Saturday, June 28, 2014

Painting the Siene




The Siene river flows right through the epicenter of Paris. For centuries, poets, painters, philosophers, and novelists have been inspired by the river.





There are 32 bridges that connect the Left and Right Banks of Paris and together they constitute one
of the major themes of Impressionist art. Renoir and Monet, often sharing canvasses, painted side by
side along the river. Today we followed in their footsteps and spent the morning painting side by side along the river Seine.



We took a workshop through Studio Pessemier and painted with Blair and Laurie Pessemier who helped us understand how to set up our supplies and the correct technique for plein air painting, which is painting outdoors. Plein air painting was started by the Impressionist artists and is a popular style of painting for many artists still today.

After our paintings were finished we walked over the Pont de Arts, which is a very popular bridge in Paris because couples come here to put a lock with their names on it from all over the world. The bridge sections get so heavy from all the locks that they break. They take down the panels when that happens and replace them. So, what happens to all those locks, well, Paris is known as the city of love and they couldn't possibly get rid of those couples' locks, so they store them in a warehouse forever. 
Next we took a boat tour along the Siene and can understand the artistic draw of this river. It was a beautiful day and the Parisians were out sitting along the river, eating their lunches, going for strolls along the river and sunning on the banks. We took many photos of the bridges so get ready, there just may be a "bridge" project of some sort in your future.



French phrase of the day:
Excuse me.          Pardon.         par-dohn


Stay tuned...



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