Adventures with Wendy and Margot

snowman drawn by Quinn

Here in France we're still shivering. In Australia things are a bit different. Our printmaking clients and now friends, Margot and Wendy from Melbourne, like to come to France in January, leaving the hot Australian summer behind and heading right smack into the middle of European winter. They stayed with us the first year we were open, doing printmaking for a week in the studio, and they have come every other year since. This week brought them back to us again.

 

They certainly got what they bargained for, arriving in France on the day of the huge snowstorm.

photo by Wendy

Walking around the snowy village is very picturesque.

 

photo by Margot

Mid-week the weather warmed up significantly and the snow began to melt quickly.

 

 

There were blue sky moments, when one could take a genuine sunbath and really warm up. There were also moments of rain.

 

Throughout the week, Rick kept the home fires burning.

 

Margot's preferred occupation was reading next to the chimney.

 

Early in the week, Rick took Margot and Wendy down to the Loire Valley to have a look around. The goal was to gaze out over the river. Amboise has a lovely view.

 

Standing in front of Leonardo da Vinci's house in Amboise. Photo by Margot

View over the Loire River from the château at Amboise. Photo by Margot.

looking out the window at the château at Amboise. Photo by Wendy.

After these few more recreational days, Wendy got to work in the studio. She had it in mind to create a series of small plates inspired by the snowy landscape. She has a wonderful little notebook which she carries with her constantly, sketching ideas, thoughts, germs of projects. She uses her camera as a sketch book as well, just as I do, capturing fragments, reference material for images to come.

I really enjoy having printmaking friends in the studio. I love to see how other artists develop ideas and create their images. It was an extremely pleasant week for me.

 

Photo by Margot

Margot acted as consultant and sounding board for Wendy's ideas and images. Each one was thought through. They are a highly successful team!

 

Ideas began coming quickly. The only question was how many of them Wendy would have time to realize before the week was up. The snow became the overriding theme for Wendy's plates, but other sub-themes emerged, such as a very sparky little dog in a coat.

 

I really liked the rhythm Wendy got into. The plate size she chose was just 6 X 9 cm (about 2.5 X 3.5"). She would do her drawing in her sketch book, then transfer it to her plate, etch the plate and then take a proof. She would make any necessary adjustments at that point before going on to her next image. She was able to create 8 little gems before the week was out. 

At the end we printed up all the plates in a marathon session. Rick was obliged to go off to Paris for a day so he trained Margot as his apprentice and the three of us cranked out almost 40 prints in the space of a few hours.

Wendy inked up the plates.

Margot managed the paper.

One of Wendy's images required a great deal of patience to prepare. She had cut out small strips of thin metal which she arranged on one of the plates before it was printed to create an emboss.

Margot, like Rick, is meticulous and exacting, which is what is required to create a clean and well registered image.

 

The press is cranked.

And here's what rolled off: 

First a snowy hillside with trees on the horizon. One version with blind embossed areas in the snow, one version without.

 

Next, a snowy little village under a night-time sky.

Here's where the little dog begins to appear - a woman holding an umbrella walks by some shops in Paris. They are each making little tracks in the snow. It was hard to photograph these images in a way to really show their charm, which was in the tiny details. Can you see the falling snow? The sausages hanging in the butcher shop window?

Here's another woman walking through the Tuileries with a dog very much like the one above. Obviously these images are printed in one color, but I swear I see the little dog's coat as red plaid.

The pièce de résistance was this last set of four plates, developed separately, then put together to become an enchanting view out a window onto a snowy Paris street scene. Do you find the dog again? Each one works individually but it was entirely magically when we carefully arranged them together and ran them through the press for the first time. This was the original idea, of course, but no one really knew how well it would look until the very end. 

What a successful week!

Margot and Wendy left this morning for the next part of their French adventure. This time they are staying for 11 weeks on the continent! It was such a pleasure to have them here, they're very easy to have around. There's some talk of them returning before they to go back home. Wouldn't that be nice?

Portraits in Snow

As promised, the snow arrived. Only one week ago we were standing in our garden with the sun beating down and spring promises whispering in our ears. Where has it gone? We escaped a lot of the weather for most of the week, but this weekend brought the inevitable cold and snow. We don't think we've ever seen so much whiteness since we moved to France.

On Saturday evening the snow began to fall.

By Sunday morning we were really covered and basically snowed in. Living on a hill as we do, it's not easy to get around once the snow has covered the streets.

I like the way the yellow stone looks against white.

This morning I took a walk outside, only after dressing up like an Eskimo. The weather didn't stop the baker and it didn't slow down business there either. Here is the boulangerie, in yellow and turquoise, at the top of the road welcoming business on Sunday morning as usual.

I wanted to see the forest in its winter colors. I was the first one to venture down the pathway.

Pity the poor cows who have nowhere to go except under a stand of trees to avoid the falling snow.

At least the farmers made their way to the feeding trough and the cows had breakfast as usual.

You will have to enlarge this photo by clicking on it to see the little furry horses huddling against the fence trying to keep warm.

The valley below in white. This is a somewhat unusual sight for us here. I have no idea how long this condition will last, but for the time being we are living in the frozen tundra.

 

***

In Paris, Quinn has built a punk snowman. Tonight he told us about his snow road, where he can drive his cars out-of-doors.

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.
--Moliere

Week 30: Snowy German Visit

Smoking Man, typical German wooden Christmas toy, bought at the Mannheim Christmas Market

A few weeks ago our friends Wolfgang and Sabine invited us to come visit them in Germany and share a goose dinner to celebrate Saint Martinmas. Wolfgang ordered a goose from a well-reputed organic producer in the Northern Germany. Mannheim, where they live, is not too far over the French border and there is a direct high speed train from Paris which normally takes only three hours. We have had many clients invite us to come visit them but Wolfgang is the only one who really made a very specific proposal. How could we refuse? We were very happy to visit this family that we had grown so fond of, and to see them in their native habitat! Besides, going to Germany at Christmas time, the cradle of many of our holiday traditions, has always been a dream of mine.

Of course, when we made this plan a few weeks ago, Europe was not yet plunged into a temporary ice age. Our host family also had some last minute complications. Roderick, their five year old son, developed an angry skin infection just days before we were due to arrive and had to spend several nights in hospital. It was touch and go right up until Friday morning when we boarded the train in Paris, but in the end Roddy had improved, the trains were running, and so we headed off on our next big adventure.

At the Gare de l'Est in Paris, passengers huddled around electric heaters to keep warm. Temperatures hovered around 0º. Trains were delayed as everything in the high speed system was required to slow down considerably. In Paris there was no snow, but the further east we traveled, the whiter the landscape became.

Mannheim was covered with a fairly thick blanket of snow, which more or less scotched plans to visit Heidelberg castle and university (where Rick's grandfather once taught). Someone also had to stay at home and wait for the goose to arrive via UPS, so Wolfgang and Sabine took turns making forays out into the wintery world. We followed along.

We didn't mind at all staying at home. Our hosts have a lovely big house with large windows, allowing us to look out on the Mannheim cityscape and enjoy the warm, Christmasy atmosphere indoors. Wolfgang is the chef de cuisine of the family and he made sure we were well-fed all weekend.

The house is right on the tram line that leads into the heart of the city. We took it into town one morning with Sabine and the children.

Victoria is ten. Both of the children are lovely and intelligent. They don't speak much English yet, and I have no German whatsoever. What German Rick had from studying it in school has mostly vanished. This did not seem to be too great a disadvantage when talking with the children. We became very fond of them. We had our ways of communicating that did not require language.

Roddy was feeling very well indeed. After his hospital stay he was definitely ready for a little fun and activity.

Mannheim, like many big cities in Germany, was pretty much flattened in the war, though a few very beautiful buildings do remain. The center of town is dominated by the biggest contiguous group of Art Nouveau buildings in the world. They are in red brick with grand arched promenades encircling a large park. Since everything was dressed in snow, it was a little difficult to see it all.

The old water tower is very beautiful.

Mannheim is also known as the city where the first automobile was built by Karl Benz.

I was anxious to visit the Christmas market, as Mannheim has one of the celebrated ones. In fact there are two of them. One is large with lots of crafts from all over the world, the other is small with just traditional German craftsmen participating. We visited them both.

The bigger, but less traditional market

bird houses made by hand

One of the things that bonds Wolfgang and Rick is their shared love of great coffee. Wolfgang has a state-of-the-art espresso machine and a very fancy grinder. Morning, afternoon and evening coffees were on the agenda.

By Saturday morning the goose still had not arrived, and more guests were due to come to enjoy the evening feast. Rumors of closed freeways, treacherous roadways and canceled flights made its arrival uncertain. No one could be reached to confirm one way or the other. We headed to the local fresh air market with Sabine and the children to gather some supplies, even though we didn't know what the menu would ultimately include. The day was crystal blue and beautiful, but bitterly cold.

By the afternoon the goose still had not arrived, so the menu was changed to beef roast. Side dishes were organized and in a flash a whole new plan was put into production. We helped a little, and then waited in the living room for the other guests to arrive and played a game with Roddy.

I don't have any photos of our very convivial meal together. Frankly, I didn't miss the goose at all. We had a beautiful and tender beef roast in delicious gravy, sliced thickly and served generously. Side dishes included oven-fried potatoes, mashed celery root and parsnips with carrots and parsley. Everything was lovely. Another couple joined us and we enjoyed getting to know them. Almost all Germans speak English, which is fortunate for us.

I was a bit nervous about getting back to Paris as I watched the snow coming down hard on Saturday evening. The train was a bit late and again had to travel at reduced speed, but in the end our return journey was smooth. Again, the further west we went, the less snow blanketed the ground.

We picked up James and Adric in Paris and arrived home yesterday afternoon. When we came into town there was no snow at all, skies were blue and our house was quickly warmed up again.

This morning was a different story. We woke up to several inches of freshly fallen snow. I was happy to be safe and sound with nowhere to travel for the foreseeable future. Snow is beautiful, but best enjoyed from the comfort of one's own windows. As soon as Emily, Jos and Quinn arrive we can begin to celebrate Christmas in earnest. Once everyone is at home for the holidays we'll be able to more happily sing "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."