Monday

Dale Chihuly at the NY Botanical Garden

My Bordeaux 4

Here's what wikipedia has to say about Bordeaux the second largest wine region in the world with about 117, 000 hectares of vineyards. 57 appellations, 9,000 wine-producing châteaux, 13,000 grape growers, 400 traders and sales of 14,5 billion euros annually. With an annual production of over 700 million bottles, Bordeaux produces large quantities of everyday wine as well as very expensive wines.

*Please note these lions of Bordeaux (and I might add Astoria..) guarding the entrance in this watercolor act as camouflage for any listing turrets etc. I did get to do a series of 4 châteaux prints.You can find them here.

Did you know I can put up a shack, plant some vines and call myself Châteaux Margaux-Gillot if I live in Margaux? The problem is I'd need a ton of $$$$, same as in Napa, to own the smallest scrap of land there, so forget that bright idea Gillot!

Now there are Les "garagistes" as they 're called...Well they don't exactly live in garages but they sprouted up in the '90s, in reaction to the traditional Bordeaux wine style, which is highly tannic and requires long ageing in the bottle. The garagistes developed a style more consistent with international wine norms. For reds, this means "bigger, bolder, fruitier wines with sometimes a higher alcohol content." Robert M. Parker Jr. loves them. Just try to get a sip of "châteaux" Le Pin. Bon Chance mes amis!

Bi-annually the La Fête de la Fleur crowns the end of VinExpo. This grand soirée is attended by the top chateaux owners and held at a different chateau. I got to go by taking pictures for Wine Enthusiast magazine. Jean-Michel Cazes, one of Bordeaux's kings, played host at Chateau Cantenac-Brown. A huge tent was set up on the grounds and after the cocktail hour 1500 eminent wine folk sat down and ate a four-course dinner of regional dishes. Between courses giant corks and bottles paraded around on stilts cirque-de-soleil style.

By the end of dinner it was pouring (not just wine I might add). On leaving, we each got a huge Bordeaux red umbrella with the Bontemps du Médoc seal on it. This is one umbrella I've managed never to lose.

When I first started going to Bordeaux, I was taken on early morning tours to the various châteaux. I happen to have very limited capacity for alcohol, like 1/2 a glass puts me to sleep or I misbehave...so...when I was offered a morning taste of Châteaux Petrus..I said no :( "Je regrette TOUT!" So there you have my deepest, darkest secret. Please don't tell. Bordeaux has other delights besides wine, like fluted little cakes, cannéles. You can also take home (well not really, if customs has anything to say about it) a small Merlot plant. Still it's nice to know just in case the FDA should change their minds...

Every Fall before the harvest, in fact tomorrow on 9 septembre, the 21st Marathon du Médoc Race will be run through the Médoc vineyards. Perhaps the only marathon where runners get to stop en route at chateaux and refresh themselves on wine as well as water. Thousands (up to 7,500 is the limit) of runners invade the vineyards starting at Bordeaux and running 48 miles away to Pauillac - making it the longest marathon in the world.Ah "days of wine and roses".. If you walk through Bordeaux's vineyards you'll see rose bushes lining the front rows of the vines. This is not just because they're classy and smell nice. No way. These are "working roses." If a nasty pest like Phylloxera attacks the vines, the roses will catch it first and let the winemaker know how to proceed.

I do still go to all the wine tasting events they'll let me into.. There's a Riesling tasting next Tuesday. Cya Well these days I'm joined at hip to cups of chocolat chaud and as Shakira says, those hips don't lie.

A Shout-Out...

Opps, I forgot to mention another lovely shout-out from Catherine (Cat) Morley over at Designers-who-Blog. BTW Cat is in Thailand! D-W-B is a one-stop showcase of all manner of intriguing sites. Susan of Art Esprit is written up there too. THANKS Cat in Thailand !Two very nice "shout-outs" today for Paris Breakfasts. What's a "shout-out" you ask? The Urban dictionary says a shout-out is...

1. shout-out (n.) Slang. A public expression of thanks or gratitude, a kind mention of a homey...

One came from Charley Parker's Lines and Colors, a terrifically informative artist site. Charley lets us know what's going on in the art blog world and he keeps dusting off wonderful artists from the past so we don't forget them.

And the other shout-out came from Art Biz Blog. I only recently discovered this useful site, which sets out to help artist get their act together business-wise. And what artist doesn't need that?

Un Grand Merci !

My Bordeaux 3

Back in the vineyard and I do mean IN the vineyard - I was lucky to sketch out in the fields during the wine harvest on many occasions. Painting grape pickers was right up my alley. They're figurative after all. And I thought/hoped that if I could throw in a grape picker or two, it would distract from my inept not-so-neoclassical architecture renderings. The wonderful painting I used as a background here is by Roger Chapelian-Midy, 1938. I found it in a book bought in France, BORDEAUX, L'ART ET LE VIN by Robert Coustet.If I could only add a sign under the chateaux paintings saying, "Please kindly focus on the grape pickers and ignore the chateau. Thank you very much." The background here is a watercolor sketch sheet by British artist, Robert Hills (1769 - 1844).Many artists have focused on painting/drawing workers. This background is a recolored ad of Jean-François Millet's famous reapers. Van Gogh did many copies/sketches from Millet's reapers. Georges Seurat, who everyone thinks only painted "Sunday in the Park" was a great fan of painting workers. There are plenty hanging in the NY MET.I collected grapes shears whenever I was at la vendanges/ la vendemmia/ the harvest. Sometimes I collected them off of Ebay too... You can find barrels, baskets and other wine tools there galore. September - October is grape picking time in France, Italy, Napa and most vineyards anywhere. Trying to visit during the harvest can be difficult. The roads are clogged with slow-moving tractors and other wine-related vehicles. It used to be just donkeys/horses + carts and for a very long time Chateau d'Yquem stuck with this old method in their vineyard as well. The technology of picking the grapes has evolved way beyond anyone's imagination, but many fine vineyards still believe in hand picking the grapes, a costly and slow method. These grape cutters I got at the Regaleali vineyard in Sicily. Winebow sent me there for a week to paint la vendemmia - what a treat! The pickers are rather casual about their picking and sometimes you think more singing and smoking is getting done than picking, but you'd never know it from tasting Regaleali's Bianco, an intense and well structured white. Reasonably priced too. This wonderfully evocative photo of grape pickers is from the CHATEAU LATOUR book. If you know anything at all about wines, you can be sure every single grape here is hand picked lovingly and with the greatest of care.

My Bordeaux 2

I had to find a way to sink my teeth into Bordeaux's Neoclassical architecture, or rather my ✏️ ..so I could meet the Bordeaux challenge and paint these for Sherry-Lehmann's catalog. I'd take the "grape picker's" bus up la Route du Médoc, stopping at all the vineyards to Margaux. I got out and sat by the side of the road on a folding stool, gazing up at these monster chateaux. The road is lined with chateaux on both sides. Daunting doesn't begin to describe the challenge I'd set for myself.Downing glasses of red and the occasional Sauternes, hoping and praying was not going to help. I decided to go the figurative route. If I could conquer the details of these elaborate structures, the cornices, the sculpted reliefs, etc., then I could stick these details onto a basic geometric form and back into painting them. I plunged into drawing all the bits. Another route I thought would help was to learn how to pen the Copperplate or English Round Hand calligraphy on many Bordeaux wine labels. The French call it "Anglaise." I thought taking a calligraphy class making those fluid curvilinear marks would help to get the feeling of the architecture. That's Bordeaux's famous Pont De Pierre in the sketch, that crosses the river Garonne and was commissioned by Napoleon. It's one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Sketches of cornices and relief details. Chateau Margaux is a perfect example of Neoclassical archtecture built by Victor Louis between 1773-1780, as was Le Grand Theâtre, Bordeaux's opera house.Sometimes I draw in books...I stayed in an 18th century Château - everyone's dream. Wrong. I was toute seule, alone with a billion Bourdeaux bugs in the extreme heat of August. They had me for dinner. Petit Déjeuner was served in the morning, sent up from the gate house. Otherwise I was alone with medieval turrets & bugs 🐜 No TV, no radio, no distraction. Too creepy for me. I fled to a center city hotel after 2 nights. If you want a closer look at chateaux, visit Berry Bros website, London's fine wine shop. Click on the name of the chateau on the map that you'd like to visit and take the tour. You'll get to see some of these daunting structures I was painting. You'll also see how flat as a pancake 🥞 the landscape can be - not lots of foliage to hide one's lack of expertise with architectural drawing. More to come.

My Bordeaux

Chateau Margaux, watercolor, 5 1/2" x 7 1/2"

Artist Peter Yesis left a comment today, "Thanks again for cleaning out your closets (referring to my Venice findings). I hope you have more hidden in there." Peter keeps urging me on and it's easy to find art remnants from my past lurking in that closet. I spent a good 10 years focusing on wine and Bordeaux before the Paris café and coffee cups took presidence. Michael Aaron, owner of the New York wine shop, Sherry-Lehmann pushed me into the vineyards. It’s been a surprising adventure. I had to learn how to draw architecture - chateaux 🫣 (I'd done mostly figure drawing up till then). And I had to learn about wine - one of the best kinds of tuition there is.

Chateau Prieuré-Lichine, watercolor, 4" x 6 1/2"

Michael wanted me to paint Bordeaux's Grand Cru chateaux for his quarterly wine catalog, so off I went to get first-hand experience. These chateaux tower in a quite flat landscape and are surrounded by vineyards, every centimeter grapevines right up to the road. Overwhelmed doesn't begin to describe how I felt. I knew zip about cornices, cartouches or Mansard roofs much less how to draw them, but I've never been one to pass up a challange.

Chateau Léoville-Barton, watercolor, 4 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Bordeaux is an amazingly beautiful 18thC city, not overcrowded with tourists except during VinExpo. The next VinExpo is in June '07, so you still have time to go and enjoy. Bordeaux sits on the river Garonne and is a short and scenic 3 hour TGV ride from Paris. I like to paint the changes in the landscape from the train window and the tables seem designed with watercolorists in mind IMO.

Did I mention all the lions and sphinx that hang out in chateaux country. Chateau Margaux has 2 majestic sphinx guarding their stairway. Mouton-Rothschild is fond of them. Chateau Kirwan and Leoville-Barton have gone with the lions. Funny thing, when I got back home, I kept seeing similar stone "Bordeaux-style" lions sitting around guarding Astoria's houses. Are there any stone lions in your neighborhood?

I did a series of large watercolors for the Sherry-Lehmann catalog but many small sketches to warm up to these Mansard roofs and cornices.

I wish this was a glass of real Chateau Haut-Brion, but I did get to taste many, many fine wines and even attended the very crowded VinExpo, where winemakers turn up from every place in the world=lots more tasting 

The best possible place you can get that wine tuition I mentioned is Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Wine School. An 8-week course of tasting 8-9 glasses of the very best wines per night, often from Kevin's own cellar. Loads of fun and not your usual deadly serious intro to wine tasting. I'll never forget Kevin's rules:
1. Swirl
2. Sniff 3x so you can get the wine's "nose"
3. Then taste, but no talking for 1 minute, so you can get the wine's mouth feel and "the long finish" if there is one.
*Note the buckled paper on my notes from my wine class...
More wine to come...oh and I forgot to thank Peter for today's post idea.

My Venice 2

Gondola Dreaming, watercolor, 8 1/2" x6 1/2"

I found my "gondola period" lurking on a closet shelf.

For a while I was obsessed with painting gondeliers and spent hours searching for them on google...

Here's the thing. While you're actually on vacation, you're walking around like a human sponge trying to absorb everything in sight and generally wearing yourself out in the process. But joyously, so it's OK.

Once you're home you have the leisure and the photos to focus on your trip. Plus you're usually not that thrilled to be home, so any distraction that takes you back to your vacation is like eating chocolate- a welcome relief.
Your friends will soon be bored stiff hearing how GREAT your trip was, so it's best to keep it to yourself and your computer. Often you'll have more intense experiences gazing endlessly at Google images then you had on the spot.

                                 Three Gondoliers, watercolor, 9" x 5 1/2"

These blobby sketches are done the same way as the big blobs. First you draw doodles with just clear water on your brush. Then drop in some color.

Tilt the paper gently to move the paint around, et voilà. It helps if you use warm and a cool colors for contrast to liven things up.

 Gondolas became an obsession after my Venice trip.
I didn't even consider riding in a gondola while in Venice. It's prohibitively expensive to ride around in one of these - $100 for an hour is it? And snobbism gets the better of you, since you don't want to do what "the tourists" are doing.

You can take a gondola traghetti for small change. It's used to ferry passengers directly across the grand canal (carrying up to 15 people all standing, some reading newspapers!). I tried this and was terrified the whole 3 minutes it took to get across. I rode in a gondola on my 1st "Grand Tour" of Europe when I was 18, but who remembers any of that.

There were 7-8 countries on the agenda and God knows how many cities and musuems and churches to investigate. BTW John Singer Sargent painted many of his watercolors while sitting in a gondola. How else could he have painted the views he did of the palazzos and bridges?

These watercolors (one is after a Sargent painting) are sitting on top of the best Turner in Venice book out there - VENISE, Aquarelles de Turner. Published by the Bibliothèque de l'Image in 1995, you can still find it on Amazon or in Paris book shops.

Turner's very small watercolors are blown up to 9" x 11 1/2", so you see the detail better than viewing the originals.

I took a magnifying glass to the exhibit at the Museo Correr, but the crowds made it difficult...They even offered a class in how to paint like Turner, but I was too late to get in.

     Trio of Gondolas, watercolor, 9 1/2" x 6 1/2"

An American, Tom Price in Cannaregio, got it into his head he wanted to learn how to make the traditional gondola, a dying art. He began his apprenticeship in 1996. When he arrived, Thom knew no Italian, had no place to live and had no idea who would teach him.

But the terms of his travel fellowship, required him to build and complete a gondola within 12 months. Tom is still in Venice 10 years later producing authentic gondolas.

Gondola Dreams, watercolor, 6 1/2" x 3 1/4"
If you happen to live in Newport Beach, California you can take a gondola ride in Newport harbor. This may be carrying gondola obsession to extremes or you can just waste time hanging out at http://www.venetia.it/ or http://www.gondolavenezia.it/

They've got everything and anything you could possibly want to know about Venice and gondolas. Charley Parker has a wonderful quote on his excellent site, http://www.linesandcolors.com/

I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen. - Frederick Franck

This holds true for gondolas.

My Venice

Venice Docks, Watercolor, 4" x 6 1/4" Everyone has a 'my Venice'. One visit and we fall hard.

San Marco, watercolor, 4" x 12 1/2"

One friend is in Venice right now for 2 weeks before she goes on to Paris for 2 weeks - the best of both worlds. Another friend is going just to Venice for 3 weeks! And she doesn't even paint! This is not fair.

San Marco Sillouette, watercolor, 3 1/2" x 6 1/2"

I went back to Venice 9 years ago just for 1 day while I was at the Verona Vinitaly wine fair. It's a short 1 1/2 hours away by train.

Santa Maria Majori, watercolor, 4" x 6"

I was lucky to have an architect student sit down next to me and she was staying in Venice for 3 months. Anyway fortunately for me, she was a bit short of change. I helped her out and in doing so got the best of guides for my very short visit. She knew the history and aesthetics of every palazzo and canal bridge. She showed me the secret Venice.

Venice Melange, watercolor, 4" x 11 1/2"

I went back for 3 days a few years later- not long enough. Then 2 years ago I managed to stay 5 days while the Turner Venice watercolor show was on. An unbeatable combination.

There's a small very nice hotel, Hotel Mignon in Carneggio you might look into if you're going. Every hotel in Venice is small and the rooms are all very small, unless you happen to be friendly with a palazzo-owner..But who stays in their hotel room in Venice? It makes no sense. A Venice Card is essential..open door to 10 museums and all the rides you want on the Vaporetto for a week. Brek Ristorante is a terrific chain of cafeterias with farm-fresh food. You help yourself to local wines straight from the tap. Just a few steps to the right of the train station.                           Gondoliers, watercolor, 4" x 6 1/4"

Oh and don't forget to take your art materials. They can be quite pricy in Venice unless you want to spring for one of those hand-made marbelized sketchbooks you may never use, but treasure always...to be continued.