Sennelier

The first time I went to Sennelier was in 1997.  I remember I was excited not just to see the store, but to be in the store where Picasso, Cezanne, Bonnard, Monet and many others purchased art supplies. I remember the people working there all wore white frocks and looked so serious.  It was exciting to see the place in person.

Later I had NPR on in the studio and they did a story on Sennelier.  I went to their archives to see if I could find it.  They do and you can listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5581725

Whether the belief is that materials don't matter, or that there is no justification to spend a little more on materials, I have friends that have no interest (or love) of discussing them or being enamored with them.  I, on the other hand, just enjoy the nuance between brands and the history surrounding them.  So today, I went shopping for a hardbound sketchbook that I could use during my stay.

It was great to come out of the store, sketchbook in hand, cross the Seine and approach the Louvre for a morning of drawing.  Here are some pics from my visit.

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.