Week 20: Indian Summer in Montmirail

 

It's summer again in Montmirail...or at least it seems like it. We served our clients breakfast on the terrace this weekend. The sun was brilliant and the temperatures high. Last week it was jackets and rain coats, this week shirt sleeves and sun glasses.

I had a certain amount of time in the studio this week and I enjoyed trying out a monoprint technique I'd read about on one of my European Etsy companion's blogs way back in April. Basically you press leaves or other flat organic material onto wet watercolor paper which has been brushed with areas of color. You put weight over the leaves and allow the paint and paper to dry for several hours. Once you remove the weights and leaves, your print is revealed. It's not easy to control and you won't really know what you have until the end.

I found the result interesting but not as delicate I was hoping for. I then began painting the leaves, instead and placing them onto the wet paper. I was much happier with the images I was able to create in that way. I became enamored of the whole process and couldn't stop myself from searching the entire village for interesting shaped leaves. I had a lot of fun. I also thought I might be able to use the prints in the book project we will be doing here next week with Gail Rieke.

Water color is very gratifying as long as the colors don't blend together to create mud. I tried putting on the painted leaves and then spritzing them with water to create a soft halo of color.

I also tried splattering paint over the leaves once they had been placed on the paper.

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This week brought Quinn and his family to the Maison Conti. Jos was performing his one-man show, The Art of Laughter near Le Mans, and it gave everyone a good excuse to come stay with us for a few days.

Quinn is at that wonderful age when everything is a discovery. I get a thrill out of his interest in drawing. He can be very concentrated. He hasn't really learned yet to make deliberate marks (after all, he won't be two until the end of January), but he does enjoy making random squiggles with different colors. Of course I have dreams of long days in the studio with him in a not too distant future!

He is interested in just about everything, and his ability to manipulate objects and focus on activities has developed each time I see him again. He calls the Brio train (which I've saved in a plastic tub since James stopped playing with it about twenty years ago) "toot-toot." Cars on the other hand are referred to as "beep-beep." It's wonderful and amazing at what an early age children start imagining and creating stories. Quinn "feeds" his little animals, animates and talks to his toys and clearly is creating
his own imaginary worlds.

Quinn enjoyed tasting some of the last produce of the season. The delicious purple grapes which hang invitingly from walls throughout the village,

and cherry tomatoes from our garden.

Emily, who is a much more adventurous cook than I am, managed to make us a fabulous dish with some beets and carrots. And I don't even like beets.

The morning after Jos' show dawned gloriously warm. It was so idyllic that we all decided it was absolutely necessary to take a family outing. None of us had a care in the world for all the live-long day. Emily and Jos had never been to the gardens of Chaumont-sur-Loire, so we decided to make that our destination. It was a day full of lazy pleasures. Rick and I enjoyed seeing how much the gardens had changed in a just few short weeks.

Quinn enjoyed swinging around the poles in a wonderful structure located in the experimental garden.

 

On the way home we chanced upon an open air market in the small town of Onzain, so we snagged three dozen fresh oysters, a loaf of pain de campagne (rustic, crusty bread), and directions to the local vintner where we tasted several excellent Loire sauvignons, chenins and gamays. We were particularly taken by his sparkling red aperitif. The trunk of the car was fully loaded for the trip back.

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We have been cleaning, ironing, menu planning and shopping in preparation for our workshop next week. And now Gail and her husband Zack have arrived! Be sure to come back next Monday for the full report.

Confessions of a Journal Junkie

I have to confess, I can't resist beautiful journals! Every time I go into a book store, stationers or art supply store I find myself irresistibly drawn to those lovely little books, hard or soft covered, spiral or perfect bound, blank or lined pages or, as they make here in France, pages with a little grid (the French are so much neater about their handwriting). I have so many notebooks, journals and sketch books that one could imagine I do nothing but draw and write. Of course it isn't true. Often these beautiful little books languish for years on my shelves, and still, I continue looking at and buying more. Finding the perfect journal becomes an obsession. Realistically, the notebooks I use the most faithfully are ones you can purchase at the grocery store. Just soft little books with lines. These are great for collecting restaurant cards, and wine labels to remind myself of a really good bottle (restaurants are very kind about giving these to you if you ask). I also cut restaurant reviews out of magazines and paste them into little notebooks. I have my own personal guide to Paris, for instance. I always have a notebook in my purse. When I'm out I use it as a place to write down reflections that come to me, or some anecdote that I want to remember. I love people-watching and I can make a quick sketch or write a few words to help myself remember something that seems charming or strange. When I reread these entries months later I sometimes lose the whole point of what I was wanting to remind myself! When out at a nice restaurant I often make a tiny schematic of the plate that is served to me, if it's paricularly attractive. I love to write down interesting food combinations to reuse myself at our Bed & Breakfast. I adore those beautiful notebooks which are made with soft Japanese paper. I have at least four of them and not one of them has anything written or drawn in it. I just don't dare! Another category of journal I can't resist, are those with pretty covers. They are available everywhere. They're put out on counters for people like me who somehow believe that just one more beautiful notebook will turn me into a genius-writer and inspire words and images of profound meaning. When I lived in California I bought a very nice notebook which I was going to dedicate to our garden, at that time under construction and quite large. I began with a plan drawing of the space. I never got any further! Now the notebook sits on my shelf in the French countryside, with labels from Californian plants we bought and which I stuck into the back blank pages. Here is my current "everything" notebook, which sits on my desk. I write down things we need, to-do lists, phone numbers, reflections, ideas, quotes, complaints, questions. Of course, as you can see I really tend to do all that on random scraps of paper that come to hand at the moment and if and when they actually get transfered into the real book remains a mystery. I have made several journals myself. The little one was a design from Gail Rieke. http://www.riekestudios.com/ It works very well in your purse, for example. You can bind in little folded strips of paper with an elastic or rubber band, take notes and then remove them and add more paper as you like. It's like a little portfolio. The bigger journal is made with gorgeous handmade paper and one of my favorite fabric designs. The pages can not be removed, and that's what intimidates me about it. I began it as a journal of my life in the woods when I first came to France. I made my title page and begun my writing, but it is a big book and I never got too far. Now we've moved, so the book will have to find another use. This little beauty is a really great journal which is friendly enough to allow you to go ahead and use it, but sexy enough that you are inspired to put something worthwhile in it. It's available from Lee Valley Tools http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32477&cat=1,46113 I used mine for a travel journal. I even pasted copies of my photos into it. It is a nice record of several of our summer European trips. My Italian journal is perfect bound with book fabric and covered in exquisite handmade paper. The flowers are dotted with gold ink. It's one of my most scrumptious books, but I've already made drawings and written entries in it which don't seem worthy of it. What to do? I really enjoyed following through with "The Artist's Way", by Julia Cameron. A lot of free-association writing. Anything to make myself sit down and draw and write. I don't tend to take my sketchbook out, as I know I should, and just draw en plein aire everyday. Oh to have a sketchbook like Delacroix! But I don't seem to have the knack for making my pages look so randomly but beautifully arranged. I tend to develop my drawings on tissue paper, transfer them onto my etching plates and then throw away the drawings. Sketch books are an end in themselves. I admire people who seem to fit all that into life. My current kit includes my fully-lined fabric pencil pouch which I bought at Kazana in Paris for about 4€. I keep jelly pens in several colors along with my black drawing pens. I also have a white out pen (which I use to draw highlights) and a gold and silver pen for the fun of it. My daughter Emily gave me the most remarkable little notebook with colored pages. You wet them with a tiny drop of water on the included brush, and you have instant water colors. So neat and tidy and no need for a palette of any kind. And since they aren't too wet, the color goes on, but doesn't wrinkle the paper. http://www.madeindesign.com/prod-Carnet-de-couleur-Tse-Tse-refcarnetdecouleur.html The moleskine journals, very popular in France, come in every size, shape and design. The paper is just gorgeous and takes ink without bleeding through to the other side. They work well for both writing and drawing and the handy little elastic strap keeps them closed in your purse. http://www.moleskine.com/