Autumn Moments

We gathered our last bouquet from the garden this week, some very spectacular dahlias and even two amazingly perfect roses. The weather has provided just about everything in equal measures, rain, cold, blue balmy days, crisp mornings, warm afternoons. It's that time of year where bird populations stop by for a day or two on their way south, and when the colors mellow and the rhythm of life changes. These moments of transition in the year are among my favorites.

Since our high season is over, we've had time to refresh the house a little. This is our guest sitting room, which I had become entirely bored with. I recovered the velvet chairs and painted the table which I posted photos of a few weeks ago. I felt that the whole space had to be much more lightened up.

The green couch had to be reupholstered too, which was a much bigger challenge than the chairs, but we did accomplish it. I also wanted to paint over the mural on the back wall, which was beginning to seem far too busy to me. We mixed up a batch of lime wash (lime, pigment, water and a bit of glue) and covered the wall. So gratifyingly easy.

I think it looks much better now, cleaner and lighter.

Next we went on to the dining room wall, which was also one of those things I felt I could no longer live with. I'm not sure what this old effect was trying to be, but it really wasn't working.

For the wall, I mixed up some of my Annie Sloan paint, (Antique White and Greek Blue). The trim is a mix of Antique White and Paris Gray. I added a little dark wax and clear wax on top after the paint had dried to age it a little. I painted some flowers in the top panels. I am much happier with this effect.

These lovely days with their swiftly changing moods, are perfect for long walks. The woods are particularly charming this time of year. I like to bring a basket when we go and gather some forest bounty: berries, pine cones, chestnuts, rose hips, leaves and even twigs. Last time we went, I collected a huge number of sticks which are stacked up on my art table waiting for their turn. I intend to use them for mobiles, sculptures, book elements.

The leaves have not yet completely fallen from the trees, but the ground is certainly covered with crackly leaves.

The family visited the weekend of Toussaint, better known as Halloween in the States. Trick or Treat is not much of a concept here in France, so Quinn has not yet learned much about how that works. Instead, he spent two days at the Pony Club riding his favorite horse Helico.

Toussaint

Call it Halloween or The Day of the Dead if you prefer. Here in France it's called Toussaint and the emphasis is less on candy and costumes but more on graves and flowers. The history of this fall celebration is ancient indeed, going at least as far back as the Middle Ages, and probably much further still. It is the time of the year to honor the departed and many French people visit the burial sites of their ancestors, cleaning the graves and decorating them with flowers. Of course All Saints Day is on the first of November,  while Halloween is celebrated on the last day of October. The roots are the same but they have evolved with slightly different flavors from country to country.

In the States children don't even get one day off from school for this particular holiday, while here in France it's a two week school break! Apparently Toussaint is one of the most celebrated days of the French calendar. The trick-or-treat thing hasn't really caught on here, but there are lots of family celebrations and get-togethers to mark the occasion. We have an overflow of clients this weekend, with 11 breakfasts served this morning and Montmirail in general is hopping today. Houses that are often shuttered are flung wide open. Everyone has come to town and holiday-makers are bustling past my window as I write this.

We had our own family celebration earlier in the week. Quinn and Emily came to town and stayed with us for several days as Quinn's school is closed. On the day before his break he had his first Halloween school party and made his first pumpkin face.

Quinn likes to visit because we have the Brio trains. This is something which can occupy him for a very long time and he is becoming more and more skilled at putting the track together and building his bridges and tunnels. Under the radiator is called the garage. This time I showed him how the magnets only work in one direction when putting the cars together and he was very gratified to discover the mystery behind that. He had not yet understood why the trains sometimes attached and sometimes just wouldn't.

I've been awaiting the time when Quinn would have enough patience and dexterity to do some art projects with me. He isn't three until the end of January, and until only very recently he wasn't very interested in painting or projects that take a certain amount of concentrated focus. The influence of school was certainly clear to me this time, however, as his abilities have taken a quantum leap. I had an idea to allow him to cut out little animal shapes with some air-drying clay I have and then paint them after they had dried. I was amazed at how interested and skilled he was in this.

 

I loved his results and he was very pleased with them himself. We wrapped them up and put them inside a tiny gold box which he took home to his papa who had stayed behind in Paris to rehearse his up-coming show. (If any of my blog friends live in New York, you will have a great opportunity to see Jos in a marvelous Peter Brook production of Fragments by Samuel Beckett during the entire month of November.)

It is the end of the fall season here and the weather is definitely nippy, but often the sky is crystal blue anyway. The leaves have fallen from the Lime trees in front of the house and Quinn enjoyed the time honored fun of running through the pile.

We took a nice walk in the sun, saw some donkeys and played with shadows.

I also pulled out a set of books I've had since Emily and James were children. It is one of my favorites, The Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak, four gratifyingly silly stories with charming illustrations.

It is also only recently that Quinn will actually sit and listen all the way through a story, without wanting to turn the pages. It was such a beautiful day, we sat outside for story time.

Another great discovery Quinn made was toppling a line of dominoes.He wanted to do it over and over again.

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In the studio this week I finished one little print I'm calling Living in the Country. Currently I'm working on the companion Living in the City.

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La Ferté-Bernard was showing its fall colors all around the lake. I did a little PhotoShop manipulation on these two and I liked the results.

Speaking of this type of photo transformation, the first time I saw the dramatic color changes that people with an iPhone app called Instagram could do with a simple point and click was on Pia Jane Bijerk's very cool blog. I was completely enchanted. Since then, however, I've seen it everywhere and of course the more it's used, the more tiresome it becomes. At least for me. The two photos above were actually created in fall 2010 when I first discovered this technique. I don't have a fancy cell phone and don't own one single phone app, but I did discover that these same tricks can be downloaded as free actions for Photoshop. If you'd like to try them, they're simple as pie to use. Just load them into your actions folder and play them. It's fully automatic. Here's where I got mine, but you can find many sources on the internet.

This photo I took this week and I like most everything about it. The clouds are just right, the texture of the old wooden gate is in crisp focus and the soft landscape spied between the slats is nicely colored.

With one of the Photoshop actions (Lomo) it becomes much more saturated. I leave you to judge which photo is more interesting.

And this one. It is a little hard to discount the richness the color saturation can give to an ordinary shot. But since it's totally automatic, I feel it's a bit like cheating. Still, it can have its uses. All things in moderation.

Here's a photo from this week that needed no manipulation whatsoever. The low winter sun, just past sunrise was bathing the castle and Mairie behind our house with a rich golden glow. The lowering stormy sky in dark blue added a bit of moodiness.