Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

After dropping off our bags off at Jerome’s apartment in the Latin Quarter, we checked Phil into his hotel room around the corner (where a ‘Love Box,” containing various and sundry interesting facilitators for an enjoyable evening for two, was displayed on the front desk and could be purchased for an additional 39 euros). We were told that Phil would have rose petals on his bed. We shall find out tomorrow if that's true. The photos below of Phil in the red room are taken in the dining room of his hotel; he seems to be waiting for someone to share the box with. We then drove to Clignancourt Flea Market and spent a couple of hours shopping; we saw probably 1/10 of the entire flea market. Ann, Judith and I left with our hands full of new possessions. If I had a sweet little Paris apartment, I could have furnished the whole thing in one shopping trip at Clignancourt. If I didn’t have to worry about the weight of my suitcase on my flight back home on Thursday, I could...

Yesterday we rolled up the carpets, slid tables and tabourets to the back of the room, vacuumed the floor, pinned our best work onto large foamcore boards and placed the boards on easels around the perimeter of the studio.  We took a break for lunch at a nearby truck stop, a routier, unlike any truck stop in the U.S., then returned ‘home’ to clean ourselves up for the vernissage. A vernissage (from French, originally meaning ‘varnishing’) is a term used for a preview of an art exhibition before the formal opening. In the 19th century, artists at the Royal Academy exhibitions would give a finishing touch to their works by varnishing them at the exhibition before the official opening. It became a custom for patrons and the elites to visit the exhibition during the varnishing. Our final night together: we had a late dinner after the vernissage with some invited guests; we sang (or some of us sang) show tunes with piano accompaniment. We all got up at 7:30 this mornin...

It rained today so we cancelled plans to go to the market or to the medieval city of Troyes; instead we finished up some pieces in the studio, getting ready for the vernissage tomorrow night. The relaxed afternoon gave use time to see what everyone else was doing, Barry even found a new model to work with, Thought you'd like to meet the artists: Judith Krone, Ann Pease Dodys, Deanna Fleenor, Barry Whitebook and Phil Yeh. Tomorrow is our last day of class. At 4:00 we will clean the studio, drape a tablecloth onto one of the tables we've been using for pastels, pick flowers from the garden for a centerpiece, set up a bar of champagne and munchies, then rush to our rooms to scrub the pastel off of our faces and change out clothes. Guests arrive around 6:00. I can't believe it's almost over. We've spent 2 weeks together, eating, drinking, working, exploring. We've gotten to know each other pretty well. It will be sad when people start d...

Dinner tonight was duck with wine sauce and braised peaches. And of course the plate of very ripe, almost oozing onto the plate Brie and Comte cheese. Dessert: cheese cake with strawberry sauce. Oy veh. Usually there are 2 conversations going on at the dinner table: one on Kippy’s end, the other at Jerome’s. Tonight I heard Barry, Judith and Deanna at Kippy’s end singing “Little Bunny Foo Foo went hopping through the forest…” On my right, Ann was seated between Phil and Jerome. “Hmm…” she mused as she heard the conversation down at the other end of the table, “Little Bunny Foo Foo or two PhD’s (gesticulating toward Jerome and Phil)…” weighing which conversation she would like to be a part of…”Little Bunny Foo Foo or two PhD’s…” again, as if it might be a difficult choice between the two, “I think I’ll stay here,” she decided. Sitting at the center of the table, I got distracted by the animated rendition of Little Bunny Foo Foo” on my left. I don’t remember ever having heard the ...

We loaded up the van this morning to paint en plain air. Barry was assigned the task of loading the van because of his attention to detail. He painstakingly took on the job, only to have it all undone by Kippy who had a bit more experience loading vans for multitudes of artists. Several of us stood back and watched as the van was emptied and reorganized, and reorganized and reorganized. I took pictures. We painted on the river bank at  Moret sur Loing,  the charming village on the Loing River, where Impressionist  Alfred Sisly  once painted. After our picnic by the river, we drove to  Fontainebleau  and spent several hours wandering through its opulent rooms. Records dating back to 1137 talk of a fortified castle there. Catherine de' Medici designed a garden there between the late 1500's and early 1600s. Louis XIII was born there. Louis XIV hunted there. Russian Czar Peter the Great was ...