Champagne Days

Yesterday K & S said...you've had the coolest jobs! You ain't seen nothin' Sweetie Darling.

Paul Bocuse, Champagne Mumm's spokes person,
suggested I do some artwork for them and made introductions.
They gave me a test assignment: Come up with a big group drawing of tons of celebrities drinking Mumm that they could gift to all their employees.
Can you spot Kate Moss? And there's one of the Seagrams brothers embracing the big bottle. Please note everyone is holding their glass by the STEM. *Never hold a champagne glass by the "bowl". You must not warm up the bubbles.

That group drawing led to a portrait promotion program. They thought I should paint the portraits directly onto the Mumm bottles?
I imagined a sea of Mumm jeroboams in my living room. The last minute I dreamed up the idea to print their label design on my watercolor paper and I ended up with just stacks of nice neatly printed Champagne labels

One of the perks of this career was I got to stay at the Mumm mansion in Reims.
 

The countryside in Champagne is magnificent and there's a new fast train from Paris that gets you there in an hour. Don't miss it!

I got to stay a week in Verzy at Veuve Clicquot's country estate.
It was just me and a refrigerator full of jeroboams.
They said, "Help yourself" Right! :))

Someone did pop in to deliver a tray of croissants and coffee ☕️ 🥐 in the morning. The rest of the time I communed with the grapevines. They still use straw baskets to pick the grapes in Champagne.

There's a lot of partying in the Champagne Biz. These pourers are dressed up as old fashioned "cellar men". They used to turn the resting bottles.

They're fun to sketch. This is not me embracing the big bottle, that's my French boss at Mumm.

This is me partying at the Chelsea Arts Club Belle Epoche Ball held at London's Albert Hall... Well there is a Champagne bottle in the picture. We had to show up outfitted from Degas and Lautrec paintings. I chose a Degas dancer. 

Roger Terry, the club concierge, told me,

"If you add one more satin bow to that outfit, you will look like a dog's dinner."

Don't you just love the Brits!

Pass the Bolly Sweetie Darling!