An artist in Paris!

What a beautiful and exciting city!

With accomodation in Montmartre we were located directly behind the Moulin Rouge and had a fantastic view of the Basilica. I found myself walking the same streets as Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Toulousse- Lautrec, Dali and even Banksy.

I also took the time to create art in this inspiring city, I sat and drew en plain aire and took untutored life drawing in the basement of this gorgeous Parisian bar in the heart of Montmartre.

Being an artist creating work in Paris was a real bucket list item for me and I am sure for many artists. A real dream come true.

I also took in many of the historical sights. Obviously many of these were artist locations and galleries. The Louvre lived up to my expectations, allowing me to view numerous artworks that I had learned about in my art history class many years ago.

The other stand out gallery for me was La Orangerie. This houses Cluade Monets water lillies, a series of eight huge panels on curved walls. it is such a emersive experience and often considered Monets most important work.

The other big part of this experience was to visit historic art supply stores. Firstly I visited La Maison Du Pastel. A pastel store which which dates back to the 18th century and sells hand made pastels. Some of the artist known to have visited this store and used these quality materials are Degas, Vuillard, Redon, Whistler and Winston Churchill. This tiny specialty store is only open between 2 and 6pm on Thursdays which makes my visit feel all the more special and the box of 6 small sticks were utilized in one of my Paris life drawings.

The other store I visited was Sennelier. This store has kept the same facade since the 19th century and is filled with antique shelves and counter tops. Artists who are known to have patronized this store are Degas, Cezanne, Picasso and a tube of Sennelier paint was found to be in Van Goghs supplies. Hockney is known to visit the store today. I was like a kid in a candy store looking at all that was on offer and purchased a bag of goodies which we then took across to the Seine and I did some drawing.

Although there is plenty more I could mention regarding those 8 days, this summary captures the artistic highlights well.