Inspired by a black and white vintage photo from “the Roaring Twenties “, I decided to make a colourful portrait and name it “Mistinguett”.
Starting in 1907, Mistinguette dropped the final ‘e’ and became Mistinguett ‘the woman with the divine legs.’ She performed the Apache Dance with Max Dearly in 1909 and then both created spectacular revues one after another for almost 30 years, with feathers, tinsel, glitter and chorus girls and boys. A concept which still rules at the Moulin Rouge!
Rest assured that I am not becoming potty…what I mean is : I painted recently 2 pictures about pottery :
The first one is about 2 charming “potty”characters on a stall which caught my eye during “le marché potier”held in Antibes last Summer.
The second one was painted during a watercolour class with Marina who brought an old basket and filled it with earthenware.( http://aquarellista.blogspot.fr/).
This is a very quaint village in Hampshire where I like to go to check a good art gallery with always on display, an interesting selection of watercolours from local artists. This particular house is right at the centre of the village opposite the church. I did not paint all the cars parked outside as they would have dampened somehow the vintage atmosphere of the scene.
Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life in this unpretentious cottage in Hampshire from 1809 until 1817. It was in this house that Jane’s genius flourished and where she was free to write. It was a lovely day painting outside the cottage but at the end I was too cold so I finished the watercolour at home…
While in the train I sketched this picture of Oscar Wilde, subject of an exhibition in Paris which starts this month at the Petit Palais. The opportunity to draw with a black ink pen and create a lot of textures with different marks was very appealing.Also I quoted one of his best aphorisms which for me was very much representative to his character.
We were having coffee at “chez Christine” in Provence and a friend who joined us said : “look Agnès, wouldn’t that be a perfect scene for your sketches with two symbols of French country life, the 2CV and a cyclist in one go!” “Yes of course” I replied, all is missing is someone appearing with a baguette and wearing a béret !
I was in Cannes yesterday waiting for a train and had half an hour to kill. So I went to a square next to the Palais des festivals where the stars come for the film festival. This time the stars were 2 beautiful horses mounted by policemen having a drink in the local fountain square.I noticed that each horse was wearing at its rear a bag to prevent the manure to fall down on the pavement : I had never seen a horse”nappy” before!
While waiting to meet my friends at the market this morning, I drew this scene from the benches next to the café in Valbonne square. I completed the drawings with colours at home as I did not have enough time to finish it off.The 4 standing characters where looking intensively at something I could not see from where I was sitting; and the mother at the table came around and sat next to me to use the bench as a changing table for her baby ! Not the scene I wished to paint…
We had a lovely morning on the Cap d’Antibes yesterday.The weather was hot and sunny. I took this time a parasol to cover my sketchbook page not to be blinded by the white of the paper plus a sun hat and no sunglasses so I could see the real colours.
Morning at the beach last Sunday in Antibes : I started to sketch people although they were moving all the time, some exhibited longer “pauses” allowing me to draw them as fast as I could. The woman and the man standing seemed to be in a very animated discussion. Although I could not hear them from where I was, judging by their body language, the subject was rather serious !
Hobby Sketcher 