Watercolor Sketching at the Musee Zadkine, Paris

One thing about living in Paris, versus just visiting, is you have so much time to explore the city and discover little hidden gems, that you would probably never take the time to see if you were on vacation.  One of those is the Musee Zadkine in the 6th arrondissement.  This is another location a few of us from the sketch group visited one fall day.

Quick Pen and Ink Sketches of Zadkine Sulptures

It is dedicated to the work of Russian sculpture Ossip Zadkine.  It was his former home and studio and was willed to the city of Paris by his wife. It now has over 300 sculptures and various other works and a number of contemporary art exhibits each year.

---

Watercolor Plein Air Painting in Mount Dora, Florida

Last weekend my husband and I made a date to go plein air painting.  It's nice to have a spouse who is also an artist! :-)  We went to a quant little town near us called Mount Dora.  It was a popular winter retreat in the late 1800's.  Since it's on a beautiful lake, people would visit for hunting, fishing, and boating.  When the train depot was built in the early 1900's, it became even more popular.  Today, it is a quaint little town, with lots of antique shops, restaurants, a wonderful art center and a few galleries and artist studios. Instead of painting in my sketch book, I decided to break out the easel and go for a larger painting.  We painted for a little over 2 hours, and had to call it quits because it was just getting too hot!  It still hasn't really cooled off here yet!   I will tweak this one a bit in the studio, finishing the train car and adjusting values  before I call it finished.

---

Watercolor Sketching at the Musee Bourdelle, Paris

It’s finally happened!  There is a slight crispness in the air.  The temperature has been dropping into the 60’s at night. Instead of highs in the 90’s, today it will be in the 80’s!

Here is another sketch from a fall sketch outing to the Musee Bourdelle.  This charming museum, tucked away in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, was the home and studio of sculpture Antoine Bourdelle.  It gives you the sense of what an artist’s atelier actually looked and felt like in the late 19th century.  In the late 1920’s he started to turn his studio into and actual museum and today the museum houses more than 500 of works of sculpture, paintings, and pastels.

Bourdelle was one of the pioneers of 20th century monumental sculpture and was commissioned for works worldwide, including the United States; Washington D.C., Honolulu, Texas, Minnesota, California and Ohio.  In 1893 he joinedAugust Rodin as an assistant and became a popular teacher.

This sketch done sitting in the garden, is the second of the day, and is quicker and looser and than the first one I did.  When we arrived to tour the museum we had a beautiful, cool, sunny fall day but a few hours later while sketching in the garden the typical gray skies of Paris took over.  C'est la vie.

---

Watercolor Sketch: Paris, Luxembourg Gardens

Even though the weather really isn’t feeling quite fall like yet here in Florida,  I’m starting to get into an autumnal spirit.  I’ve decorated for Halloween and baked a few batches of muffins the last couple of weeks.

I thought I would post today a watercolor sketch I did while living in Paris.  This one was done one October morning of the small cafe in the Luxembourg Gardens.  I had gone out with a sketching group and was bundled up in a coat, hat and scarf it was so cold.  If I had been on my own, I may not have persisted with this one!   It was nice towarm up with a nice coffee in the cafe across the street after painting, and admire each other’s sketches.  I nice way to spend a beautiful, but cold fall day!

---

Watercolor Sketch: Sai Kung, Hong Kong New Territories

Some watercolor sketches, even though they are sketches I spend a bit more time on.  Others when you don't have the time, are what I call quick and dirty!  Not that this sketch is dirty, I guess it's just one, of many, of those expressions from my midwestern upbringing.

This one was done on a sketch outing with my friend Gladys.  We drove up to Sai Kung which is a peninsula surrounded by the South China Seanorth of Hong Kong Island in the New Territories.  We had painted at another location and then drove over to the Hong Kong Diving Club and decided to paint there.  This one was done in 15-20 minutes.  These quickies are good to do just to get an essence of the place without focusing too much on the details.

---

Kraft Azalea Garden in Winter Park Florida and A Wonderful Memory

I have had some real bittersweet moments this week.  We took my daughter to college last weekend and my husband and I are officially empty nesters.  I have had my moments of sadness because, of course,  I will miss her dearly.  But, I am also very excited at the same time, as she starts her new life adventure, fulfilling her dreams!

One afternoon a few weeks ago we went Winter Park and she and I wondered around the Kraft Azalea Garden on Lake Maitland, during the “magic hour”  when the afternoon light has that golden hue casting long shadows and creating a patchwork of lights and darks on the lawn.

This painting was done there.  It’s a small work, 8” x 10”, 20cm x 25cm, featuring the exedra, which is a portico with a bench or seats where people may converse, especially inancient Greek and Roman houses.  This beautiful spot is known for sunset wedding ceremonies.

This painting is available for sale, price is $250, plus, $15.95 shipping.

---

Watercolor Sketch, Peel Street Lanterns, Hong Kong

This sketch I did sitting on my stool across the street from a lantern and funerary shop on Peel Street in Hong Kong. Looking at this sketch takes me right back there!  It was one of those days that was so full of sensory overload:  shoppers bustling up and down the street, smells of food being prepared from the neighboring dai pai dongs, and being serenaded by Chinese opera music from the shop I was sitting in front of.  Some artists have a problem painting with so much activity.  It doesn’t really bother me. I enjoyed the atmosphere and at the same time I can focus and tune it out. The next week I went into the shop to buy something and the shopkeeper recognized me and wanted to to see the painting!

This sketch has inspired a larger painting I am currently designing.  It has been on and off the drawing board with all of the goings on this summer.  When things quite down the end of the month, I will get back to it!!  I think it’s gong to be fun to paint. I can’t wait!

---

Watercolor Sketch: Aberdeen Floating Village, Jumbo Restaurant & Sampans

My watercolor sketch travelogue continues in Hong Kong with one from a floating platform next to the Jumbo restaurant in the Aberdeen Harbor.  I was very fortunate to make friends with a few artists while living there.  My friend Gladys and I would try to go out once a week to sketch.  The day we scheduled to go was a gloomy day in December but we went for it anyway.  We headed down to the Aberdeen marina and took a sampan over to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.

Our Sampan Driver

This was an experience in itself just crossing the harbor.  Like many things in Hong Kong there are a number of ways to go about doing something.  Lining the harbor are private sampans for which we had many offers of taking us over for 50 -100 hundred Hong Kong dollars, or as Gladys would say, honkies.  She is a local. :-).   This equates to about $6-$12 US dollars. These are nice if you want a 30 minute tour of the harbor, but we just wanted a one way jaunt to the Jumbo.   If you are a tourist, you may think this is the only way to go.  However, I had the advantage of being with Gladys, who knew a way around this!  If you know where to look there is a public sampan you can take to the other side for around .25 cents US!  What was even more amazing you can scan your Octopus Card, Hong Kong’s, public transportation card, for the fare.  A mix of modern technology with the old world.

Boat dwellings in Aberdeen Harbor

The Aberdeen Harbor and the Aberdeen Floating Village has been and still is home to Hong Kong’s boat dwellers, descendants of which were said to have arrived in Hong Kong around the 7th-9th century.  If you would like to immerse yourself in a traditional Hong Kong experience this is a great place to visit.

Jumbo Floating Restaurant

Another popular attraction which was our destination was the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.  Established in 1976, it is one of the renowned tourist attractions in Hong Kong.  In the  lobby is a photo gallery of the who’s who of the many people who have visited over the years:  Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, and William Holden during the filming of “Love Isa Many- Splendored Thing,”  and the “World of Suzie Wong,” to name a few.

Sightseeing Sampan

Gladys and I settled our selves on a service platform behind the restaurant to paint boats in the harbor.  It was actually great to sketch on a grayer day. A great exercise in mixing grayed color.   It started to lightly drizzle so we cut the day short and headed over to the Aberdeen Marina Club, in a sampan of course,  for some hot Jasmine tea, and an incredible Dim Sum lunch!  A perfect sketch day with a great friend!

---

Watercolor Sketch: The Bank of China Building in Hong Kong & Feng Shui

In Hong Kong, I loved just up the hill from the Hong Kong Zoological Gardens and Botanical gardens.  Both just a 5-10 minute walk from my apartment building.    Living in one of the most populated and bustling cities on earth, I was amazed at how many opportunities there were to connect with and be in natural environments.  I walked through and enjoyed these gardens often, as did many locals and expats. I had my watercolor kit with me one day and decided to do a sketch of the Bank of China building.  One, because it was designed by architect I.M. Pei who also did the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris and I like his work. Two, because it is such an iconic building in the city.

The Bank of China Building designed by I.M. Pei, image via wikipedia

There was some controversy surrounding this building, at the time it was built.  It is the only major building in the city to have bypassed the normal practice in Hong Kong of consulting with feng shui masters on it’s design prior to construction.  According to feng shui principles it’s triangles, sharp angular features, and many “x” shapes have negative symbolism.

The HSBC building designed by Norman Foster, image via Wikimedia Commons

When another iconic building in the Hong Kong landscape was built, the HSBC bank building, designed by famed British architect Norman Foster, metal rods were installed on the top pointing directly at the Bank of China building to protect it, by deflecting the negative energy right back to Bank of China.  Take that Bank of China!  Hmmm, that sounds like a good idea.  I’d like to have something like that to deflect negative energy.

---

Watercolor Sketch Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong

This watercolor sketch is of one of the roof ornaments at the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong.  Wong Tai Sin is one the largest and most famoustemples in Hong Kong. A Taoist temple named after Wong Chuping, itis known for it’s fortune telling.  Supposedly the fortune sticks here are very accurate.  Worshippers kneel before the altar shaking a bamboo container holding slender sticks of wood, similar to those coffee stirring sticks at Starbucks only a bit bigger. There can be as many as 50 or more worshippers doing this at once and there can be quite a  commotion from all the shaking and chanting. When one falls out, the stick is exchanged for a piece of paper by the sooth sayer at the temple, bearing the same number as the stick.  The sooth sayer then interprets the fortune for the worshiper.  Some temples like this one have many stalls, with fortune tellers or sooth sayers which are open for consultation for anyone seeking guidance.

 Roof Detail at Wong Tai Sin

Worshippers at Wong Tai Sin

Wong Tai Sin's Chinese Temple Architecture

The temple has extensive gardens in the back including a replica of the Nine Dragons Wall from the Forbidden City in Beijing.  What is really odd is the juxtaposition of the temple and gardens surrounded by the towering Hong Kong apartment buildings.

Detail of Apartment Buildings Surrounding Wong Tai Sin

---