Paris Petites

The month of May--what a marvelous month to be in Paris!  I tried to soak up every bit of the French capital that I could.  In addition to croissants and delicious stinky cheeses and visits to museums, I spent hours out and about with my easel, painting.  Painting on location is a way to really SEE.  It forces you to slow down and take in all the aspects of your surroundings. 

"Seine Reflections", 9.5 x 7.5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

One of my favorite places to paint in Paris is along the quais of the Seine.  The river is always a different color, depending on the sky, the sun, the winds, and the time of day.  So no painting of the same spot is ever the same!  And did I mention the beautiful bridges, and the reflections they make in the water?

"Louvre, Morning Effect", 6.25 x 9.5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I also love to paint in the gardens.  It's hard to say which is my favorite--the Luxembourg Gardens or the Tuileries.  Both have wide passages of white-ish sandy gravel, creating shapes and angles that are very appealing.  Both are punctuated by monuments of quintessentially French architecture (the Sénat building at Luxembourg, or the Louvre at the Tuileries).  So much to savor!

""Pont Marie, Soft Light", 8 x8 inches, Oil on Linen, mounted on panel

I'm illustrating this post with several paintings I did on location in my favorite spots.  These and more are available at the time of this post (July 7, 2025) on my website, here.  Take a look, and enjoy this virtual trip to Paris!

In Hopper's Footsteps

"Stairway at 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1906"

Edward Hopper

 Years ago, I was captivated by an exhibit at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, "Hopper in Paris".  We think of Hopper as a quintessentially American painter, but he spent a significant amount of time in Paris between 1906 and 1910.  And that time yielded over one hundred drawings and paintings.  During his early Parisian stays, Hopper lived at 48 rue de Lille, in the 7th arrondissement.  His quarters adjoined the Evangelical Baptist Church (which had sponsored his visit).  Here's what it looks like now:

And guess what?  I was there last month!  The ground floor is now a space dedicated to art exhibits, and my friend Marie Sand had an opening there to which I was invited.  Imagine my excitement when she showed me the courtyard--the very one that Hopper had painted. Here's the courtyard as painted by Hopper, and how it appears now:

I poked around the building a little bit, and discovered some humble stairways that were very reminiscent of the one Hopper painted (top image).  Perhaps not the very stairs that were the subject of Hopper's painting, but close enough to give me goosebumps.  It's a thrill to stand in the footsteps of a great painter from the past, and to get a glimpse into his life and his painting process.  I learned from standing in Hopper's shoes that the most humble places can be the impetus for memorable paintings.   

I'm closing with another Hopper painting of his courtyard at rue de Lille, from a higher vantage point.  I can see in these early paintings the themes that would come to define Hopper:  interior spaces without human activity, and the architecture of simple planes and lines.  Hopper's Paris works are definitely worth a close study. 

Sargent and the "Squiggle"

"Marchesa Laura Spinola Nunez del Castillo"

Oil on Canvas, 1903

John Singer Sargent

I have always admired the paintings of John Singer Sargent, and was recently reminded of several reasons why.  Perhaps the most compelling reason is his artistry with the "squiggly" brushstroke.  As an example, the top photo is a Sargent portrait that I saw this month at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.  It is a great example of Sargent's bravura brushstrokes that say so much with so little.

I could not express it better than Barbara Babcock Millhouse, in whose private collection this painting now resides.  She talks about Sargent's "masterful rendering of the satins and silks created out of swiftly applied strokes of various tones of silvery gray and white".  In purchasing this portrait, Ms. Millhouse says she was especially drawn to "the masterful way Sargent orchestrated the lower left-hand corner than balanced it with a single shining pearl."  I personally love the collar area--but take a look at the lower left corner (below) that drew Ms. Millhouse's attention.  Wow.

Paint handling like this requires a lot of decision-making and a lot of skill.  It involves coming up with a way to convey reality without "rendering" it in detail.  Therein lays the art.  And Sargent was an undisputed master of this art.  For fellow Sargent fans, note that a special exhibition of his work is scheduled for this spring in New York.  I hope to get there and take it all in in person!

And before we leave this portrait, let's not overlook a lesson in composition.  Sargent made elegant use of diagonals to draw our attention to the sitter's face.  The cane in her hand forms a very strong line up to the face, and the embroidery on her gown forms another.  If you know Sargent, you know that this is no accident!   It emphasizes the point Ms. Millhouse made about balancing the lower left corner with the one shining pearl at above right. Strokes of genius, no question.  (I drew over the painting just to show the visual path of these lines--see below).  Lots to learn from here--thanks for reading!