Posting from Paris

Greetings from Paris. This year has presented me with several opportunities to paint in France. What better place to find inspiration than in the City of Light, home to so many of painting's "Greats". I have visited Paris many times, but I have never painted here. At least not until yesterday!

The photo above shows me with my first Parisian plein air painting. It is a challenge to carry painting gear across a busy city using public transportation, but I mapped out a strategy and it worked OK. I headed straight to the Seine and found a spot on the Left Bank where I could compose a good view of the Ile de la Cite and the Pont Neuf. Once I got set up and started looking carefully at the scene, I almost panicked at the vast amount of information to be captured. 

I took a deep breath and recited my mantra, "Simplify, Simplify". And my other mantra, "Look for the gesture". I focused on those key elements that had drawn me to the scene to begin with: the late afternoon sun on the facades, and the rhythm of the arches of the bridge reaching across the river. I felt good about my effort, and I know that I could never have captured the light and the color relationships using only a photograph.

Stay tuned for more posts from Paris (if the sun will ever come out again!).