Life drawing

It's taken a while to find a location for life drawing. There are some famous drawing groups in Paris but they tend to be very full of people so it's not so interesting. Recently I was invited to join a small group of artists at an atelier. There are four of us once a week and the space is good and big. Nice energy there and big windows with good light. The model is excellent.
Here are some drawings from the last session. Each took about 20 minutes.




This is the atelier. Nice big windows. Nice light.

Environmental concerns? Find out more.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

This video is vital information on the future of the planet.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006 was a very good Christmas.
We spent it with Amelies parents in the south of France. It was good for many reasons but mostly because nither of us worked during the time and I could communicate well in French with family and friends who didn't speak English. On previous visits I needed to have an interpretator or to stumble through conversation. Finally I feel like I am in France.

The weather was uncommonly mild. The mistral didn't blow in from the Mediterranean and there was no snow. I could walk in teeshirt and jeans without worrying about the cold. I'm very warm blooded most of the time so that's not so unusual. However I saw some flys and
other surprising out of season elements.

It was very beautiful. We went hill walking and visited some of the mountain fortresses from Pre Roman times.

There was the usual amazing feasts which only the french can do. Eating for six hours straight and looking like you've just finished a salad is no longer a surprise to me. I can't do it though.

They tell me that they only eat soup for weeks after these events to get back into shape. Wine and dark chocolate are part of this diet. It's remarkable to me. Irish people don't think about food the way the french do at all.

There was lots of inspiration there. Beautiful light and amazing architecture. The landscape is wonderful. Many paintings and drawings will come from this.

The Norman Rockwell Museum

While I was in the states I met up with a lot of friends. Among them are the Tolkes. Some of the nicest people I know. Cathleen and Barbara are in this photo with me outside of the Norman rockwell Museum. It was an amazing experience. I never thought I would get a chance to visit here. Thanks to them I did. He was a fantastic artist. Really, really fantastic.

Apres Expo

Oh my head. I hope everyone else woke up feeling the way I do. That is, I hope they had a good time :)
There was a great turn out last night. About least sixty people came from those we invited and a couple of people wandered in from Bastile because they had just come from another vernissage. Thursday is a very popular evening for exhibition openings. Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great evening. Not easy being the host and answering questions and pouring wine all evening, all at the same time. Perhaps next time I'll get someone else to take care of the wine and food side of things.

Paris Exhibition

Carlton Arms-North Wall

Some more friends and the painting on the north wall of the tombs etc.

Behind Ron, Barbara, Katz, Hugho and Ariel is the bar on the first floor of the hotel. The bar is an actual guest room. It has to been seen to be believed.

Carlton Arms-Some details

The godess painting (Aisling withthe Apple branch) on the left and some friends (my brother is the one with the beard and no hat) in front of the reception area of the Carlton arms.

Carlton Arms-Room complete

We had a great evening last Monday. The room is finished and I've been invited back next year to do another.
It's a great place and I felt right at home.

On Monday the party was great and went on till very late. Lots of friends came from far and wide and the guests in the hotel joined in. The Carlton Arms knows how to throw a party.

I'm sorry that I didn't take more photos of the event but I'll post the few that I have later. There's a sense of anti-climax now that it's over but I had a great time.
I return to France on Friday. New York is great.

Latest Update

Latest update. Looking good for Monday. Carpets coming in in the morning and the last minute touchups after that. Lots of little grass stalks to paint between now and then.

Party

If you are reading this post you are invited to a party at the Carlton Arms hotel to celebrate the completion of the room. It's Monday 4th of December 6-10pm, 160 East 25th street. The red door on the corner. What rooms of the hotel are not occupied are party space.

See you there :)

Tom

The painting in the Carlton Arms is going well. I've got the guts of 2 walls done. Lot's more to do of course but here are two sections that are almost finished. I discovered that Banksty has done a room here and a wall of one hall too. Good company.

New York-indisposed

Hi
I won't be available for assignments from the 14th of November to the 7th of December. I'm painting/decorating a room in a New York hotel. There's a site below that gives you a short history of the place. I'll be staying there and exploring New York and it's surroundings in the time that I have free. Thankfully I've found a good place to go for lifedrawing. I'm really looking forward to it. After Paris, New York is my favourite city.

If anyone wants to call me using a local number in New York, there is a telephone number on my website. I'll always be contactable through that.

http://www.newyorkhotelstory.com/swf/flashFrameset.cfm

FIAC II

This is an image I like. The sculpture of the man and someone that looks like he could have been the model. Perhaps that's Erwin Wurm himself. This piece had a price tag of €85,000.

On the right:
The sculpture of the woman posing with the exagerated perspective is something that you normally see only in paintings or illustrations for comics. It's the first time I've ever seen the like in a 3D object. It works. Wang Du made several of these which were on exhibition.

Interestingly most of the sculptures are cast in resin, making multiple copies possible. But it also suggests that most people accept that plastics are more stable than bronze and will last for hundreds of years. Bad for the environment but good for art.

Fiac

Today and yesterday I visited the work on show at FIAC. The contemporary art fair held once a year in Paris. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of very good work. Some was surprising and there definately seems to be a two tiered system at work. In the FIAC Louvre exhibition the work is not so dynamic, if at all. The impression you get is a mix of student work and pretty good images or sculpture. It wasn't really impressive and almost put me off visiting the FIAC at the Grand Palais. I did enjoy the buzz at the Louvre though. There was some really bad, cheap looking, shock orientated/attempted stuff there. Bit sad.

The Grand Palais was a completely different affair. The Palais itself is an amazing building. So the setting was perfect for this event. As I entered the first thing I was drawn to was an exhibition of paintings in the gallery Landau (to the right in the photo). It has contemporary work with feet firmly planted in classical. Sometimes painting mixed with photography. Other pieces of glass sculpture which are abstract and interesting. The rest of the galleries had very impressive work too. Some excellent combinations of sculpture and painting to create optical illusions, others with very daring pieces of art.

Observing the body language of dealers was especially interesting. Some seemed to be almost like accountants, dressed in suits and lost in their computers, calculating the value of the work based on the insecurity of the stockmarket. Others were genuinely relaxed and aware, very human with the people they encountered. Particularly the Parisian galleries. I was impressed by the dealers and the work they had on display. Everything from latex abstract sculptures to beautiful portraits and digital prints (going for enormous amounts of money). It was a very worth while two days of exploration. I'll post more photos, perhaps.

Day in the Louvre

It went well. I've had my day in the Louvre. It was stressful but there was a very good attendance. Though I didn't enjoy it one bit. I was totally stressed beforehand and the space was so huge that everyone felt lost there. There were 20 artists and a huge amount of space between each one. It was part of the rules and regulations that we not cause a crowd or block exists etc so we had to be very spaced out. It looks great great on a CV.

Coming Events

Here are some details of upcoming events. If you would like more information please get in contact.

November 2006: New York, Painting a room of the Carlton Arms Hotel. Return December 2006

January 2007: France, Montreuil, 93100 Opening Life Drawing school. Monday & Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.

January 2007: I am teaching a two weekend long course on exercising the left, creative hemisphere, of the brain.

If you are in Paris and would like further information on any of the above courses please send an email to soilsiu@yahoo.com with the name of the course in the title, your name and contact details.

Louvre

I just got word today that I have two paintings and two drawings in an exhibition in the Carousel du Louvre this October. Pleased I am :)

Bardot

Do you know that Bridget Bardot is still going strong and writing pretty provocitive and honest books on social issues these days. I never really thought much about her until I met her son recently. We were working together in an atelier here in Paris. He's a decent bloke and talented. This photo is from an apartment that he was decorating in Paris. No particular reason for posting this, other than I found the photo while I was cleaning up my iphoto files.

Before and After

Click the photo to enlarge

It's been a while since I posted anything here. Been very busy. It all started about 32 years ago. That's when my wife decided that she was going to be a montessori teacher and have her own school. Her mother said she intended to have geese and goats in the school too but she seems to have changed her mind, for now. She was six when she first had the idea so you could say she is tenacious. Somehow I think there are goats on the way.

We took a ten year lease on a property in Paris. The first floor of an old warehouse. The lease was agreed about a year ago, long before we had permission to do anything with the property for education and long before we had the bank loan.

Finally when everything was in place and a month and a half before the school was due to open, we began construction. The guys who did the ceiling, wiring and the wall work were great. Seriously impressive. Money was getting tight and I designed and build the furniture. My father was a carpenter and I trained as a miniturist modelmaker before I decided to paint for a living.

Building the furniture saved a lot of expense. Besides that it meant that we could customise it for the schools particular needs. Each unit is on rollers and double sided. So that each has another set of storage units facing the wall. These can be turned around very easily and convert the class into an art room for life drawing and art classes and more importantly protect the montessori equiptment which is stored on the shelves. The life drawing and art classes will be on weekends, Wednesday afternoons and during the school holidays.

We worked weekends and each weekday till late. No breaks. Amelies parents came to help. We couldn't have done it without them. Her mother cooked so that we came home to a hot meal in the evenings and had a picnic during the day and her father did all the varnishing of the wood. That's about 800 planks and shelves.

Amelies montessori school will be for children aged 6-12. The life drawing and art classes are for adults except for on Wednesday afternoons when they are for children.

It's an adventure.