Getting ready

I wanted to create a blog about my trip to Paris for all of my friends. I hope to share a daily routine of where I'm at, what I see, where I go and of course, what I am eating.  My goal is to update it daily during my stay with pics, posts and maybe some vids.  I fly out this Saturday and wanted to post before my departure.

Its been a few years since I've been to Paris (I've only been there 3 times), but my recollection of my trips is wonderful. In one trip, I was able to spend time sketching from statuary in the Louvre much like I did at the Bargello in Florence as both graduate student at Indiana University and as instructor for Washington University in St. Louis. Here's a pic from the late 90's taking a lunch break outside the Louvre.

Paris offers a plethora of culturally-rich things to savor.  However, my main goal is to build a more intimate relationship with the Louvre and D' Orsay and draw from different parts of the collection to use in my paintings. I collaborate with a friend of mine working from live models.  My approach to my newest work is to paint a majority of the figure from life and then incorporate items such as Attic red-figured vases around the figure.  I'm longing to work from some of these wonderful works first-hand.

I'm also really interested in going back to Sennelier and shopping.  I'll definitely be purchasing some materials there. I enjoyed my visits to Sennelier almost as much as Zecchi's in Florence.

Right now I have to start loading Satie and some other studio favorites on the iPod for those magical museum mornings.  Thanks for stopping and check back.