Picking Grapes in Alsace

I went to a book party last night and drank too much chardonnay, so I'm showing my grape picking ventures today...

October harvest in Riquewihr, Alsace, is one of the most beautiful anywhere. I got to stand on a hill and sling a pair of shears for few hours. My 'payment' - to sit at the long vineyard table and share a huge luscious lunch. Alsatian grape picking is a family affair. Every member shows up to help with les vendanges.

At Regaleali Vineyard in Sicily I just watched. The pickers sang, chatted, smoked, picked grapes in the most leisurely fashion. You can take cooking lessons here with Countess Anna Tasca-Lanza.

Tuscan vineyards are almost as beautiful as Alsace.

Napa Valley grape pickers don't walk.They race to get the job done.

In Burgundy they used to carry straw baskets/paniers on their backs. You'll find these at Fr. ebay. You'll find all kinds of wine-related goodies on ebay.fr. I should know. I used to spend hours and $ looking for still life objects and I've got a closet full of taste-vins to prove it!

19th century Bordeaux pickers...

Figures are more fun to draw than grapes...

I'm better at wielding a paintbrush than grape shears/secateurs. Some passerby on the Bordeaux La Route du vin insisted on taking my picture back in the day when I haunted the vineyards.

Lordie...

Sherry-Lehmann

It's 3am hen in your closet you stumble on bits of your past you forgotten.

In one of my 9 or 10 past lives I used to illustrate wine catalogs for New York Sherry-LehmannI've always been influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec's drawings.

And for this Xmas catalog...
I did many direct take-offs from Lautrec's lithographs....

Lautrec was in fact influenced by the influx into France of Japanese woodblock prints. These too have long been a favorite of mine

Another take-off...

Last night I watched a favorite French farce -

Prete-Moi Ta Main / I Do - How To Get Married And stay Single

In it, the lead actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg (who I plan to come back as) while visiting her perspective inlaws impresses them...

By correctly identifing the wine as Bordeaux and from Chateau Latour. I might get the appelation but never the exact chateau even though I've sat in their vineyards and drawn the famous La Tour...

I've drawn onsite at Chateau Margaux too, but don't expect much from me at a blind tasting.

My pen is way better than my nose anyday of the week...

What will you be drinking this holiday?

No one draws animals like Lautrec
This Champagne hound is a distant relative of T-L's I hope

BON WEEK-END!

My Wine Cards

This is about painting la vigne (vineyards) and my wine cards. Painting vineyards isn't as easy as painting a gondola which is a glorified canoe with fancy trimmings. When I painted chateaux for S-L's catalog..well most sit in a vineyard that is a mass of green. Greens can be assertive, and like a dog pulling on a leash, they want attention. They need to be tamed with a touch of red to make them behave. "Heel Green! Heel, I say!" Doing a closeup of a vineyard is a lot easier. For one thing there are some grapes to add to that annoying mass of green.And grape leaves, can be challanging and are another repetitive pattern but at least they're fun shapes to draw.I liked drawing figures (i.e. grape pickers ) before I took up with cups of hot chocolate. So I put plenty of figures in as a distraction. You get Pinot Noir grapes in Champagne too.So much for my struggles painting vineyards. You can buy a 10-pack of 5 different vineyard images, tied with a purple ribbon from me directly. The gift card pack sells for $11.95 + $2.00 shipping, totaling $13.95. ONLY U.S. sales at this time. You can contact me HERE . Merci