Kindle Your Friendships

Photo by Flora Rocco 
My friend Sardi gave me this photo because she thinks I'm consumed with pastry.

I really should put it in a frame. Instead of sticking it on top of my stacks of book.

I have more books than you could shake a stick at. That's what I'm consumed with is BOOKS!

Books support me in so many ways. They even support my laptop... But though books are my best friends, I'm not nice to them. I chopp them up like coleslaw. I blow them up at the copy shop. I write in them with yellow markers. I have to. As an artist/illustrator, I'm constantly researching pictures of whatever I'm painting at the moment and my dear friends, books, hold the answers.

I'm not alone in this act of battering books you know. The NY Public Library used to do it. You could visit The Picture Collection to search for reference shots. You would see all your other illustrator friends pouring over mounted pictures (some ripped out of the finest books). It was a social event to go look at torn-out pictures. But that's changed. The NY Picture Collection is online, so no more chit chat with fellow artist. Quelle dommage. And there's Google bien sur. I needed pictures of a Roasted Shallot Tart Tatin yesterday et voila! Easy as pie/tarte.

I'm working on Maison Blanc's Fall Menu and I needed tarte au citron reference too.

That was a whole lot easier to solve than the shallot tarte. I just headed down to Payard Bakery. Course if I was in Paris I'd be falling over tarte citrons on every corner. They're common as lamposts...

If I was in Paris I wouldn't have to bring my own supply of lemon zest for the shot either. Just head over to M. Pierre Herme for super zesty lemon tarts. Back to my dear friends books. I'm wondering if I should break down and finally get a reader..?

I've been flirting with one for quite some time.

Do you LOVE your Kindle?

Wasn't it clever of Amazon to call it the 'Kindle' like you're curling up at a friendly, homey hearth? If I had a Kindle I could curl up too...

Along with not having a Kindle, I don't have an iPhone either. Shhh, I don't even have a cell/portable(!!!)

I'm probably the only one on the planet, but after seeing David Lebovitz post on iPhone Paris Apps I'm rethinking. Could I get an iPhone just for Apps? I'm in love with the Paris Metro App. It could be my new best friend, and I promise to be really, really nice. No chopping or blowing up or two-timing I swear.

Should I or shouldn't I??

Do tell all PBers. Do you have one? Do you love it?

Bonjour Post-Earthquake!

l'Hôtel Drouot

Today's post I visited one of Paris’ main auction houses.
I'm taking you to Hotel Drouot for a grand tour of one of their exhibition rooms. Full of everything chef-related and restaurant-related.On the AirFrance flight over I happened to notice a tiny column on an exhibit of Henri Marquet sketches taking place at Drouot in Le Figaro and I thought why not? Little did I know I would walk into floors of amazing exhibits of all manner of objects. Including a Mickey Mouse/Disney collection, antique furniture and jewels of course, Art Deco travel memorabilia, plus a glorious huge collection of cooking/chef materials. Hotel Drouot is Paris' main auction house since 1852 consisting of 16 exhibit halls. The exhibits change all the time and are free to enter.

If you want a tiny chef cat waving a spoon you've come to the right place.

Though you will have to return for the auction and take your chances winning this prize cat.

Artworks all chef related.

Are you mad for jellied eels in aspic?

You're in the right place.

A mini fore/stove outfitted with mini copper molds?

Absolutement parfait!

The joy is you can touch and examine all items. And photograph too.

It's expected - no one will say a word.

Never mind that from the outside of Hotel Drouot does not look inviting or convivial. Once inside it really is one of the best exhibit halls in Paris. Details of forthcoming auctions are published in the weekly Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, sold at newsstands and by subscription.

9, rue Drouot 75009

Metro:Drouot-Richelieu

BEAR 🐻  was moaning couldn't we please stay on for the Teddy Bear expo? Pas possible cheri..dommage.

BONJOUR HOTEL DROUOT!

Paris Books

Macaron Bookmark, original watercolor 9" x 11"

One of the fun things to do in Paris is haunt bookstores.

 French guides to Paris are bound to have more secrets lurking within.

I love this series by PARISGRAMME - not hard to figure out no matter how meager your Fr. + only 100 pages long. And they fit nicely in your handbag. I have the chocolate + tea salon of this series(6 Euros).

 I love are the CARNET DE PARIS by Equinoxe. Little sketchbooks of the different arrondissements in Paris.

I bought this cookbook with high hopes. HA! My baking skills are nill but the pictures are nice.

In French so you get a lecon thrown in.

Sometimes I take quickie shots of pictures that inspire me.

What is it about jam jars - Nostalgia for times past?

If I see an inspiring watercolor how-to book I'll grab a shot, this one in W.H.Smith on rue de Rivoli near Angelina. They always have the latest Brit how-to books.

The French version of a Jean Dobie book - I was hoping this could jump-start my painting in Paris.

I love the cover of this catalog in Galignani's on rue de Rivoli.

I bought Art Buchwald's book this morning on Amazon for $0.01. Long overdue reading it. Do you have favorite books you bought in Paris?

BONNE JOURNEE

Biblioholism

Long before there were macarons, chocolate bars and gateaux in my life I gobbled up BOOKS. Here are some little stories about me and books. I may get a bit "wordy"... I always painted from the moment I got vertical, starting on my nursery walls. But books are a lifeline for me. It began when my father would tell me "Teddy and Johnny" stories, a continuous narative he made up every night. Like most kids, books were an escape, an adventure (I loved reading of African animal parks), a dreamland to enter.. Books are my family in a way and very influential in my artwork. When I fall in love with an artist, the first thing I search out is every book on them.. I'm a bookaholic and I started early. As a kid I'd bring home stacks from the library. My intent was to read every book of one author at a time. Gawd knows if I understood any of it. My father would say, rather annoyed,"What are you trying to prove with all these books? Who are you fooling?" When we'd go on a sunday outing, I'd take along a pocket dictionary!? It annoyed him no end and no wonder... But I was crazy for words and loved looking up their origins. Remember those learn-one-new-word-a-day books?

For 10 years I lived a block away from the Strand book store in the Village. Daily I'd walk my 2 Belgian Sheepdogs, through their "18 miles of books" always looking for new acquisitions and getting rid of old ones. Their artbook floor is mouth-watering. "Rudi" and "Belle" loved books too. They got to curl up with me and my books on the sofa.

I've talked about my watercolor teacher, David,who taught me everything. I met his book first and it's one of the best. Dense with information on color theory, washes, layering, you name it. I'm still yellow marking it up, there's still more to learn. I met Albany Wiseman, a terrific London watercolorist, so I was eager to go to his workshop in Provence two summers ago. As it turned out all I could think of was cups of hot chocolate and not the pink villages perchés everywhere... His books are lovely and informative. I finally got to meet Ian Sidaway, another English watercolorist, at a

Tuscan workshop. His color mixing bible shows you how to mix up every color under the sun using every kind of medium.

I love looking at beautiful cookbooks. Donna Hay has been a big influence on my still life painting. I love her setups, the lighting, the soft shadows, the utter simplicity. Trish Deseine does dreamy cook books too. Who cares about cooking..it's the vicarious looking that gets me.

I'm a bad girl -- I like to "re-design" my books. I move pictures around, cut things out and paste them back in. Kind of personalizing them you could say :) I copy too..I try to paint like someone I like, to see what it feels like. It's one of the best, fastest ways to learn and every artist since the Lascaux cave painters has been doing it.

Now at last I have got my own "Amazon" book store with my most favorite books in it. YAY! It's taken me months. I'm a tiny bit dyslexic. Figuring out HTML code is like drawing perspective in a landscape. I can't seem to get the patterning. A BIG THANK YOU is due R. Chunn, a brilliant painter (literally and figuratively) of Alla-Prima. He helped demystify the codes for me.
*Please visit my "new" bookstore. And remember any books you buy go straight into the "macaron jar/fund" so I can keep you all in the style to which I am unaccustomed :) *One word to learn today - Biblioholism, books, of books: the habitual longing to purchase, read, store, admire, and consume books in excess.