois déguisés) parading through the streets. It was le Carnaval de l'école (school children's carnival), which occurs each year on a Saturday about 40 days before Easter, just about the time that other cities are having Mardi Gras celebrations. Some people in the parade held signs that had messages like "No to war" (Non, la guerre) or "Neither violence, nor misery"  (Ni la violence, ni la misère). The final destination of the parade (le défilé) was the square just outside of the rampart, the defensive wall built by Romans in 1347, where a huge paper maché "evil" octopus ( une pievure maléfique) was waiting.  

  

Photo taken by Jean-Paul Guillet, the father of Language Exchange's Director, Valérie

The villagers, especially the children had written messages about things they wanted to let go of. Perhaps they were wrongs they'd commited, perhaps they were cruel aspects of life, I didn't know for sure because they were written secretly & folded up. They were gathered & placed in the lap of la pieuvre maléfique. La pieuvre had a log (un bûcher) under it which would have been set on fire, so that all would be burned, except drizzly & windy weather didn't allow it (we heard it got done later in the week). This ritual's purpose was to chase away evil spirits (pour chasser les mauvais esprits).

You might ask: How much power can a ritual like this really have, be it Christian, pagan or any other religion? Well.  I came to Venasque on the previous day with 3 mauvais esprits: a toothache, (mal aux dents), a backache (mal au dos) and broken out skin (une maladie de peau). By the next day, all 3 had disappeared! I'm not kidding (Je ne blague pas)!!

To my French readers, including Professeur Guillet: Please excuse any errors of French, &, as always, corrections are welcomed!

Maine's Valentine Bandit

Portland loves Valentine's Day.

Three Valentine Fairies walking around, blowing bubbles, spreading cheer.

Students from the art school? Naaaaah, Fairies.

Note the heart on the door behind them.

It is the work of Portland's Valentine Bandit.

 Each year since 1976 the Bandit tapes hearts everywhere in Portland:
On shop windows, statues, even parking meters! One TV station caught the Bandit during the night,

but to their credit they did not reveal his or her identity.  

This tradition has spread to other cities such as Bangor, & Montpelier Vermont,

but Portland is proud of its Bandit: the first in the country!

The hearts make us feel good, & they also get us to slow down & really look at details in our city.

Valentine's Day in Portland. Better than Christmas, in my opinion!