NEW YORK RED!

The rest of the holiday weekend I'm going to post as many New York Xmas windows and decorations as I can! These toy soldiers atop Radio City Music Hall have just been hit by the cannon on the right and they fall over continuously :)
An outfit from the Rockette shop next door, should you decide you wanna dance, dance, dance.
Giant red jewel boxes cascade down the facade of Cartiers...
Demons or angels prance around in Bendel's windows on 5th Avenue...
And the surrounding walls and floor are covered with red hot candies!
In Bergdorf Goodman's window, a femme fatale all in red.
This rabbit in a snappy red jacket in Bergdorf's..the Mad Hatter perhaps?

Taking Tea with...Maitress

Maitresse,Lauren Elkin says I "visually trope". I figuratively jump from subject to subject finding connections. Friends say I'm "scatter brained". The French call it Sauté du coq à l'âne. 

Lauren is a writer, critic, blogger, scholar, the author of, Flâneuse, Women Who Walk the City.

I love the details at Payard Patisserie. Look down and see tea cups ☕️ on the floor. Look up and see molded croissants in the ceiling.

I was early and a ordered Mint tea and waited...enfin Maitress arrived

We laid our cards on the table. Our MOO Cards! Hers are all Venice. Mine are all macarons

Maitresse/Lauren drank Earl Grey. She's in New York from Paris for just a few days.
Payard Macarons and Cherries, original watercolor, 9" x 12"

I love the yellow striped boxes and ribbons and cards at Payard

*** Please REMEMBER the Menu For HopeIII We have just till tonight midnight to help.

At the Café...

Tea Cup and Lemon Macaron

You never know how a chance meeting will change your life...

I met a Cafe cup and 2 sugarcubes a year and a half ago in an Avignon cafe...et voilà! Paris Breakfasts was born.

I love painting coffee cups,They get to sit on thousands of cafe tables throughout France, the lucky ducks! Along side are morceaux de sucres (sugarcubes) and Carres de Chocolat (chocolate squares). 

There 6 Paris shops (Les Comptoirs RICHARD), where you can buy real cafe cups...
Those wonderful carte menus with the green binding in Paris cafes!

I met Corinne for tea at Cafe Le Luco. 

I painted Corinne's cup of express the last time we met.. My nose is still glued to the drawing table. Please REMEMBER the Menu For HopeIII We have till December 22 midnight to help. 

Apilco Porcelaine

Café Mondrian, watercolor on paper, 9" x 11 1/2"

I may have to move to the Netherlands. You can buy APILCO porcelain very easily there. Or better yet move near the factory in Chauvigny. (Open Monday - Thursday mornings by appointment) I first spotted APILCO (it was love at first sight) while passing Café Dome in the Marais last May...

I came back and started searching.. You can buy APILCO's "Flora" Bistroware at Bridge Kitchenware and William Sonoma in New York, but only in white.

I found a Flora cup and saucer on Ebay in a delicious shade of dark GREEN..or so I thought. My cup arrived shrunken and more Army green than Forest green. Long-distance love can be disappointing at times.

For these gorgeous colors, you must move to Amsterdam or open a café in Paris. Colors are reserved for restaurant owners. Paris department stores do not carry restaurant ware unfortunately.

Café Mondrian was on my corner at 158, bd St. Germain last October. They always had a charming Apilco place setting out, waiting for me, but I always ran off somewhere else. APILCO was founded in 1906 by the Deshoulières family. They supply the hospitality industry. "Their unerring focus on quality and attention to detail is unparalleled." Yes I agree completement! Now where can I buy some? Don't you love the way they mix up the colors? Some New York "quality and attention to detail" is on the facade of Sak's Fifth Avenue right now.

Pierre Hermé's Paris Green...

There's a green pigment, called "Paris Green" so poisonous you can't paint with it any more. It contains arsenic among other toxic ingredients.

Pierre Herme is fond of this green..It was once used to kill rats in Parisian sewers

Sadaharu Aoki too likes to throw this green around. Again these extra-terrestial desserts. I couldn't bring myself to buy one - they might take off or explode or implode? Perhaps all Paris is in love with Paris Green. It makes sense. A t Mariage Freres the windows were full of it..

The Pierre Herme dessert above is called the Emotion Sarah.

It contains not arsenic, but rather passion fruit, marrons, and creamy green tea. You're instructed to dig your spoon straight down to the bottom and taste all 3 flavors in one lovin' spoonful :)

I did as I was told for once.

THEY WILL KNOW if you did not follow instructions. I wish I could describe this to you. I'll let the painting do the talking.

The Bronze Age cookie made a clunk when I put it on the saucer.

I decided to pass - too metalic for my taste!

Here's a New York Green - THE BIG TREE at Rockefeller Center!

La Maison Du Chocolat...

La Maison du Chocolat Caramels, original watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

I went into La Maison du Chocolate near Rockefeller Center thinking I'd get some small macarons. They only had GIANT macarons in. My baby macs were sold out!
What to do? No question. I invested in 4 Big Macs.
For art's sake of course :)
La Maison's Xmas theme is "Cubism" after the artwork of Sonia and Robert Delaunay. You can buy their sapin/Fir tree made entirely of chocolate "cubistic" designs.
A most unusual tree don't you think?

It so happens the Delaunays called their art, Geometric Abstraction. Not a good theme title for a chocolate shop. La Maison's "Geometric Abstract Christmas" theme.
Look! Geometric Abstract Bûche de Noëls!
Your average French Bûche de Noël looks like a faux frosted, rough log of wood, covered with mushrooms and mistletoe and other woodsey accoutrement.
La Maison du Chocolat is not afraid to break an old tradition and take it to new heights...
Along with my 4 Big Macs I fell victim to their caramels. I'm a sucker for caramels. Remember the days when a square chocolate was ALWAYS filled with caramel?
My family always "hid" the chocolate box in the bottom drawer of a small chest in the living room. The square caramels were always M.I.A. (missing in action)...

La Maison du Chocolat Big Macaron, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

La Maison's macarons are flown in from France several times a week, so there's a nice element of risk when you go there. At least you know you're getting the real thing. I've developed a serious addiction. 1 Big Mac = 4 small macs in my estimation.
Round the corner from La Maison du Chocolat on 49th street is 6th Avenue with all it's splendid decorations!

Especially these giant red Xmas balls..they go with eating La Maison Big Macs don't you think?

Can you spot Radio City in the background? :)
 

 

You're invited !

Charlotte Russe, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

I hung a "FOR SALE" sign on Paris Breakfasts' front lawn this week.
Finally I felt ready to sell my paintings and your response has been lovely.

 Paris Breakfasts began last May so I could share my vision of Paris and show my Parisien watercolors. I wasn't sure anyone would come to my party.

I was reminded this week when I was 7 or 8. My imagination was vivid back then too. Round the neighborhood I went selling tickets to a circus show I planned to put on. (5 cents each). I had to go and return those nickels.
No circus - just inside my head.

Getting Paris Breakfasts out 5 mornings a week has been like putting on that circus show. And it's been the most fun I've ever had.

Your response has been...well I can't find the words.
I wanted to THANK YOU ALL for coming to my show.
It's meant more than I can say Please help yourself to a slice of this beautiful cake.It's for you !

*Don't forget little #UE02 is waiting for you...

Sadaharu Aoki Macarons

Sadaharu Aoki Macarons, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

Can we ever have too many Paris macarons? Never.
Does anyone do packaging as well as the Japanese? True Paris"owns" the pastry box industry. But for all-around inventivness the Japanese have been doing it way longer. These informative boxes are from Paris pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki. Regarde. 12 different flavors and all named on top of the box. Who could resist? I was first tempted by these extra-terrestial creations. In fact I bought the strawberry thing on the far left. I walked 5 feet away and heard a plop inside the box. The strawberry had fallen over! I returned it a tout à suite for a box of 12 macarons.

 Fauchon makes 'pastry' china. You canhave your macarons and eat them too.

Whilst sitting on a cushion from Pierre Frey fabrics. A look inside the box.

This painting looks so civilized. Like I took one bite and then painted the mac. Of course I bought the box of macs with no intention of eating them. Strictly for painting still lifes. But I had to test them out. And after one bite. Well, they were exceptionally small. You could hardly see them they were so small. The truth is I wolfed them down over 2 days. They are very small. My connoissureship went straight out the window.

Sadaharu Aoki Citron Macaron, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"