Baseball au Bois de Vincennes

 

Met up with Martine K. this Sunday to try something new - sketching a baseball game in action. There is a diamond next to the Pershing stadium in the Bois de Vincennes. Built by the YMCA in 1919, it was offered to the American Expeditionary Forces of WWI who then gave it to France.  It is the ballpark for the Paris Patriots, and games are held here every weekend throughout the season.

Drawing players on the field proved to be quite a challenge, but Martine and I had a good laugh comparing our scribbles of what appeared to be Cro-Magnons with clubs. I realized how much I depend on the back-and-forth eye movement of always looking at my subject (which was constantly moving). When I commented on this, Martine told me of an artist friend of hers that looks intently at his subject, then draws it - without ever looking back. That made me go "hmmmm".

Well, it was a great experience, and a nice day out to this park which I don't visit often enough. Sunday it is full of joggers, horseback riders, and teams of all sorts practicing and competing. Not to mention the nurseries and the nature - a real treat!

Dans le Parc de Noisiel

Un croquis rapide à coté du bureau, pendant le déjeuner.

Monumenta 2011

monumenta 2011 a, a photo by julietteplisson on Flickr.

Dimanche, après midi culture...
Après Odilon Redon et ses pastels que j'adore, je suis allée au Grand Palais, expérimenter Anish Kapoor...
Et là, je partais avec quelques a priori étant déjà "entrée" dans ces oeuvres, j'ai été soufflée... Totalement prise par l'oeuvre!
L'image était trop belle, je me suis assise sur les marches et j'ai dessiné cette vue qui me fascinait.

Animaux

Croquis réalisés pendant les vacances de Pâques, d'après modèles vivants (héron et tortue) ou naturalisés (éléphant et ours), au critérium, mine HB

Kanto Hospital, Tokyo

A quick trip to Japan to see my grandmother who was hospitalized for pneumonia. They had her on oxygen and iv's, and for the first few days she slept a lot. This was the view from her window.

She made a surprisingly quick recovery, however, and was very soon bored. The TV screen in her room was too small. We brought her some magazines, but she "had them at home". She didn't quite understand why she had to stay in the hospital in the first place.

So in order to entertain her I drew a little. Here she is, watching me draw her.

Portraits are not my thing, so I moved on to the flowers on her table. She watched intently, smiling and laughing when she saw where the drawing was going. She's very hard of hearing, so I wrote what I was saying to her on the side.

With just a simple pencil and piece of paper you can communicate, entertain, while away the time in a hospital room and bring a smile to someone's face... I'm so glad I've started to sketch, and this trip has reminded me once again.

Le Port de l'Arsenal

C'est par un après midi automnal que nous nous sommes retrouvées au Port de l'Arsenal, un endroit étonnant de Paris où sont amarrés des bateaux de Plaisance. Une ambiance particulière sur ce port en même temps village, lieux de promenade et touristique.
Dans le vent, le froid et heureusement quelques rayons de soleils, voici quelques dessins...

It was just like autumn yesterday at Le Port de l'Arsenal... But it was a very interesting place, "off " the city, a village (people live in those boats) and a touristic promenade.

port de l'arsenal7, a photo by julietteplisson on Flickr.

Un monsieur qui lisait son journal.

port de l'arsenal5, a photo by julietteplisson on Flickr.

Paris sketchers au port de l'Arsenal, a photo by julietteplisson on Flickr.

qui pourrait croire que nous sommes à Paris... et qu'il va faire un froid de canard dans deux minutes????

Caldarium, Thermes de Cluny

 

An afternoon with Juliette sketching the Gallo-Roman bath ruins outside the Hôtel de Cluny (which is a museum, and not a hotel) in the 5th arrondissement.

We originally planned to draw the frigidarium inside the museum. Unfortunately, a temporary exhibition kept us from finding the views that we were looking for. Lucky us, the weather was great, so we went outside and I managed to sketch this instead.

(In reality, there is an iron fence surrounding the whole thing. But my %$@! recycled paper, which I thought might be interesting for drawing rocks, is absolutely %$@! for drawing fences, so I just omitted it all together. You can see the fence in Juliette's drawing.)

– Kim 

Nous sommes allés au Musée de Cluny avec Kim, avec l'envie de dessiner des ruines gallo-romaines, les thermes... Cluny est le musée du moyen-âge c'est certain, bien moins des vestiges sublimes gallo-romains! Nous nous sommes donc installées côté boulevard st Michel face aux vestiges presque visuellement accessibles.

– Juliette