Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

Our last day. We worked from 9 till 4, finishing our pastels. Afterwards, we hurriedly cleaned up the studio, vacuumed, moved all easels and chairs and slide projector equipment and heaters and tabourets to the perimeter of the room behind screens, collected all the work done during the week and displayed it on walls and easels, grouped by artist. A table cloth was put on what had previously been piled high with pastels and clutter, a vase of fresh flowers from the garden, wine glasses, champagne flutes, cookies, nuts, chips. We had 20 minutes left to shower and change clothes before guests arrived. Asti and some of her work: The room was filled by 6:30, with invitees - people I was getting to know by now. People from Caroline and Serge's dinner party earlier in the week, people who attended my demonstration at the beginning of my class a lifetime ago, most French speaking only. I somehow was able to converse with many, sometimes in only English, sometimes I used my pathetically m...

This is a 19x24 pastel of the restaurant at the Musee Jacquemart Andre. I did it while the others were working and didn't need much input from me. I'll be posting some of their work tomorrow. It's 10:00 p.m. We've just finished for the day. It's been a long day, in the studio since 9 a.m. , breaking only for lunch and dinner, then heading back to the studio.The artists want to get every last minute they can in the studio, and I want to make sure they get what they want. They have produced some pretty impressive stuff. I had hoped to, but I'm not ready to photograph their work yet; there's some finishing up to do. I'll shoot it tomorrow. Tomorrow's the last day for this class, which will culminate in a vernissage, or private viewing. Guests are invited over for drinks and munchies, and we from the workshop will display the work produced all week. We'll dine afterwards. Asti leaves Saturday. It's going to be sad. I've gotten used to her be...

It is 9:45 p.m. here and it's as bright as 6 p.m. We spent the whole day in Paris. We began with the Musee Jacquemart Andre, where there was an exhibit of Spanish masters: Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, El Greco and my favorite, Joaquin Sorolla. We had lunch at the Museum restaurant and headed to the Musee l'Orangerie to see Monet's water lilies. Before we left the museum, I slipped downstairs to see a Paul Klee exhibit, and discovered rooms and halls full of Post Impressionist works: Modigliani, Matisse, Sisley, countless others, A wonderful surprise. We'll catch the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre another day. We were exhausted. One more stop--Sennelier, maker of artist paints and pastels since 1887, for pastels and paper. Dinner time, we searched for a restaurant, but discovered Parisians don't eat dinner when we do, no restaurants were open. We settled for wine and cheese. We were rejuvenated and headed back for the hour train ride to La Bo...

It was a long day yesterday. We were busy from early in the morning until late at night, exhausted when we went to bed. Kippy had to wake us all up at 8 this morning for class. I never had a chance to get on to the computer. So I'm writing for 2 days now. Here's how Monday went: At 9:00 a.m. we were at the easels. Another student, Meg, arrived. Meg, an American, is a journalist who has lived in Paris for 30 years. We worked on poses for about 3 and a half hours. By the end of the day, each student had 3 pieces. At 4, after Eva quit for the day (or so she thought) several of us worked from photos of the last pose until 7ish. We were served wine as we walked into the house, guests (Chantal and Paul) arrived, the table was set: pork roast, wine, cheese, more wine. After dinner, probably 10:00 or so, we put Eva back to work. A photo shoot in the bathroom: we set up the lighting (lightning as Asti keeps saying), filled the bath, Eva disrobed, got into the claw-foot tub, bathed, g...

Warren, student #2, arrived today. There he is front and center, sitting next to Asti. I'm back there at the projector, Eva is in the pink robe. Kippy is somewhere in the front of the room. Warren's from Albany, NY. Both of my parents were from Albany. Almost all my cousins still live there. I'm sure we'll find something in common besides art before the class is over. Another student is expected tomorrow, and there will be some local students coming for the day throughout the week. We were to begin the workshop tonight at 6:00 with a slide show and demonstration. Kippy had invited artists from the area to watch. Since I've got such a small class, I was a little apprehensive about nobody showing up. But by 6:10, the room was filled with an enthusiastic audience, very few of whom spoke English, most of whom were from the dinner party the other night at Caroline and Serge's. Kippy translated for me. We got through half the slide show and the projector decided to mi...

The first student has arrived: Asti from Germany. Kippi, Asti and I spent time photographing some Parisian streets. It's been heavily overcast all day--not ideal for our photos. Ideally, I'd love to have bright sunshine, later in the afternoon or early in the morning, with long cast shadows. But Paris doesn't think we need that, so we'll find other contrasts in our imagery. The model has arrived: Eva has lived in Paris all her life. She's an actor and has modeled for Parisian artists and art schools for years. She's got some totally cool costumes to wear for us, some totally cool music to play while she poses, and I suspect some totally cool stories to tell. Here are Asti, Kippie and Eva at La Rotonde. I think I may be experiencing jet lag. That or I'm just not used to late evenings and so much wine. I crashed early today, as soon as we arrived back at the house, I told Kippie not to wake me for dinner if the aromas didn't wake me, dragged myself up the ...

This morning we went to market. I am proud to say that when a gendarme came up to me and asked me (in French) why I was taking so many photographs, I was able to relpy, "Je suis un artiste. Je suis américain. Je ne parle pas français très bien." She then asked me if I was using my photographs for the papers (which I understood), and I told her no, I pulled out one of my picture post cards and gave it to her. "C'est bon. ?" I asked, and she said "C'est bon.." And she left me to continue my shooting. Kippy was impressed, she later told me, that I was able to communicate like that. I got hundreds of photos, some of which will make beautiful paintings. Back to La Bonne Etoile, lunch on the patio with friends. What a tough life they lead here. I'll be glad when Sunday arrives and I can actually work. I'm feeling very guilty being non-productive. Sunday evening we hope to have an audience to watch me demonstrate painting a pastel from a nude mode...