La Tour Eiffel • Bon anniversaire! (edited re-post)

 

Above: I turned a corner in the 7th arrondissemnt

and caught my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

Today Paris is celebrating the 130th birthday 

of the Eiffel Tower!

This is a re-post from September 21, 2012 

with some changes in the original text.

                                     

"Qui aurait dit il y a 130 ans que La Tour Eiffel deviendrait le symbole de Paris?  

130 ans et pas une ride!" (Site: Paris à Sortir)

 

Paintings by Maurice Utrillo and Raoul Dufy.

From Chez Toi en France, a bilingual children's book.

 

 Delauney was obsessed by La Tour Eiffel, painting at least 30 versions. 

He appreciated it as a radio tower & symbol for global communication 

as well as for its beautiful design.

This book is in a series on arrondissements of Paris. 

Gorgeous watercolors are by René Oghia.

 

ABC de Paris: Découvrir la capitale est un jeu d'enfant           

by Raphaëlle Aubert

Minou, a children's book in English, illustrated by Itoko Maeno. 

Features many Parisian landmarks.

 9 images in the Paris Calendar by Cavallini & Co. 

feature the Eiffel. 

When I first went to Paris it seemed like a cliché, 

& I almost didnt visit it. 

But was thrilling. 

Far more original, complex , & magificent than I had imagined!

Fountain Pens in the 21st Century

For any one pleasurable tool or object that existed in the past, there are now gazillions. 

And so it is with Fountain Pens.

There used to be "A cup of coffee". Now, well, do you remember the scene in You've Got Mail where Nora Ephron inserts a little essay: "The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee..."   

I love drawing & writing with fountain pens & now I'm learning to hand letter and to practice my penmanship. 

I love the mechanics of fountain pens, the care & cleaning of fountain pens, the memories of my father's & my grandmother's fountain pens. I love the memory of my own first fountain pen. With the Schaeffer Cartridge Pen I only had to decide on a translucent color for the barrel (red, yellow, blue, green or clear). Blue or blue-black ink. The simplicity!

These days I spend a lot of time looking at varieties, varieties & more varieties. There's a whole vocabulary in "The Fountain Pen Community":  "Piston filler", "converter", "hard starts", "work horse pens", "wet writers", "holy grail pens", "feedback"... There are conventions, penmasters, online "Rock Stars" (Brian Goulet, you know who you are), reviews, comparisons, instructional videos...

Bricks & Mortar pen stores are scarce. I've been known to travel to Boston to The Bromfield Pen Shop just so I can actually hold & try a pen before buying it. 

There is a site called The Pen Habit, another called the Pen Addict.  I've learned online that there are people who own hundreds of pens. There are pens that cost tens of thousands of dollars. 

I try to keep my pen "hobby" manageable, but the pens online do call to me, with their pretty colors & smooth flowing inks. And, as with so many products now, there is the promise that there is one more pen out there that will be even more perfect than any I own... that sparkling new pen that will change my life forever! 

For other posts I've made that include pens, click on the label, "fountain pens".

Mornings in Paris: A Delicious Memory

In Portland there used to be a most adorable, friendly & FRENCH café called 

Mornings in Paris. 

To see a post I made in 2012 about my old favorite café, 

click here.

The lovely & gracious  French owner, Isabelle,

eventually moved the café to Kennebunk.

One time we drove down to see her, but she wasn't there. 

So I spontaneously wrote her a letter in French 

with a little observational sketch & left it with the barista. 

I just learned online that she sold the business in 2017 to a British couple...

she is spending more time in France...

The only certain thing in this world is change, they say. 

But I don't always like change...

...Sketch souvenirs help. 

Rose Windows

 My first visit to Paris: 2003.

And my first conscious travel journal, 

with encouragement from my French teacher at

The Language Exchange in Portland. 

Never EVER could I have imagined the complexity,

the grandeur, the art, & the spiritual feeling of

Notre Dame de Paris!

In 2003 I broke down & cried before one of the rose windows,

for its beauty.

In 2019 I cried  to see Notre Dame de Paris in flames.

My 2003 journal sketch of the window is rough & inaccurate.

And along with my notes, private.

But spending extended time in the cathedral was sweet,

& the journal pages bring the experience back.

Recently I've been making ink drawings based on photos. 

But the photos seem to be only a point of departure.

During that 2003 visit, one of my companions said

that the windows are like giant mandalas. 

That & more.

Let us hope that they & the cathedral 
will be restored for future visitors.

Café With a Fellow Sketcher

I met one of The Sketchers at a café downtown...

She is our steadiest & most persistent member

& a total inspiration.

It's so nice to sketch with someone else...

We draw, we chat a little...it frees my process...

Takes the pressure off that my brain wants to impose.

That's my Kakuno fountain pen 

filled with Platinum Carbon waterproof ink. 

The pen is very inexpensive,

but draws super well on Moleskine sketch journal paper. 

It felt like the pen was drawing rather than me!

Sketches From the Back Seat

In early March I got to be a passenger along Route 1 

heading south! 

 So many times I've driven that road, sneaking glances.

So I took the opportunity to sketch! Of course!

Composing sketches while moving quickly is in some ways

like putting together a puzzle. 

I grab elements from the landscape as it whips by

and fit them in on the page. 

By the time I'm drawing individual parts

they are memory images,

but with actual references in the moving landscape.

I added some colored pencil notations in the car

and later I painted lightly with watercolors.

Observation lists 

also come in handy in such fast situations. 

Snippets Not Sketches

 Back to playing with watercolor snippets & now, 

watercolor buttons. Buttons-bullets-chips-charms-dots...

Coincidentally I painted my dots at Dot's Café, 

unaware of the connection until later.  Fun!

                       

They were inspired by Robinsunne,

a local artist & teacher.

She makes "paper charms" in sandwiched pairs. 

Like beads, they embellish her journals.

To view one of her video tutorials

click here. For creating her paper pockets, another link.

A store bought envelope with 3 pockets,

inspired by Robinsunne's 

Tri-fold Pocket Journal Making Techniques

as seen in the linked videos.

The envelopes were intended for my color snippets,

(in the 1st photo), but there were too many, 

& I didn't want to hide them.

I think I'll put in some secret messages instead. 

I have some plans for my paper buttons.

Maybe you, Dear Readers, have some ideas...

Ideas or not, please do leave me a comment!

The Full Moon Rising

I made a point of watching the moon rise, 

the last night before Spring officially turned. 

I sketched quickly from the upstairs window.

This gorgeous ball,

moved quickly as she rose.

Forget science, forget tanky machines & flags 

on the moon, THIS was the poetic moon 

of childhood wonder & awe!

A sketch, once she was higher and...

again, color was added from memory. 

 

I prefer to sketch & write notes.

But sometimes I'm grateful for my little camera. 

 

She is called The Full Worm Moon,

March being the month when earth worms begin to appear.      

   (Well, maybe not in Maine.)

Also The Sap Moon, when maple sap begins to flow...

 Below: Same place, the next morning.

The sun was now taking the moon's place, 

rising in just about the same place, to the East. 

 And while we had slept the night before,

that old moon had worked her way 

across the southern night sky, toward the West.

I went out to see her before she set behind western tree tops.

She was the same size as the night before, 

but she had on a misty, softly lit robe,

instead of her dazzling nightime party dress.

Springtime! A new awakening!

Art Journaling • Bullet Journaling

Above: "Rita's Reminders for Kindness & Care"

 I'm exploring the Bullet Journal phenomenon.

It's a way to make the organization of 

tasks, goals & intentions clear, tangible, and fun,

especially, I think, for the non-linear person (moi).

Apparently there is a whole community out there 

of people like myself. People who get distracted

by the great amount of stimulus that is in our culture,

thanks to technology (& consumerism).

And people who love to write, paint & draw on paper

verses on the computer.

When a children's librarian, on Valentine's Day, 
presented our Art Journal Group 

with a pile of disorganized cutout hearts for collages,

the participants created lovely designs 

with personal expressions. 

My hearts turned into a list.

In this group there is no time to censor images, 

or to judge them, 

so they get released quickly & authentically.

They are unrefined drafts. I'm often surprised

by the images that pop out, both as writing & drawing,

that reflect parts of myself, my past, or my interests.

I have recently created some Bullet Journal type charts 

on paper that are helping me enormously to 

live more intentionally, healthily, & efficiently.

I think they will evolve with time 

to be more artistic than they are now, 

& maybe they'll be integrated into my sketchbook journals. 

Thanks to Ryder Carroll who devised this 

Bullet Journal method & philosophy, 

to BoHo Berry who has adpated it 

in her artistic way, & to all artistic Bullet Journalers 

who generously share their analog versions 

of organizational tools through, ironically, electronic media!

And, Thanks Amy, our weekly Art Journal Leader!

What's in a Bookshop name?

Sketch based on my local bookshop, Left Bank Books

Have you seen the illustrated books 

Books & Mortar:

A Celebration of The Local Bookstore

by Gibbs M. Smith? And

Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores 

by Bob Eckstein

and the postcards of his illustrations?

This is some of  what I found in these books & 

in the What's Next brochures

that are given away at independent bookstores:

One More Page Books, Arlington VA

The Dog Eared Book, Palmyra NY

Bookbug, Kalamazoo MI

Once Upon a Time, Montrose CA

Hooray For Books! Alexandria VA

Red Balloon Bookshop, St Paul MN

The Corner Bookstore, NY NY

Politics & Prose, Washington DC (of course!)

Books & Books, Coral Gables, FLA

The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City UT

Page & Palette, Fairhope ALA

Is your local bookshop listed here?

What is the name of your local bookstore?

What would YOU name a bookshop?

Leave your answers with a comment!

Valentine's Day Fun

 

I tried printing this Valentine Girl

with my printer.

 But the colors came out badly.

So I did a black & white version 

& added just a few colors by hand.

Valentine Girl's source was a small, 

super quick sketch 

I did last summer

when a woman zipped past me 

while I was sketching a church.

 

 I led our Library Art Group this week in making

non-adhesive, folded gift boxes. 

Valentine's Day has been a fun inspiration 

for me since childhood.

I used the January page from a 

beautiful letterpress calendar for this box.

I've had a lot of painted snippets around, 

great for adorning boxes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Exploring Rather Than Wandering

 

Sketchbook Wandering. 

I've done it here for almost 7 years!!!!!

Sketching & writing still bring me joy & comfort, 

as when I took a pause from last Saturday's winter festivities

at a café on Main St. I sat by a wall.

My sketchbook transformed the scene to interesting theater.

There are people who appreciate my sketches, 

& some have learned from my process.

But:

Change might be starting...

Expression, discovery, exploration, reflection, 

& who knows what else! 

I've been experimenting with making marks 

with a brush & "high flow" acrylic paints.

(Thanks, for introducing me, Beth. Go to Sew Sew Art.)

My marks turned to shapes & my shapes 

arranged themselves.

Aaaah, order...but maybe not too much...

More will be revealed...