You don't plan on spending your birthday doing hand-to-hand combat with a tuna sandwich. But life is full of little surprises. And when the challange is to paint a tuna sandwich.And you have a deadline, the tuna sandwich takes precedence over champagneet macarons. I'm always saying I never eat birthday cake... Last weekend I took myself off to Soho to do chocolate cake research for the same illustration project.
I did manage to get a sketch out of it before I was compelled to eat it. It was melting under the table lamp. What else could I do? Next I headed to Francois Payard's new patisserie.
Tres mignon.
Payard's little Sacher cake didn't even make it to the sketch page.
But it did help immerse me in essence of chocolatie cake research. Just what a pastry artist needs...
The tuna sandwich will not be eaten. It has dried up under the lights. But there is nothing like having real props to work from. The new Ladybug kitchen timer is from the Soho Pylones by the way.
Happy birthday my friend. It looks like it was filled with doing things you love - research is a wonderful thing and takes us to the best places. x Have a wonderful year ahead.
I want to wish you a very happy birthday, and a bright year ahead! You bring much joy and color to my days. I eagerly anticipate your daily blog posts.
With all best wishes from your loyal PB follower from Chapel Hill, NC,
I love tuna sandwiches, and it appears you are doing your usual brilliant job painting it. However, I can definitely assure you that if at any point I can spare the money to purchase one of your watercolors, it will be of macarons and not some chopped up chicken of the sea!
Sorry I'm late in seeing this post, but I send you the happiest birthday wishes nonetheless! (You share the same birthday as my husband and his twin, so now I won't forget :)) Hope you have a fabulous year ahead, full of happy painting, exciting travel and brilliant blog posts!
Happy Happy Birthday!!! Love these pieces and even more, omg hand was itching to draw them.. LOL...not to mention odd and strident craving for chocolate cake!! Sandwich is looking great. Hope you have a lovely day and many more Patisserie filled birthdays to come. xoxo Jan
I hate that i missed your big day. happy belated birthday dear Carol. When is your next jaunt to sweet Pah-ree? I dearly miss it...through your lens and brush...greedy little miss that I am. Also, I want that sandwich. Happy tuna birthday to you.
Carol - A belated Happy Birthday! I just saw this post. I'm so glad to have found your blog. As I just read in Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, "The only thing worth grieving over...was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear." Thank you for bringing beauty into our lives!
Bonjour ! I’m Carol Gillott, a former NYer living on ÃŽle Saint-Louis in a 21 meter chambre de bonne. As a Paris blogger, travel writer, watercolorist, and photographer, I share my latest escapades so you can walk around the city vicariously in my shoes. To experience even more of the Parisian life, sign up to receive my beautifully Illustrated monthly letters where I paint the Paris your dreams and mail them
to you wherever you are. You can order these letters, along with my art prints, at my Etsy shop.
Describe what you love about France in 3 words. Can we make it 5 words? Eyes, ears, nose, tastebuds + brain. Paris stimulates all my senses constantly. I’m inspired all the time – endlessly surprised and amused. New York doesn’t do it for me anymore…
HAPPY BIRTHDAT!!
ReplyDeleteI wish you an awesome birthday and more to come.
Love from your friend ;D
This is wonderful but I still prefer cakes to sandwiches. Even if I should admit that the sandwiches you draw are the most beautiful I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteI don't even like canned tuna sandwiches but your rendition looks like something LW would love.
ReplyDeleteWell done, darling.
xxx
I hope your birthday is every bit as lovely as that very scrumptious rendition of a sandwich you painted!
ReplyDeleteHappy happy birthday to you! Where was Bear on your birthday? Did he help you celebrate?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know.......
Great drawings and paintings. Glad that you had more than tuna :)
Congratulations! Happy birthday from a brazilian fan :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuna Birthday. You are great!
ReplyDeleteJoyeux anniversaire, Carol!
ReplyDeleteHope it was a joyous birthday, how could it not be ? Oh and those dessert shots?
ReplyDeleteculinary cruelty to look and not taste!
xx
julie
Happy birthday my friend. It looks like it was filled with doing things you love - research is a wonderful thing and takes us to the best places. x
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful year ahead.
An entirely appropriate fate for a tuna sandwich! Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! Those desserts look yummy! I would definitely skip the tuna sandwich.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!!! Hope you had a wonderful day :)
ReplyDeleteJoyeux Anniversaire!
ReplyDeleteI want to wish you a very happy birthday, and a bright year ahead! You bring much joy and color to my days. I eagerly anticipate your daily blog posts.
ReplyDeleteWith all best wishes from your loyal PB follower from Chapel Hill, NC,
Bev
Joyeux Anniversaire!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have had a wonderful day!
All the best,
Gina in Houston
Bonne anniversaire, mon amie! Can I take you out for gateau sometime soon?
ReplyDeleteI love tuna sandwiches, and it appears you are doing your usual brilliant job painting it. However, I can definitely assure you that if at any point I can spare the money to purchase one of your watercolors, it will be of macarons and not some chopped up chicken of the sea!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! ^_^
ReplyDeleteNow where did those little ladybugs come out from? Too cute!
Happy Birthday again!!! Left a message on FB too! FUN to see your process!
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm late in seeing this post, but I send you the happiest birthday wishes nonetheless! (You share the same birthday as my husband and his twin, so now I won't forget :)) Hope you have a fabulous year ahead, full of happy painting, exciting travel and brilliant blog posts!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carol.....I hope the champagne has now eventuated....xv
ReplyDeleteKathy, the new Ladybug kitchen timer is from Pylones Soho.
ReplyDeleteIt's to remind me to get out of my chair every 20 minutes...
HA!
BIG MERCI for your kind birthday wishes PBers!!!
Happy Birthday
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carol! You deserve a ton of Parisian cakes! I don't know why you'd even consider skipping out on them. Lovely sketches as usual too.
ReplyDeleteCarol, hi!! You are so great! Who could paint a tuna sandwich and make it a beautiful painting?? Only you, I guess!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday!
Kisses
Carol, I would like to join in the chorus of Happy Birthday wishes! Hoping the celebrations will continue for many more days.
ReplyDeletexo
Happy Happy Birthday!!! Love these pieces and even more, omg hand was itching to draw them.. LOL...not to mention odd and strident craving for chocolate cake!! Sandwich is looking great. Hope you have a lovely day and many more Patisserie filled birthdays to come.
ReplyDeletexoxo
Jan
Happy birthday Carol! What better way to spend the day than doing "chocolate cake research." Goodness.
ReplyDeleteYour tuna sandwich looks much more appetizing than the one Harry the Cat tried to steal from my hands last week...
happy happy, belated happy.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy seeing your sketches and how they illustrate your process. Interesting to see how you marked the photograph of the sandwich.
I hate that i missed your big day. happy belated birthday dear Carol. When is your next jaunt to sweet Pah-ree? I dearly miss it...through your lens and brush...greedy little miss that I am. Also, I want that sandwich. Happy tuna birthday to you.
ReplyDeleteCarol - A belated Happy Birthday! I just saw this post. I'm so glad to have found your blog. As I just read in Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, "The only thing worth grieving over...was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear." Thank you for bringing beauty into our lives!
ReplyDeleteWish you happiness always.
ReplyDelete