1st October - Visiting Giverny

Couleurs de Septembre
16.5" x 14.5", Pastel on Rembrandt pastel board (NFS)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Today we're picking up a car from the Gare du Nord and driving to Giverny.

The aim is to visit the Foundation Claud Monet which is where you can see Monet's house, his enormous water lily studio, the Clos Normand (the flower garden) and the water garden, the Japanese Bridge and the Japanese Prints. I first saw the house and garden after a morning spent in the Musée de l’Orangerie viewing the huge panels of waterlilies which were of course based on paintings of his water garden - and it's in certainly in my top tend of best days ever!

There are some posts I've written over on Making A Mark are relevant - see

• Gardens in Art continues - with Monet
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the flower garden at Giverny
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the water garden at Giverny
• Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas

Giverny is also the place where Monet painted his series paintings of stacks of wheat which I wrote about in October last year on Making a Mark.

Fortunately I constructed a list of links about Giverny and visiting Giverny two years ago when I was doing my Gardens in Art project on Making A Mark..

Links to information about Giverny include:

• The Claud Monet Foundation at Giverny FONDATION CLAUDE MONET, 84 rue Claude Monet, 27620 GIVERNY, FRANCE
• annotated map of the House and Gardens at Giverny
  
• The water garden (jardin d'eau) - 418 feet x 153 feet
  
• The flower garden (Clos Normand) - 380 feet x 240 feet
• Giverny.org
• map of the two gardens at Giverny
• aerial view of the gardens at Giverny
  
• an introduction to the two gardens
• List of plants and flowers in the two gardens
• flowering calendar at Giverny
• photographs of Giverny in the autumn
  
• Report on a lecture entitled "A Site for Sight: Monet in His Garden at Giverny, and given by Michael Marrinan, associate professor of art and art history. It focuses on changes in Monet's technique while painting Giverny.
• Royal Academy - Monet's gardens at Giverny
• Gardenvisit.com - Giverny Opening Dates and Times: April to October Daily 10am to 6pm
• How to get to Giverny from Paris

Making A Mark (04.09.07) - Gardens in Art continues - with Monet

Giverny - a great garden is the site I created as home to information about the garden.

I'm hoping we will also get to visit the The Musée d'Art Américain in Giverny. It's open from April 1st to October 31, 2008 every day except Monday, from 10:00 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Then on to Rouen and the cathedral there which Monet painted several times (see a photo of some of these paintings in the Musee D'Orsay in Monday's post). Read about the paintings in the post I did on Making A Mark - Monet's series paintings - Rouen cathedral

Links:

• Claude Monet - Resources for Art Lovers
• Creating a Series - Resources for Artists

30th September: Art shops in Paris

Where are the art shops in Paris which actually provide artists supplies and materials? This post attempts to answer that question - and provides me with a list of ones to try and find.

I finally found the trick to finding out where art shops in Paris. First you need to go to Google France and then put in your query - which need not be in French to start getting results. The trick is finding the search query which does not generate lots of galleries. I used "art shops Paris" to start with!

• Sennelier Art Shops (French website) There are three shops at 3 quai Voltaire 75007 Paris / Magasin do 4 Bis, Rue de lar FGrande Chaumiere, 75006 Paris / Magasin du 6 rue hallé- 75014 Paris. This is a very nice review of a visit to the shop and this is a Flickr photo of the pastels in the Sennelier shop! It stocks Caran d'Ache Luminance but these seem to be only marginally cheaper compared to the UK.
  
• Berthelot Sarl 184, Rue Faubourg St Honoré, 75008 Paris, France. I've not been but it look like it might be a bit like Cornelissens. This is a review posted on Google - although I have seen another which said something rather different.
  

carol curtis‎

By Carol - 22 Jan 2009‎

the BEST art center in the world!!! Without reservation..the BEST! I have shopped here for almost 16 years after stumbling on it during wondering tour of Paris. I have shopped here ever since by telephone and post. Treat yourself!!!!!!!!!‎

Just have a go at translating this French!

Fournitures beaux arts

- Toiles et chassis, standard et sur mesure
- peinture à l'huile, acrylique, aquarelle, gouache
- peinture pour porcelaine (Schjerning, Shira, Céradel)
- fours, pinceaux et brosses
- papiers (Canson, Stouls, Vinci, Vang)
- chevalets, coffrets, boîte aquarelle
- modelage, argile à modeler
- collection de statues en bronze, terre cuite, bois
- copies de tableaux, objets de décoration

• Maison Gattegno, 13 rue Grde Chaumière 75006 Paris - written about in this post My Candy Store in Paris Breakfasts
• Gerstaecker - Le géant des Beaux arts - an all French website with a shop in Paris at 166 rue de la Roquette 75011 Paris - although I haven't yet worked out what it stocks
  
• Graphigro has shops in the Third (13-15, boulevard des Filles du Calvaire ), Sixth (207, boulevard Voltaire ) and Fifteenth Arondissements.
• Dubois - Dubois SARL 20, rue Soufflot, 75005 Paris (inbetween the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Sorbonne) - indicates it targetd at professional fine artists as well as amateurs
  
• Esquisse - 3 rue des Beaux-Arts - 75006 Paris (Ligne 4 : Saint-Germain des Prés; Ligne 10 : Mabillon ou Odéon; Ligne 7 : Pont-Neuf) Stocks Caran d'Ache Pencils

ArtStage.Fr has a great basic list of art shops.

The Great Pencil Hunt, Part Two is a 1997 review of art shops in Paris by Ric's Metropole Paris

I V Y paris serves as a comprehensive hub for visual arts information and resources in Paris. Unfortunately it has not got categories so searching its archive of past posts is not easy - but it does comment on certain art shops in what's hot art supply stores (0nce you know that's the label to use!)

29th September: Gardens in Paris

I love visiting gardens and intend to visit gardens in Paris. Here's a short list - with links to Wikipedia - of woodlands, parks and gardens in Paris. I'm unlikely to get to more than two or three but will be trying!

Woodlands

• Bois de Boulogne on the west of the city
  
• Bois de Vincennes to the east of Paris
  

Parks

• Parc Monceau
• Parc du Champ de Mars

Gardens

• Luxembourg Garden (Jardin du Luxembourg)
• Palais Royal Garden (Jardin du Palais Royal)
• Jardin des Plantes - the main botanical garden in Paris
  
• Trocadéro Garden (Jardin du Trocadéro)
• Tuileries Garden (Jardin des Tuileries)

Another useful site is Paris Gardens