Sennelier- What a TREASURE to see!

Bonjour!  We got home last Thursday and after struggling with some unexpected MAJOR jet lag I've settled back into home life.  Of course my current home life is focused on a complete renovation of our main bathroom (yep, we're one of those ONE shower families ;)) But the job is in it's final stages and hopefully things will settle down soon!
I still have a LOT of our Paris trip left to cover, but for today, I really want to share our visit to Sennelier with you.  As an artist, it was truly one of my favorite parts of our trip!
Sennelier is a tiny little art supply shop that has sold paints and brushes and the like to artists for more than 100 year- Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and many more.  Just being in Paris gave a sense of constantly touching history, but to be in that sweet little store- I felt like I was connecting with history- so amazing!

I came upon this by chance- the brushes are labeled with which famous artist preferred what brush- how incredible was that?

The original color charts the artists used still hang on the wall.............did I say incredible?

That's the original owner Gustave's grandson, Dominique Sennelier, who now runs the store helping Caroline

Visiting this shop was definitely one of my favorite parts of our trip!

 

Sennelier THEN and.......NOW:

That's all for now....I have a Round Robin page I will share soon and hopefully, hopefully, I'll soon be back to regular bloggy visits!

xx

Stephanie

More adventures in Paris

ISo we met up with my Mom after a series of mixed signals and miscommunications- more on that later!  And had a lovely evening of exploring some if the local shops and setting at a cafe for dinner.

This morning caroline and I picked up pastries and cafe creme 

and had a wonderful breakfast in the Luxembourg gardens- what an incredible place!

The tulips are just finishing their show, but the color is glorious- I can't wait to visit Giverny, a long time dream garden for me!

Caroline had fun trying to get a bird to eat from her hand a d we saw tons of huge birds (owls or falcons?) swooping in and out of the Chestnut trees, what a wonderful morning!

That's all for now - au Revoir

xx

Stephanie

P.S. and here's a less "delicate" view of the statue

3 Americans in Paris.....

So one of the things I've been so busy with is preparing for a trip to Paris with my mom and my oldest daughter Caroline.  We arrived yesterday and my mom will be coming in this afternoon.  Our hotel is beside the Luxembourg gardens which I can't wait to explore- we were too tired yesterday and today we've been getting the lay of the land while waiting for mom.

So au revoir for now

xx

Stephanie

Traveling Journal Journey: Tammy's Journal

I know, I know......it's been FOREVER since I posted.  We've had a ton of projects going on around here- had a tree in the front yard taken down which led to a ton of other projects and I just haven't been painting.  Except for in the traveling books.  This month, I had Tammy's book to work in and her color theme is Black, Tan & White.  Tammy loves reading and gardening just like me so I took that as a starting point....and I'd fallen in love with a pin of an incredible garden window....so it all fell into place.
Here it is; I wanted to have a shadow box effect, so the woman and frame are raised up and glued onto a piece of cardboard.  The other side actually opens to read a note for Tammy.

 

 I found a quote by Cicero that I thought was perfect

 The woman reminded me a little of Jane in Disney's Tarzan......

And here's the window that inspired it all:

Check out our Magical Journal Journey Pinterest page to see what everyone else has been creating!  That's all for now, I'll try to get by to visit soon and share some of these projects I've been so busy with!
xx

Stephanie

More from Kim's Journal

Here's the other page I did for Kim, I wanted it to be much looser and free and show a contrast between the warm reds, oranges and pinks.  So I kept the background mostly black and white to emphasize this carefree spirit.....

 And here the first page with the pop up glued in

I should be getting Tammy's page sometime this week...can't wait to start playing with black, tan and white!

xx

Stephanie

Orange, Pink and Red- my first page for Kim....

So here we go with this round of traveling art journals!  I got Kim of IM Girl's book a couple weeks ago.  It took me a while  to come up with an idea, but I did and I've been busy ever since.  Actually I came up with two ideas and since she gave us plenty of pages to play in, I'm taking the liberty of using both.
Her color theme is Orange, Pink and Red and of course flowers and women are my favorite things to paint so I went with it.  I painted a background a la William Morris with idealized zinnias and chrysanthemums and then painted my "Flower Child".  I'll be glueing her in pop up format after I'm done with the next page, but at least you can an idea of what it will look like.

 So that's where I am in the Round Robin.  I plan to finish up by the middle of next week to get it on it's way to Gemma. 
This is SO much fun!
Hopefully I'll be back soon- I'm trying to get back to regular blogging it's just that things are so, SO crazy these days!
xx
Stephanie

Revisiting the Peacock Lady....

So, I am now at the point where I have NO idea if she's done or not.  I did actually go ahead and sign her, but now (as per usual ;)) I'm second guessing myself!  I changed most of the background (which I am happier with) retouched her neck and adjusted her hand. 

 

So I'm asking you all your opinion- finished...or not?  

Feel free to make any (constructive ;)) suggestions...

xx

Stephanie