Quebec City, Château Frontenac

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Frontenac

During my recent holidays in Quebec, I visited the glorious Quebec city which is a real jewel with wonderful architecture and grand views and parks. Although several of Quebec City’s buildings are taller, the landmark hotel “château Frontenac” is perched atop a tall cape overlooking the Saint Laurent River affording a spectacular view for several kilometers. The building is the most prominent feature of the Quebec City skyline as seen from across the Saint Laurent. I took a picture of the whole building without too many people crossing the park. I just left 2 tourists on the right to invite you into the scene…

Juice box

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Juice box

This “Juice box” is a small business run by a young woman selling fresh fruit juice around Cannes and Nice. This picture is a commission from one of her relatives as a present. I hope I captured the joyful energy of this young lady offering a fruit juice to a cute little girl ! I am known to do paintings of old vintage car so this commission was very much in my comfort zone. I was very keen to  paint such a beautifully renovated vintage French van !

Mary Poppins’ bag

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Mary Poppin's bag

Mary Poppins left her bag in the Hangar art centre during a watercolour class for the greatest pleasure of the students !  The bag and umbrella were put in the middle of a table  with a white background. I added a bit of colour and texture to the foreground to contrast with the sleek and shiny leather effect of this vintage bag.

Cuppa at the hairdresser’s

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at-the-hairdressers

From my sketchbook :  The other day,  at the hairdresser’s , while waiting for my hair to be done, I was given a nice cup of tea served in an interesting tea set : The teapot and the mug were catching my attention because of their colourful texture as well as the reflection of the handle in the wooden framed mirror. I took a picture for reference as I did not have my sketchbook with me.

Classic car the MG and its romantic story

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MG

This MG has a particular personal story for me as I was driven in it to the Town Hall first then to the church in a hilly Provençal village on my wedding day  ! I did a painting of that particular church in my blog last year if you want to get the feeling of the place … At the time, the MG had a warm yellow ochre coat and later, after having been sold  to a member of the family, was transformed with this beautiful British Racing Green colour which makes it even more appealing. I took a picture of it in the sunshine and you can see the reflection of the sun in the changing green tones. I like the effect of watercolour in its shadow still imbued with light.  Doing that painting was a real travel in time for me and reminded me of a very happy event indeed…

Coffee grinder

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I love the smell of fresh coffee beans being ground in an old coffee grinder like this one which reminds me of my childhood.

The appeal for this subject was to have different textures made with watercolour techniques like stipling for the ground coffee and the effect of old metal with its reflective characteristic.