Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

We have spent the last 3 days in the studio working with a model. Everybody is ready for a break. So today we did Paris in the rain because the museums are open late on Thursdays. We went to the Musee de l'Orangerie  to see Monet's Water Lilies and the Post Impressionist works downstairs. We had lunch at a brasserie behind the Musee D'Orsay, where we were given candy bracelets as we left the table, then we spent several heavenly hours at the Musee D'Orsay with Degas, Monet, Manet, Lautrec, Cassatt, Morisot, Gaugin, Cezanne, Vuillard.. Our toes were cold, our clothes were wet, our feet were aching as we piled back onto the train for the 50 minute ride, some of us munching on our candy bracelets. We arrived home around 7:00 to a welcome fire in the fireplace and aromas from the kitchen. Dang. This is a nice way to live. Everybody is downstairs eating that wonderful smelling seafood dinner. I have opted out of dinner tonight, feeling the need to give myself a break ...

Sunday was rainy and windy. But Sunday is brocant day. And Sunday was Jerome's birthday. Someone suggested we all go to the brocants and find gifts for Jerome under 5 euros. We drove 20 minutes through the darkening skies to a neighboring town to see that 80% of the shoppers and vendors had packed up and left. Most of us made a half-hearted attempt to browse, but the tables were covered in plastic to protect things from the rain. Within minutes we went back to our cars and waited for the Montrealites to return to the cars and their senses. They returned 20 minutes later with treasures (they seem to put Kippy and me to shame with their sharp eyes at a brocant), a large art nouveau brass vase for only a few euros the most evident thing, which drove me to jealousy, and I guess the others too, because we stumbled out of our cars into the rain with our umbrellas and made our way up the road, peaking under plastic tarps. We loaded up with lovely little things ridiculously priced, an...

Here we are (I'm behind the camera). This is our first dinner last night. More than half of the group is from Quebec, we have people from upstate NY, Chicago, Raleigh and Atlanta. A couple of the artists have brought their spouses. You hear both French and English at the table. The sky stays light until 10 at night here. It was probably around 9:00 p.m. when we sat down for dinner and it was very dark when we finally left the dinner table and climbed into our beds, exhausted. Today is Sunday. That means brocant day in France. Flea markets. Looks like rain though; the sky is overcast and it's windy. Probably a good day for an umbrella and a sweater. Later this afternoon we will have a model in the studio to work with. We are all just getting to know each other.

Oh no! Kippy asked me to take the bike, ride to the market a few blocks away and purchase 4 heads of lettuce! That would seem simple enough but all I saw were the obstacles...would I get lost? My sense of direction is as bad as my ability to recall names and faces, understand the difference between whole-life and term, or balance a checkbook. Could I communicate my task to the vendor? In French? Could I remember what I wanted by the time I got there? Kippy and I rehearsed... Bonjour, Monsieur. Je m'appelle Margaret. Je reste avec Jerome et Kristina. Je voudrais quatre salades, s'il vous plait.   And then of course Merci boucoup . Piece of cake, right? Only I was completely thrown off when it turned out to be a woman who waited on me and then pointed to 4 different kinds of lettuce and asked which I preferred. I was not prepared to make any decisions. I was only prepared to repeat a script, which I blundered through with a lot of tee hees and goofy looks. And upon retur...

It is a little after 9:00 pm. I paid an extra $50 for a seat upgrade so I am on the upper level where I have more leg room and a wider seat, and I'm almost giddy at my good fortune... 2 empty seats beside me! I'm peering across these seats to see Atlanta glittering like a million gold diamonds in the blackness below me. And very soon, after I've had my dinner (take a look at this Air France menu) I am going to stretch out across my 3 seats, cover myself with 2 blankets, and sleep soundly, thanks to a friend with a prescription of something that will knock me out. This may be the first time I have ever slept on a plane crossing the Atlantic. I am headed back to la Bonne Etoile to teach another pastel workshop. I will see Kippy and Jerome again and their collection of lovely family and friends. I think I have 8 students who will be converging from different points in the US and Canada in a couple of days. And you who are subscribed to my blog will hear every detail ...

I grew up with 4 sisters. My little brother came along when I was 10; I regret that I was too distracted to enjoy my little brother the way he deserved to be enjoyed. I grew up, married, and had 2 daughters. Girls were a dominant force in my life, I always felt a little at a loss around boys.   My oldest daughter married and now I have an adorable grandson, whom I have loved watching grow. Now I love to watch children--boys and girls--at play. This little boy is just a kid on the beach I passed, but reminded me so much of my little Victor just a few years ago and my brother many years ago. "Little Boy" is an 8x10 pastel, available on Daily Paintworks. Click here to view auction.

Another pastel from Tybee Island this past weekend. 8x10, available at auction on Daily Paintworks . Thanks for watching.

I visited my daughter, her husband and son in Savannah this past weekend. She and I spent Saturday morning walking the Bonaventure Cemetery reading gravestones and searching for angel sculptures. We had lunch at a little cafe down the road and then drove 20 minutes to Tybee Island where I got a gazillion photos for reference, and could legally write off the expenses of my trip. So you're going to be seeing a few more beach scenes before I can get to cityscapes, as per Joan W.'s prompting. But Joan, I'm carrying my camera around with me in search of some good compositions. Thanks for your very excellent suggestion. "Tybee Island Afternoon" is a 9x12 pastel on Pastelboard, unframed. It's up for auction (as usual) on Daily Paintworks. Click here to view the auction .

I got an email from John, who saw one of my little kids at the beach pastels; he wanted to know before bidding on it if there might be any more to choose from before the auction ended. That's all I need to hear to spur me into painting a few more and getting them up onto my blog. Is there anything else someone would like to see more of? Send me your suggestions. If it appeals to me, I might try to do a few. I seem to have a problem on this blog, however, with receiving comments. Something to do with having changed my email address a few years ago. And I can't figure out how to fix this. So if you can't comment here, email me at margaret.dyer@icloud.com . Red Shovel Blue Shovel is up for auction on Daily Paintworks. Click here to view auction.

This is a pastel of Meg and Victor, one from a photo of a day at the beach quite a few years ago, but just completed today. It was a gloriously sunny day on Tybee Island, near Savannah, GA. Right now the skies outside my house are gray, it's thundering, the rain is beating down on my gloomy and darkened house. I love these kinds of days, when I feel safe and secure and the only thing to do is have a cup of tea. Which is exactly what I am going to do right now. I'll sip it by the window and watch the storm. "At the Beach with Auntie" is an 8x10 pastel, up for auction on Daily Paintworks. Click here to view the auction .

When I hire a model for a one-hour photo shoot, I may get 200-400 shots, maybe 10 of which I find worth painting from. I'm not a good photographer; my photos may even be out of focus. But they will give me the information I need: gesture, lighting, the subject's relationship to her environment, suggestions of color. What I don't necessarily see in the photo, but which becomes evident as I finish the painting, are things like the repetitious pattern of the windows and the foreground on the chair--a pleasant surprise to me. I like skimming off the tips of elements in a painting...the top of her head, the back of the chair, the lower portion of her skirt and flowered fabric. By doing so, I've created an overall abstract effect. This 8x10 photo is available on Daily Paintworks. Click here to view auction. I used to be a purist: only work from life . In the art world – at schools and among artists – there was a definite bias against using any sort of photography refe...

These are my two daughters and there's little Victor, my grandson. He's not little any more. Now he's an 11 year old rock star. In my eyes anyway. You should hear this kid play the guitar. Takes after his Daddy and his Grandfather, my first ex. Oy. This is an 8x10 pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord, available at auction on Daily Paintworks.