Day 3 of the Facebook Challenge

"Day 3 of the Challenge:
Unfortunately, I have flown to Dallas TX to deal with a family emergency with my ailing dad, so I missed a day of posting! I am not able to sketch this week, so I'll continue to post images done before.
In 2013, I had the amazing opportunity to spend 3 months in Paris with the Gabriel Prize fellowship, awarded to one architect in the US each year. My project involved Versailles and the beautiful chateau Vaux le Vicomte, and of course I sketched many other things too! You can see lots more on my flickr page, but here are three of my favorites. Thank you Paris Urban Sketchers for extending the opportunity to post as a blog correspondent and to Kim Marohn and Martine Kervagoret for becoming friends!

And I now nominate Jane Dillon Wingfield to post some of her beautiful sketches!"

The Paris city hall, Hotel de Ville.  I walked pass this building often on my way home!  Finally sat in a tree well and about a foot from the curb to sketch this.  I am so honored that this sketch is also in Gabi's latest book!

A warm day in the gardens at Chateau Vaux le Vicomte. I had the opportunity
to stay overnight twice at this beautiful place, lots of time to walk and sketch
with the gardens all to myself in the early mornings.

Only one more week in Paris...

See you all soon...
S

Bonsoir

View from Pont Marie. SB

Bonsoir, my Seattle sketching friends~~

I have now been in France almost one month and have finally settled into my live/work studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for about 9 days now.  The location is utterly amazing, the space is great, and if I stand in the center of the studio, I can see Soufflot's Pantheon out one window and Notre Dame Cathedral only a few blocks away out another.  I do indeed need to be pinched.

But don't get too jealous...Paris is having a very Seattle summer--cool and wet.  Yep, rain and gray skies nearly every day since I've been here.  The weather has definitely made it difficult to go out and sketch, which is unfortunately also impacting my Gabriel Prize work.  C'est la vie.

One of the oldest homes in Paris,
in the Marais.

I'm posting a few recent sketches. Have also finally bought a cheap scanner/printer, so I have started to scan and post sketches daily on my blog, in case you are curious to see more and read notes.  You can also click on these views here to see them better.
A bientot!

Quick lunchtime sketch of Soufflot's Pantheon.

Detail of larger sketch of Notre Dame.

10 days in France so far...

Rain, rain, rain...am I in Seattle?  Nope, this is Paris, unusually cold and rainy for this time of year.  I'm 10 days into my trip, and only now starting to feel a little normal.  Below is one of my sketches from last week, done on a rare sunny day while eating a sandwich in the Tuilleries near the Louvre. I believe I'm looking at the Biblioteque des Arts Decoratif building.

I have a blog going now at www.stephaniebower.blogspot.com, and a flickr page too, if you are interested in seeing more sketches from this adventure in France. I will also be posting as a blog correspondent for Paris Urban Sketchers while here this summer--so nice to get a warm welcome from fellow Urban Sketchers!  I hope everyone is well back home...

Enjoying the sun on a chilly day and my emmantaler and ham sandwich, in the Tuilleries Gardens, Paris

Woke up in Paris this morning (someone pinch me)

As I'm traveling alone, I had to pinch myself.  Groggy from jet-lag, I awoke today to a chilly, wet, gray Paris morning, rather like the Seattle I'm used to.  But the similarity stops there...this is no Seattle!  

Yes, it's finally here...the opportunity of a life time to sketch, paint, draw, study and experience the architecture and urbanity of this amazing city, thanks to the incredible generosity of one George Parker Jr. and the jury who saw fit to award this year's Gabriel Prize to moi. To them, I am profoundly humbled and grateful--grateful to my core--and I hope I can honor this legacy by producing some beautiful work over the next three months.

I also awoke to a state of shock...yes, I've left my husband and two kids back in Seattle for a big chunk of time. Yes, I'll be on my own most of the time in Paris (have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit alone in a romantic Parisian cafe?) And yes, the pressure is ON to find my artistic self at last, draw and paint non-stop, and produce something worthy of this incredibly, unbelievably rare opportunity. I hope I rise to the challenge.

Today in the rain, I made my way to the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg, peppered with young people in romantic poses at one end and with small groups of tourists in the other.  It was raining, but under the canopy of the dense rectangularly-trimmed trees, it was very dry, so quite a few people were huddled together listening to the rain hit the leaves overhead.  It was lovely.

I pulled out sketchbook number one, turned to the first blank page, and plunged in. 

Palais Luxembourg, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris  May 16

Above is the first post from Paris on my blog "Drawing Perspectives" www.stephaniebower.blogspot.com...I figure I'll post a few images in the next three months on the Seattle Urban Sketchers website, but I'll refrain from inundating the Seattle blog with images of France.  However, if you are curious to see how this sketching adventure goes, I soooo invite you to check out the postings on the blog.

Also, I'll be meeting Paris Urban Sketchers this Sunday--I am so VERY excited to meet them, so grateful to be met by a welcoming community.

Last--does anyone know how to get a good jpeg of a sketch without a proper scanner?

Bon Nuit!

Solo crawl in Paris

I am sorry to have missed the NW sketchcrawl with the Portland crew. King St Station has been on my list for a long time. I was out on Saturday afternoon to do this one. This sketch at Notre Dame gave me the opportunity to mix two fetishes, bikes and buildings. I wasn't so sure about painting inside, but the light through the rose windows was incredible and is worth sharing. I'll be back for the November crawl. See you then!

Rendezvous in Paris

One very nice thing about being in Urban Sketchers is receiving comments from around the world. I was on my way to Paris when I received a comment on the picture I painted of sailboats in Greece. I contacted the sender, Marie Christine, and asked her if she would like to meet and sketch together. We met at a metro stop and walked to a nearby pretty square. Marie Christine is a talented, avid sketcher. ( See her work as tulipe75 on flickr.) We spent several hours talking, sharing our sketchbooks and creating a new international friendship. Life is good. Peggy