Fraise Knock Out!

I hope you didn't spend your weekend arm wrestling a jar of strawberry jam like I did...

I wasn't thrilled with last Friday's watercolor - the reds were...just too red!

Off I marched to Union Square Farmers Market...

Ringside the Day-neutral berries were just waiting for me to show up...

Across the aisle the strawberry jams were aiming to hit hard...

Mon dieu! But at $8 bucks a jar I hesitated...

To the left the $8 dollar ready-to-eat lobsters were yelling out,

"Take us home and paint us!"

I asked Beth's Farm Kitchen,

Do you have something for a little less?

Beth's:Not really, unless you want the jar that didn't jell for $4?

Me:I'll take it!

Me:Do you always have something on sale every week?

Beth's:Never! We've been making jam for 30 years!

Me:Oh...ooops

I grabed the strawbs, jam AND the lobster and headed home...

Time to duke it out with some pencil 'thumbnails'

Then a slugfest with the red pigments...

Second entree into the ring wasn't so bad, but the berries got the upper hand...

Parisian pastry chefs always keep the upper hand with their strawberries. You can't walk a block without bumping into one or two strawberry tartes in Paris... I found out from Relais Desserts that strawberries are not even a fruit. Who knew? It's those little yellow seeds, the 'achenes' that are the actual fruit. Louis XIV sent Amedee Francois Frezier (is that where le fraisier got it's name?) off to South America. He brought back many new varieties. Now there are at least 600 kinds of berries to put in your tarte, though the Plougastel, the gariguette and the mara des bois are the most popular. I was chastised in Monoprix for buying berries from Spain - mechante/naughty

Et voila

Have a BERRY Good Day PBers!

Julie's Jam Jars

Just one look last night and I was head-over-heels in love...

Photo by Julie Whitmore Pottery

Over at Julie Whitmores I fell again for another jam jar...

Story of my life really...

For a girl who should NOT even look at sugary jams I never seem to learn...

Staying with French Girl in Paris is like being in a field of jam landmines - I need armour at that place truly...

I used to collect mini-jam jars desperately trying to subvert my addiction. Ha! A lot of good it did me...

News Alert*

I must report dear PBers, that I am throwing in the 'macaron' towel as far as baking goes. I've had it. 3 strikes and I'm OUT!

I'm going to stick with painting thumbnails instead...

And practicing watercolor layering, instead of layering failed meringues with buttercream...

I'll be having another 3-day sale of older watercolors in September...

And as a bonus for the 1st 8-10 watercolor sales, I'll throw in my French (and Japanese) macaron cook books. Lucky you.

I'VE HAD IT with baking!!!

Photo by Julie whitmore Pottery

Do stop in at Julies for a delightful visit.

You'll thank me I know. Just look out for those enticing jam jars.

BONJOUR JULIE'S JAM!

Paris Thumbnails

Redon inspired still life, watercolor, 9" x 11"
There were a lot of requests to paint yesterday's Redon setup, so I did...
First to watercolor match the ribbon and boxes...
Surprise! A 5-month old framboise macaron lurks within one of the boxes!!
Used in another setup. No, I did not eat the macaron...yet.
Would you?

Were the rununculas chosen because of the Redon exhibit?

The pink box was sighted not so far from the Grand Palais expo...

I wanted to start off doing thumbnails like David Dewey did in Maine...

David paints his thumbnails on typing paper(!) so I tried it out....

Then just plain old tracing paper...

Then thumbnails on watercolor paper but these are not simple enough :(
But I forgot to look at the thumbnails I did that day until after the fact. A la prochaine/next time. If you're going to paint pink, pink, pink...

You need to eat a lot of watermelon! What shall I paint next PBers?

BONJOUR Paris THUMBNAILS!

The Statue of Liberty

Have you been to the Statue of Liberty yet?
I went for the first time ever on Saturday...
'Attraversiamo',
as Liz says in EAT PRAY LOVE (EPL) meaning
'Let's cross over'
I'm always bla-bla-blaing about the Eiffel Tower so I thought it was time...
Get ready to land PBers!
Thar she is! YAHOO
Naturallement we check the map before taking a step further...

Ah the view...regarde!

trop Magnifique!

The everpresent gulls...

Await a few crumbs from my sandwich.

You'll take your own lunch PBers if yr smart.

Every language under the sun is heard...

Wunderbar!

I brought along my paintbox bien sur for a few quickie thumbnails...

Take my picture svp

Waiting and working - Lady Liberty gets no holidays...

BONJOUR STATUE OF LIBERTY!!!

Have you been?

Do tell all svp

So walk your country WALK PBers!