My wife gets used as a model for many of my artistic experiments. I have to thank her, because often, I’m not looking for a flattering, or even and accurate likeness. I’m playing with styles and experimenting with effects and techniques. Anyway, this week, you get to see the results of some of those. Most of them are not flattering, but the most accurate ones I’ll post on Thursday and Friday. The one above is me experimenting with fluid linework.

While in Brittany, I had a hankering to see Finistère, at once a province of France and the western-most point in the country. I enjoy looking out over vast expanses of ocean, and made sure to look to the southwest, in hopes of catching a glimpse of Gloucester.

Hiking around the area is really easy thanks to all of the pathways, and there’s even some more challenging climbing to be done if you would like to do so at your own risk. (The French are incredibly practical when it comes to warnings about danger. Most of their warning signs say something along the order of “Sacre bleu! Zees place is deadly dahngeroos. But eef you wish to go and reesk your life, ze French will not meess you when you are gone.” In the States you would have had a razor-wire fence preventing injury while also blocking the view.) It was a rather warm and sunny day for the end of December, so I got to do the nice sketch pictured above.

This was the view I was sketching. The smaller rock jutting into the water on the left hand side of the image is about 4 stories tall.

The person that made my stay in France possible is Yvonne Jean-Haffen. While Ms. Jean-Haffen passed away in 1993 at the age of 98, she bequested her home and studio cottage to the city of Dinan in Brittany. She requested that the house continue to host visiting artists as an ongoing cultural interchange for the small city. While there for the month of December, my wife and I got a chance to visit the home at the top of the hill, where Ms. Jean-Haffen lived, and saw her charming and enviable studio, pictured above. Ms. Jean-Haffen was a painter and fresco muralist, and she studied under Mathurin Méheut, subject of a future post.

I have always wanted to see the cliffs at Etretat. Not only did Monet paint them in one of his greatest series of paintings, but Courbet and Delacroix have also painted the cliffs. On our way back to Paris at the end of our stay, we decided it wouldn’t be too much of a detour, so we went.

I have to say that despite a jaw-numbing gale blowing sleet sideways into our ears, it was as beautiful a place as it looks in the paintings.

More photos from Giverny. We snuck around back to see the garden through the much less obstructive chain link fence.

This is the front section of gardens at Monet’s residence in Giverny. Jen and I stopped in Normandy for a look at the cliffs at Etretat (more in another post) on our drive from Dinan to Paris, and Giverny was along the way, so we stopped to see what there was to see in the off-season. The grounds are quite extensive, taking up about 2 full town blocks of space, with the famous lily ponds across the street in an enclosed area. Since there was really no one around–it being New Year’s Day after all–we felt free to trespass to our hearts’ content, sneaking around the back of the ponds to the area much less covered by fence and trees and hoisting each other up to see over fences and walls. Overall, the gardens looked as you would expect in winter: boring. It was still fun knowing that old Claude was puttering around in these very spaces, fighting his failing vision and creating some astonishing works.

Some more wonderful images from the Musée d’Orsay. Represented are Cottet, Sorolla, Homer, Manet, Van Gogh, and Signac. There is also a collection of Art Nouveau pieces which is really lovely.

Above: Van Gogh, L’Arlésienne

One of the beautiful things about Paris is of course the art history and therefore, the richness of their museums. While the Louvre is great, it can be overwhelming and as any artist who frequents museums knows, the way to get the most out of a collection is to sample it small sections at a time. Unfortunately, when you’re in a place for a limited time, you feel a certain pressure to absorb as much as you can. This usually results in not absorbing much more than a headache from navigating crowds and flitting one’s eyes over so much visual stimulus. I usually troop through a museum as large as the Louvre with a sort of search-and-devour demeanor.

Fortunately, the Musée d’Orsay is a place where the collection can nearly be consumed in one viewing. That’s just in the sheer number of pieces, which is a nice collection, but manageable. However, the quality of the collection is another thing entirely. You have under one roof a collection of some of the strongest work by Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Sisley, Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Corot, Courbet, and Degas. Not to mention fewer pieces by people like Klimt, Sorolla, and Hoedler.

Here are some shots from the Musée d’Orsay that you might find interesting:

Below: Ferdinand Hodler’s image of a woman on her death bed, Madame Valentine Godé-Darel malade.

Below: Gustav Courbet’s La falaise d’Etretat après l’orage. His take on the cliffs of Etretat, made so famous by Monet.

Below: A beautifully done orientalist piece, Le Port l’Algier, by Jules-Alexis Muenier.

Below: Some of the fine, yet somewhat stylistically interchangeable sculpture sharing the main corridor with works from Rodin. This one is Femme piquée par un serpent, by Auguste Clésinger.

More to come tomorrow.

It’s been over two months, and while I was in France, I wasn’t able to keep up with the blog on a regular basis due to my limited internet access. However, now that I’m back I have a good backlog of material to share with you, so look forward to a long series of posts on my work in France and the exciting new paintings I’m developing during the quiet months of winter.

I’ll be open on Thursday 12-6 pm this week, but then closed the rest of the weekend as I head down to NYC. I’ll bring the camera along as I go to the museum and maybe I’ll have some eye candy to share when I get back…

If you’re interested in doing something other than burying yourself under a warm blanket while this Nor’Easter blows through, come by and visit the gallery. I’ll be open from noon to six today!

My parents are in town for a week, so I’ll be closing the gallery for this Saturday and Sunday (October 3rd and 4th) and most likely next Thursday through Saturday (October 8th-10th).

Also, don’t forget that I’m offering weekly classes at my studio. Space is limited, so if you’re interested, please make your decision quickly. I’d hate to see people miss out because they were slow to decide. There’s really no commitment, since you can purchase classes a la carte and if you don’t care for the class, you’re not out any money except for the one class.

Finally, if you really want to see some of my artwork while my gallery is closed, you can always stop by Flatrocks Gallery or The Art Room (3 Center Street) in Gloucester. Cynthia and Anne-Marie or Kate would be happy to see you.

I’ll see you in a week!

(Thanks to Leo Reynolds for the above image.)

Just a quick note to let you know that the above piece will be showing at the J. Lucas Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The show, Icons & Art: Michelle and Barack, opens tonight with a reception from 7-9pm, and then remains on view until October 25. I know that Provincetown isn’t on the way to anywhere but Provincetown, but stop by if you happen to be in the area.

Another plein air sketch, same location as the last one, different view. There’s a bit of glare in this photo, please excuse the quality of the photography.

I’m pleased to announce a new class offering at Ankeny Studio. Starting October 1st, I will be offering weekly session classes for local art students. I welcome serious-minded teenagers as well as adults looking to brush up on their skills or learn new ones. If you are interested, please contact me or visit the page on my website.

Please note that space is extremely limited and classes will be restricted to 4-5 students each, so please sign up early if you wish to be a part of the courses. Also, please feel free to pass this post along to anyone you think might have an interest. Thank you!

This is a color sketch of my idea for the piece I’m calling “The Antediluvian.” Now I just need a patron to commission a version that’s 20 feet high.

Here’s a close up of the figure, which measures about an inch across: