Hello PARIS!

Paris! What a vast and gorgeous city (duh) Snippets from our daily walks below...through connections made in the 80's when Frank lived in Europe for 8 years, we stayed in lavish style, met up with fabulous humans and took to the city on foot! 

Back on the Seine with his paint box...Frank caught the Pont Des Arts....

Picnicking on the Isle de la Cite 

Frank's office on the Seine. Sunrise sketching.

I had the delight of walking across the Pont des Arts to look across to another gorgeous bridge to locate Frank at work....

Sacre Coeur at night was gorgeous and quiet.....Then we arrived at Pete and Christian's sweet home for dinner and the night took on a very cozy mantle, below...

Marche aux Puces..Paris flea market north of city center. Endless alleys of sellers of all kinds of stuff.. We met  friends and ambled thru an amazing range of things from novelties and high end furniture, not even sure if we made any purchases...then lunch at a Paris brasserie followed by a sunny afternoon walking up thru Montmarte and Sacre Coeur (for a bit of Disneyland-OMG so fricking crowded)

Another morning on the Seine to catch the somewhat illusive sunrise. 

Satisfaction found!  Outside of a church mission called Les Grands Voisins. Amazing...

Friends Jean Marc and Kham led us to a hidden gem of a resto in Paris' Belleville, Le Mistral. 

Sharing a vat of chocolate mousse after a scrumptious dinner with Michael and Jaye at Chez Janou, Paris.

Hello Ladies! at the Musee d'Orsay...Bouguereau (1825-1905)

Italian Grotto in Luxembourg Gardens

     
And these three pics, caught from the quai on the Seine, as the sun set on my birthday...Thank you Paris! We are just missing Arlo...but he is off on his adventures, currently in Prague!

Inside the Jewelry Box, writing this blog, 6th arrondissement..thank you Sascha!

So easy to use the Paris metro....even Hazel grew accustomed to it. 

     

Fresh Paint for Frank's Website.....fbruckmann.com

I love early morning drop-offs for Jorgie's school bus when this awaits! Mt. St. Victoire is silhouetted in the center under the morning sky. Another seeker got out of her car to catch the light as I pulled away in mine...we gave each other one of those silent, "I get it" nods.

And how does this photo of a brand new gorgeous day relate to Frank's website? He updated it gloriously to include recent paintings from Provence and his Studio Still Life series from a few orbits around the sun ago....

fbruckmann.com 

Click it! Check it out! Any prices, sizes, inquiries upon request. Don't be shy!

In other Frank Bruckmann News...we are headed to Paris in a few hours for the school holidays...and will be the guests of friends Frank made decades ago in Paris while painting and modeling and dog-walking and starving.

Wood I?

Today's photo essay is brought to you by the trees, without whom we'd suffer horribly.  There is so much to notice and celebrate....think of all the essential things (air!) they provide for us...and then all the other things that make life gorgeous....

Following a winding path through pine forests above Rognes....

Detail from an old door in Aix-en-Provence...

The gnarly plein tree I seek out every time I walk the dog...

If you were thinking about trespassing in this village ruin, this would stall you for 3 seconds, at the most...We were tempted to steal it and hang it up at home...

       

A pair of "shelters" built simply of standard sheets of plywood. The burnt wood lines evoke veins on a leaf.  They are off in a corner in the Place de Precheurs in Aix-en-Provence. Contrasting against centuries old architecture and being a cool relief, but mostly they were functioning as a partial cover for a young kissing couple.

This gnarly woody vine isn't captured well enough in a photo...so Frank stepped in to translate it for you...onto the canvas....the photo below is a teaser, just a detail from his series in progress of the beloved vine...

Frank is capturing their graceful curves and responses to the wind and weather of Provence. We will post photos of these paintings as his series expands...

Trees, vines, wood, wine....we cannot have life without trees, and we cannot enjoy it as much without the vines! Hug a tree today!