40

Today is our wedding anniversary. 40 years! Wow. This is much more impressive to me than a big birthday. Turning 40, 50, or 60 didn't seem to hit me as much. We have absolutely nothing special planned for today. 

Most of the Christmas/Hanuka shopping is done and wrapped. I've got to get some to the post office today. I'm still struggling with making some Barbie dresses (a special gift!), so I think today will be spent sewing. I've finished with my knitting for a while. I got several big items done for gifts, and some smaller ones, as well. Can't very well talk about them now because of my readership, but I'll try to get pictures of them for the next post.

There's an exhibit of local artists at the Maison du Citoyen in Fontenay sous Bois and our group from Francine's is there, including me. I'm really sorry I couldn't get good shots of Jean's pencil drawings. They are beautiful, but the light was reflecting off the glass and you can't see them.

My paintings

Anne-Marie's paintings and one of Rita's

2 of Renée's and one of Francine's

Francine, Mathilde, Isabelle (2 in center),
and Valérie (2 on right)

Valérie, Fanny, Renée (abstract on top),
Isabelle, Francine and Renée again

Matilde (flowers), Francine,
and Rita (2 blue and the flag)

Family Ties, or not?

I got to talking to one of the patrons of the library the other day. I forget exactly how we got on the topic, but he said his family had emigrated from Germany in the 1840s and I countered with "same here" and we got to talking. Guess what? His name is Glaser. Pronounced with a long "ay", as in German. And he had an uncle Louis! And he served in Korea, but I don't know if he was a marine. And he's 82, or 83; I forget what he said.
Well, I don't really think we're related, but this is fun. His Glaser family was Christian, but his mother's family was Jewish. The lived in Missouri, I think he said. I'm sure he said his Glaser family had settled in the mid-west upon arrival in the US. He's been living in France for quite some time. His first name is Robert. He doesn't have an email address, but I did ask for and got permission to copy his home address and phone number from the library members' file in case one of you wants to contact him. Or, you could send your questions to me and I'll ask. He is a very, very chatty person.

Painting difficulties

We have an assignment for the painting class. We have to produce a painting with a citation of a recognizable famous painting. I know what I want to do, but first I have to finish the main painting. I was thinking of David Hockney when I chose to do a swimming pool scene. I can't imitate his technique, so let's just say that was my inspiration. I chose a photo that I had to start with.

I like the distribution of the kids in and around the pool, the color of the tile.... But to fit what I wanted to do, I had to modify it all, and I don't think I really like it.

The first difficulty has been the swimming pool. There's the shape of it, which I have to fix. I was encouraged to shorten it and bring the tile deck forward, but I don't like that. Then, there's the water! And the deformation of  Louis and Gwen floating in the water! And actually trying to do these portraits!

This is where I was last week. You can see here that I've got to redo the rounded end of the pool. I turned the chair around and brought it up front, but this week, I decided I really don't like that, so I got rid of it. However, I need it for the citation part of the exercise. I'm moving Emma closer to Anne in the painting and I think the chair will go there. 

Louis is pretty recognizable in the painting, but I stuck him too far to the left. Well, that's where he's going to stay and I hope I can fit the others in accordingly. I tried adding Gwen this week and am not happy with the result. I'm not looking for a detailed resemblance, but I'd like to be able to see that it's her. You can see my attempt at getting rid of the chair, changing the deck a bit and enlarging the pool. I have to work out the angles of the ends of the pool -- the rounded top and facing deep end. The more I correct, the more there is to correct and the more frustrated I get. And there is so much to correct!

More to come.