Winter in Paris

This picture is a scan of the Holiday Card I made and sent to my family members and friends. I had originally wanted to draw Sacre Coeur in snow and I did a lot of Internet research on finding a proper assortment of images to create this illustration. The Eiffel Tower has a mysterious and magical hold over many Americans, and while clicking through about a hundred images of Paris, the Eiffel Tower began to call to me. I reasoned that I could quickly draw and complete this picture and then I would move on to a proper illustration of Sacre Coeur. (And wouldn't Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church, make more sense on the front of a Christmas Card? "Mais oui!")

Actually, this picture took a longer time to draw than I had expected. Once it was completed I had to hand paint all of the white details on each card. The number of Holiday cards I send out seems to have grown larger and larger each year. In the end, I found myself spending the holidays with my family in Chicago and still painting cards several days after Christmas- hoping that people wouldn't be too mad getting a very tardy holiday card. (As I write this I can still think of several people who I still owe a holiday card too... I'm sorry!) But this seems to be the refrain for every holiday- There is never enough time!

If anyone reading my blog would still like to receive "A Very Tardy Holiday Card", please send me your address. I will send you a blank Eiffel Tower card which you will be able to send out during the holidays next year to a friend or loved one. Happy Belated Holidays to everyone! Big Hugs!

Sacre-Coeur

This is a large format painting I have just finished of Sacre-Coeur in Paris. As I mentioned before Sacre-Coeur is at the top of the highest hill in Paris. The area is called Montmartre (the mountain of the martyr) and it is full of shops and cafes aimed at tourists. I was so excited to go there because the area is famous for the local artists who sit in their stereotypical berets, paint the street scenes, and sell canvases to tourists all day long. The souvenir I wanted the most from Paris was a small watercolor or oil painting from the top of Montmartre.

Disappointingly, I found these older Parisians, mostly gentlemen with gray hair, hard at work, creating art which was not based on observation, but only representing big tourist attractions. (In retrospect I should not have been surprised.) I just found it sad that in a city in which almost every view is beautiful, no one was painting from life. One of these older Montmartre gentlemen was applying generous amounts of glitter to a small work of art, making the Eiffel Tower silver, and the Moulin Rouge red. Perhaps the great French Impressionists would be rolling in their grave. (Or perhaps the impressionists just never thought to use glitter in their paintings of water lilies and sunflowers. Who knows?)

Here is my own piece of Montmartre, painted here in the U S of A. Although this church has been painted far more beautifully by far better artists than I, I was still very pleased to spend a few weeks working on this and remembering the food and wine of Paris. This painting is accurate in the combination of both the carnival like atmosphere at the foot of Sacre-Coeur and the serene grandeur of the church itself.

I know what everyone is thinking... this painting just needs a little bit more glitter!