Oils and Pastels by Margaret Dyer

We went back to Paris Wednesday to go to the Musee d'Orsay and the Musee de L'Orangerie to see Monet's water lily paintings. Some of us window-shopped between the train station at the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay and made a few stops. We flipped through designer clothing at a boutique (not interesting to me because I ruin everything I wear) and bought a few things at  Sennelier , a world-famous art store in Paris since the late 1800's.  They make excellent quality handmade pastels and oil paints, products used by most artists I know. I really looked forward to walking through the Musee d'Orsay with my daughter. I wanted to be with her when she first encountered Degas' work (which we never found damnit). But what a thrill it was to come upon her almost in tears as she stood in front of "Birth of Venus" by Bouguereau. She also loved the Art Nouveau decorative arts section. As do I. She snapped photos of the beautiful carved beds. Should I bore ...

https://mailchi.mp/1c15b203acde/margaret-dyer-vernissage-2899389 Come and see the works of Kathy Kuryla, Ann Maree Healey, Deb Wicks, Diane Weissman, Sophie Curlee, Liz Glatzer, Brigette Marten and Christie Jackson, created under the direction of Margaret Dyer during a two-week workshop at La Bonne Etoile, Fontaine-Fourches, France. Friday, July 20, 2018, 6:00-10:00 p.m. https://mailchi.mp/1c15b203acde/margaret-dyer-vernissage-2899389

On Sunday morning we went to a brocant in a town about a half hour away. We meandered from table to table, picking up French things... I bought 5 mismatched glass knife-rests; Kippy sets her table with them and I thought -- what nice little things on the table. Now I'm going to have to invite people to dinner at my house so I can use them. I also got a couple of vintage posters: a French Charlie Chaplin poster and one illustrated by Jean-Jacque Sempe,  a well-known cartoonist here. Meg got the sweetest opalescent glass, silver- trimmed salt cellars, for which Kippy expressed her interest if Meg decided not to grab them. I told Meg not to let go of them. Monday, yesterday--we worked all day in the studio. Meg posed in the morning and we worked from our photo shoot images after lunch. We worked until we were called down to dinner around 8:30.  We chat while we work. When someone inadvertently drops a pastel we know immediately by the exasperated moan or cuss word (that could b...

After loading the van with easels and paints and canvases and picnic baskets, we had great aspirations to paint at the river side in Moret sur Loing, reenacting the impressionists' painting days. What a memory to go home with, and hopefully we'd have sweet paintings to capture the moment. We had ice cream instead. We left Kippy to be the lone dedicated artist. With our huge ice cream cones, the rest of us roamed through winding neighborhoods where the locals were preparing for their Bastille Day celebrations. Tents and loudspeakers were being set up, bands were preparing their stages, locals were arriving with their coolers. A couple of hours later we made it back to the river, where Kippy was still painting, and we set up a picnic table for our dinner. We sipped wine and gobbled down our pasta salad and tomatoes tossed with olive oil and basil, tabouli and cheese, cleaned up our area, loaded the van and headed out to the Chateau de Vaux Le Vicomte for the candlelit tour and ...