Lapin Agile

 On Tuesday nights I am always ready to sketch Lefty Lucy but this week there was some kind of power failure and she couldn't pose for us. Now what??? I was ready to sketch and had no model, so I decided to take a virtual visit to the Montmatre area of Paris. I used Googlemaps to find the area and saw that there was a cabaret in that area. It took a while to get a front view of Lapin Agile which is a landmark venue in a 19th-century stone house and features chanteuses singing classic French songs. Too bad Jerry and I didn't know about it when we were in Paris...he would have loved it.

Blowing in the Wind - Part 1

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers had the theme of "Blowing in the Wind" and captured windmills all over the world. It was very hard to narrow down the selection of windmills that called to me...so I did more than one. 

The first windmill is from the Moulin Rouge in Paris. I did see this one in person when I was in Paris. It is in the Monmatre section. My friend, Lois and I took a small tour of the area when we were there.

The second windmill has a stone base and is located in Cesis, Latvia.

Continued tomorrow...

Collioure, France - Sketch 2

When I was looking for a reference to use for Collioure I found several that I thought would make good sketches. Who could resist this building with the turquoise door? My thanks to Patricia Chow for bringing us to such a great location this past weekend.

Collioure, France - Sketch 1

The NYC Urban Sketchers had Zoom event today hosted by Patricia Chow, a member of our group who lives in California. We have been having members virtually lead us through an area, a style, or a location. Patricia led us to the lovely town of Collioure, France which is the birthplace of a style of art called Fauvism. She also spoke about Fauvism, which I admit I knew nothing about. It is a very colorful style of art that didn't last too long. Here is what Wikipedia says about it.

I found a colorful, flower-filled street using Google Maps that already had a lot of strong color, so in some ways this sort of fits the idea of fauvism. I personally have a difficult time straying from the actual color of something I am sketching or painting. I have never visited Collioure, France, but from my experience wandering around the town, I am sure I would be very happy visiting there in person.

Since this is not sketched from life it isn't a true urban sketch.

Gardens 2 & 3

My favorite garden of all is Monet's Garden and luckily it was on Lois's list...so I had to do it. Although I visited Monet's Garden on two of my trips, the wisteria over the Japanese bridge wasn't in bloom either time. This was done in direct watercolor.

In the afternoon I only had time to sketch one garden and I picked the Majorelle Garden. This garden is located in Marrakech, Morocco. It took French painter Jacques Majorelle 40 years to create this garden. It has shady lanes, streams and pools filled with water lilies and lotus flowers, wonderful cacti, and a blue building with Moorish charm. Just the little bit of what I saw makes me wish I could visit it in person right now. This sketch was too complex to do as a direct watercolor but I sketched it directly in ink before adding watercolors.

La Rochelle, France

#VirtualSketch took me to La Rochelle, France for this trip. How could I pass up this bell tower?

Lille, France

One of the locations #VirtualSketch visited this week was Lille, France. I did some wandering and came across some people doing exactly what I wish I could be doing. #NUS

Virtual Travel

Most days I try to get in a sketch with the #VirtualSketch group on Facebook. I'll download a few photos from Google Maps Street View and then come back to them later to see if something moves me. This was a sketch of a restaurant in Colmar, France. Looks like a nice place for lunch or dinner.

Today the group was sketching in Baguio City, in the Philippines. I have this attraction to houses that have laundry hanging out. Maybe it takes me back to our clothesline behind our house growing up. With a full house with 5 kids, my parents, my grandparents and my uncle we had a lot of clothing to hang out to dry. We didn't get a dryer until my sister got her first job and started giving extra money to my parents. But my mom still liked hanging the sheets out to dry.