I finished the three day process to a second proof of the phlox forest today, and I'm largely pleased. There's a little glare on the photo. The black will be black in person. And I have to clean up color in the path a little, but it's about ready to pull some final prints.

I'm finally getting this phlox print to the full proofing stage. I started it before my trip to Paris, and it's taking a while to get it together, especially since I came home with other prints in my brain. Above is the first full, three layer proof. I missed some tree trunks in the green block that I need to carve out for the brown paper to show through. It also falls off a bit over on the left side, but it's moving close to being finished. This is my favorite spot in the forest in springtime, just magical, and I had to try a print of it.

Here's what the two under layers look like. I tried some different colored papers just to see, but I had planned it for brown, and I definitely like the brown best.

I did the self portrait because it was good to be back in that space again and also because I was still testing out my new watercolor graphite. Below are a couple of more I did at Zuivre on lunch breaks from more serious painting or museum going.

Since I had been drawing the eclairs and fondant in Paris, I figured I should pay tribute to a lovely dense Dutch cake as well.

I'm back home finally and beginning to scan in sketches from the later part of the trip that I haven't yet posted here. I met my parents in Amsterdam, so I had less solo time for keeping up the blog the last few days of the trip.

I got to hear Rene Miller and Dede Macchabee (I have no idea how to do accent marks on my American keyboard - sorry, y'all) several times while I was in Paris. They sound great together, with Rene's marvelous blues picking and Dede's 1930's kind of sound. They also look great and are fun to sketch, so I did them several times. Above is my favorite one, in a new watercolor graphite I found in my "local" art supply store that I walk past daily in Paris. I had a great time playing with it. I saw it several days earlier, but the Dutch landscape drawing exhibition (previous blog entry) decided me on going back to try it. Their subtle graphite and wash work was completely alluring.

It's a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like is that, since it's graphite, it will press down and rub against the opposite page once you flip over and are drawing on the back of a graphite page. In spite of that, it's quite lovely.

As a minor sidetrack to the blog, here's the sketchbook page where I tested it out the first time. I was quite pleased with the cat sketch on the left.

Back to Rene and Dede.

Here's one in fountain pen and ink wash. A bit cleaner than the graphite but also without the subtler shading.

One more in fountain pen and watercolor. Dede wears the most stylish shoes.

My next to last day in Paris was a lovely transition for the next bit of my trip. I had seen a poster for an exhibition of Dutch landscape drawings, so I set off to find it. There's a Dutch institute in Paris, which I am delighted to know about. They had a gorgeous landscape exhibit, and also a show of recent Dutch printmaker Jozef Van Ruysdevelt.

I did two sketches (looking at skies) in the landscape show. Huge, glorious watercolors and wash drawings.

I didn't draw in the print exhibit, but I did buy the catalog, which did my suitcase no favors at all. Given that the language choices were French and Dutch, I figured it would not be available at home. I also took a picture of his sketchbooks displayed in a glass case, which gave me a thrilling flashback to my Dixon show last fall. And I love seeing people's sketchbooks now that I'm having such fun keeping my own.

One of the amazing things about Paris, besides the bakeries, is the museums. It's marvelous for an artist to be able to go sit and look and sketch stunning works of art. I visited the Orangerie the other day. Walking into those two oval rooms of enormous water lily pieces that completely surround and engulf you is a stunning experience.

I did a first sketch of the room at large, going for impression instead of accuracy in rendering the actual paintings.

Then in the second room, I did a more intensive study of maybe my favorite of the works. It's darker than most, with subtle tonal changes, and I loved the process of looking deeply enough to try to copy it.

Finally here is a Klimt study I did Friday at the Musee d'Orsay. I must have had extra patience that day. I had already done two highly detailed watercolors, and this is the painting that called my name to sketch ad I wound down. I love Klimt's richness and texture, and when he does trees and landscapes, I swoon.

I walked home utterly, fizzingly happy. Painting in Paris is such an amazing thing to get to do. I am extremely lucky in my travels.

I had a very chocolate sort of day on Friday. One thing I love about walking in Paris is seeing all the gorgeous shop windows, designed to lure people in. We largely don't mess with those in America since everyone is driving cars and going by too fast to notice. (As an aside, my home bookstore of 140 years and counting does delightful new window displays each new season, but Burkes is in the minority.)

I had been passing and admiring the window of this chocolatier for two weeks now, and on Friday it was finally warm enough to contemplate sitting in the shade to paint it. It's a complex and layered scene that I'm not sure will be comprehensible, but I hope the visual richness and whimsy of the paper flowers will make up for that.

I also painted my lunchtime eclair that day, largely because it's from my favorite bakery, and they had given me a nifty sticker to close the box that I wanted to preserve somehow, so I devoted a sketchbook page to it.

Finally here is a bakery from a couple of days previous. It was rainy that morning, and I lucked into a visually charming bakery that also (quite rare) had a table inside where I could sit and paint. Nowhere in France is really warm on a cold day, since all the shops and cafés keep their doors open regardless, but I was out of the rain and in close proximity to pain au chocolat, so I called it a win.