Say cheese!

I'll try and resist the cheese and ham jokes. I spotted Rupert's face beaming from the front page of a free daily and couldn't resist - look at that smile! I always thought he was intimidating but this is scary! Now, where shall I put this drawing so it doesn't ruin a sketchbook? Ah, of course, the Moleskine. Perfect combination! In fact, I'm going to save this book for any more cheesy hams (oops) and diamonte stars I can't resist!

Funnily enough, I couldn't get Steve Harley's Mr Soft out of my head when I was drawing this. And while I Googled that I also found this - a photo obviously taken on the same day as the one I drew from. Just goes to show what fame does to you.

I was drawing something completely different when Rupert's grin beckoned - promise something less frightening next time!

Can I tempt you?

Mushrooms weren't the only things that caught my eye on Saturday! I can personally vouch for the yummyness of that chocolate bombe!













Mercifully, I have a wheat intolerance otherwise I'd be able to vouch for everything in the shop.














Pears, almonds and chocolate are one of my favourite combinations. Maybe I could scrape the pastry off...?

Well, you guys really know your onions, or rather, mushrooms! I used some of the (very large) mushroom (Steinpilze) in a vegetable pastry plait for the boys and fried it in butter too for myself and it was absolutely delicious. I've no doubt it will be appearing on the menu Chez Grace again. Everything on sale here is labeled in German, French and Italian and I found a packet of dried Stienpilze and see that in French they are Bolets and in Italian Porcini. I hadn't realised this - dried Porcini mushrooms are readily available in the UK and are one of my cupboard staples. (I use Delia Smith's recipe for baked pork chops with cream, mushrooms and thyme which is really good).

I think it would go wonderfully well with Gruyere, I must try that too (thanks Omega). Mark was lucky enough to visit the Gruyere factory and castle recently and brought home some samples. They seem to be mostly sold in three stages of maturity. I think the mature is my favourite but the first moment the mild one hits the tongue is very nice too! Like Parmesan it's lovely and tangy, not as all like the stuff we are sold in the UK that tastes like cardboard (or rubber) unless you can find a good supplier.

A small pumpkin found it's way into my shopping basket today. It's a great excuse to go and flick through my cookbooks. I may be some time...

Saturday markets

Poor Alex, he had to be dragged out shopping with his mother again today. He was off sick this week from school (now recovered) and today was the last day we had for getting the remainder of the things he needs for his school trip next week.

My migraine was headed off at the pass yesterday evening (thanks Annabel!) but both my eyes look, well, hideous! When Alex got up, the first thing he said was 'what's wrong with your eyes, you look scary!' Flattery got him nowhere, we still had to go out! I took my camera out with me to retake the photos I lost a couple of weeks ago.














One of them was of the lovely array of mushrooms sold in the market stalls on the main shopping street. The light grey mushrooms in this shot look much nicer in the flesh, they have a blue tinge. Right at the very back are some black mushrooms. I'd love to know how all of these are best used.















I thought these looked great against the stripey background. I don't think the stallholder was too pleased about me taking photos and not buying so I did eventually buy one of these large mushrooms - at great expense! If anyone know how best to use these, I'd be very interested! They are very big, enough to fill the palm of a hand.












In Norway, a neighbour of ours used to make a wonderful, rich reindeer casserole with chanterelles.












I wish they would put the names on these mushrooms!














It's that time of year already?















I tend not to buy pumpkins, I find the flavour a bit sickly - fine in small doses though.















I'm not really sure what some of these are but I'd bet Sainsbury's staff would throw out shapes like these!






















A quick snap of a stand that seems to be there every day selling Italian goods.

Life?

No point beating about the bush, these are dull beyond belief. Not one redeeming line between them but here they are anyway. I felt the pose was uninspiring and took away any interesting lines, especially along the lower legs - they became straight lines. Still, that's not really an excuse.












I went out for lunch after the life class (in a beautiful setting on the Ile Rousseau, in the middle of the Rhone) and was asked to show what I drew. It was very embarassing which makes it even more strange that I should post them on the internet.






















So to make this post a lot more interesting, here is the view from the window! It's looking towards the city with the Jura mountains in the background.

Out of season

I came home yesterday afternoon with the start of a migraine and a swollen eyelid (a stress related thing I get quite often). This Azalea bud by the front door literally stopped me in my tracks.




















Two bugs demonstrating contrast.





















I have a need to find something genuine so the garden is very calming - even if some of the plants have been genetically altered!

Newsworthy item

In one of the free daily newspapers in Geneva last week, there was an item about a tree that had a face. I took this photo a while back and had forgotten about it but after seeing the photo in the paper I figured if it is good enough for the people of Geneva, it's good enough for my blog! Can you see it? I was out walking with Alex that day - I seem to remember him disowning me at that point...

He had to be dragged around the shops this week to buy outdoor gear as the school have decided that the whole of his year will take off to a remote village for a week to have classes there. The weather is very changeable and he needs things like new trainers anyway so there was no getting out of it. I said last week that normal blog service would be resumed after the boys went back to school but I had forgotten about those emergencies that somehow crop up every few days. (Mum, I've GOT to have that ringbinder by tomorrow or I'll be expelled. That sort of thing.) I like blogging for that reason. I have a terrible memory and if anyone asks what do I do, or what did I do yesterday, I can never remember so I say 'oh, nothing really'. But when I look back at the blog, I can see how things do seem to crop up on a regular basis - even if I don't write about them, the posts around that time remind me. Last week, I tried to spend it drawing, to see if I could pin down exactly how long a portrait might take me but with one thing and another it just didn't work out that way. Life really is what happens when you're busy making other plans!

Grace, Paul Grace

Yes, it's that lovely boy again! I haven't really finished it but at this stage I need to put it away for a couple of weeks and forget about it. I've made his nose looks a little bulbous, poor thing and I didn't sort out that left eye to my satisfaction but I think it's Good Enough. I might even forget, with my bad memory, what I think are it's faults - one of the benefits of old age! Although I worked on it in fits and starts, a little disappointed that I didn't get it done as fast as I'd planned, I found an old portrait of Paul in the pad I was working on. It took many months and as I looked at it with a magnifying glass (!) I couldn't see my pencil marks. I really was a hopeless perfectionist. This one is much more rough and ready but I don't like it any less so I guess I can take comfort from that. It was done with mostly 2B pencil and some HB and 2H.

Paul

I'm working on a portrait of Paul this week. I've been thinking recently about the subjects I'm drawing and while they have been fun to do, I need to draw things that have more meaning to me. When I drew the last sketch of Paul he asked me why I hadn't done a 'proper' drawing of him. It's been on my mind for a while anyway but now seemed like a good time to start.

Obviously this is done from a photo, something I'm not so comfortable doing these days. There is definitely a difference between a drawing done from life and from a photo. I watched an interview of David Bailey recently and he was asked what was so special about his photos, surely anyone could have taken those shots given the same conditions in his studio? Bailey replied his photos captured the chemistry that only existed between him and his subject. (I also admire that Bailey's trademark is black and white and he isn't tempted by colour!) So I had that in mind when I took the photo of Paul because this smile is his reaction to his Mum making him slightly embarrassed (he knows I think he's gorgeous!) taking a photo to draw from. His eyes are slightly more closed than normal, an attempt not to look too uncool and a big smile despite himself! (Teenagers are a strange breed!)

At this stage of the drawing, half the face is not done and the shading needs more work. It looks a bit strange - like him but not - because there is more adjusting to do. His nose isn't right at all but I think I can sort that without much trouble but the eyes are missing something and I'll have to try and improve those without overworking them.

I wonder how long Paul will actually look like this? It's amazing how much he and Alex have changed in the last couple of years. Paul changed dramatically over the course of the summer holidays two years ago and when I was out walking with Alex last week (he's exactly two years younger less three days), we had plenty of time to talk, and I noticed how much his voice had changed just in a few days! I hear Mums saying things like ' I love them when they're two' but I can't understand that, I love the boys at every stage, each one is so interesting!

Art air 2006

Sorry, I promised photos today of the Art air event I went along to yesterday but even Mark couldn't retrieve them. It seems that the program only downloaded thumbnails and as I deleted the photos from the camera the originals are now gone. Oh well, it's not a complete disaster. Not like the time a few weeks ago when we went to Mark's company's family day. We got up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday and met up to be taken by coach to the other side of Lake Geneva, passing through beautiful little villages and stunning scenery. We had to be out the door at about 6am and as I'm not a morning person, I got everything ready the night before and charged up the camera battery just to be sure. It was only when we arrived at the meeting point that I realised that although I hadn't forgotten the camera, I left the battery in the charger at home!

Yesterday, I took photos of a few of the painters at their easels on the banks of the lake and also in the main shopping street. It was a wonderful event but being a very critical person, I admit to being a little disappointed. There were only a handful of paintings that I liked and even then I wasn't bowled over. Most were oils and only a few watercolours. The one I liked most of all was a watercolour by a man who had positioned himself outside one of the main department stores. He had a nice view of the rows and rows of tables outside a cafe with a clock tower in the background. But as I was watching him an English woman with two small children passed by and she brought them over to see what the man was doing. They kept touching his painting and she kept saying in a loud voice 'don't touch darling' but carried on explaining what he was doing as if he was there solely for her children's amusement. Her voice was so loud it was as if she was acting for the crowd. The artist stood up and turned to talk to his wife behind him. He was clearly very annoyed and the woman oblivious.

I walked up from there into the old town but got lost trying to find another group of painters in a square I've managed to find many times before! I went instead to the Jardin Anglais on the banks of the lake and there were many more painters there and a more relaxed atmosphere. Very few drawings or sketchbooks were in evidence but I came across one lady sketching on a piece of paper with a Moleskine open in front of her. I took a photo for the blog as it has a beautiful little sketch of the Jet d'Eau. She was using a very thick blunt topped mechanical pencil (a Koh-i-Nor) which I really must try. It made a light smudgy line somewhere between a pencil and a brush and she was using very effectively to catch the spray of the fountain.

Some of the paintings perplexed me. Why, in such a beautiful setting on a sunny day, set up your easel and draw a night scene? Some artists seemed to me to have an idea in their head and came out to paint it regardless of their surroundings. Some were fantasy, some cartoons. I guess many would say they are artists doing what artists do - expressing themselves - but it just seemed odd to me. All the paintings will be viewed today and those that best capture Geneva will receive prizes so the aim is already set out. Maybe they were just having fun and showcasing their work? Nothing wrong with that! One fantasy one I did like however was a realistic depiction of the fountain but the edge was jagged as if the earth had fallen away and it was an island floating in space. Very Roger Dean.

I think the reason I felt disappointed was because there were very few subtle watercolours and few drawings. I had hoped to see a sketchbook or two but I didn't even see that many under-drawings. On the positive side though, I don't feel that my own abilities are as bad as I often think they are and I wondered why I keep feeling I should do colour - it doesn't excite me as much as seeing a really good drawing.

I've got to say a huge thank you to Dex for telling me about Tony Ryder's work (and for mentioning my work in the same sentence! You're now linked - flattery gets you everywhere!!) I'm really inspired! His paintings are amazing but it's the drawings that really excite me. While it's great to aspire to doing things in a certain style I think it's useful, for me anyway, to know what I can't do and not waste time fretting about it.

On the way home on the tram, I passed by the painters in the town and they were lost in the crowds of shoppers, trailing clouds of cigarette smoke behind them as they passed, walking over the thousands of discarded leaflets on the pavement. I was glad to get home!

Life drawing

When I walked out of yesterdays life drawing class I thought there is no way these drawings will make it to my blog, even to be brave and talk about posting my bad stuff. I just couldn't get into the rhythm of it during the session. I put them away and decided to look at them in the morning and maybe they won't look quite so bad. Hmm. I didn't really expect that to happen but it did. I quite like the more sketchy quality these have compared to my first attempts. The one above is the one I stuck to (after a couple of awful warm-up sketches).





















This is the quick sketch I did 15 minutes before the end. I turned the pencil on it's side to do the shading (because I thought they were too crappy to spend time on) and found I like that chalky kind of look and the way it contrasts with the darker, sharper line. I'm not sure that it shows very well on the scans but anyway, these sketches have got me out of the funk I was in this week.

My hubby must have sensed the note of glee in my last post because he's coming home tomorrow (a week early)! Good thing too, because I should have had lots of photos to post to the blog today and I managed to download them to the wrong program and can't retrieve them for editing! So when the computer whizz gets home, I'll be posting photos of the painting en plein air event that I went along to see in town. Seeing artists at work certainly gave me something to think about with regard to my own work.