Carnet de Voyage - Aquarelles from Normandie

A very happy and productive week with dear friends - Lois and Phillipe in Normandie. Endless painting and sketching combined with lot of laugh, wine and sea-food. Astonishing beauty of the cold (!) sea , landscapes, towns, villages , forest , rain , running clouds. Wind , rain , sun , rain , sun again. You never know if you need the jacket or sunglasses , frequently you need both. Horses , boats and sunsets . Too emotional - to describe it . Come to see photos and paintings !



Église Notre-Dame de Dives-sur-Mer , Normandie, France
Watercolor, 30 x 20 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015


Dives-sur-Mer , Normandie, France
Watercolor on cold pressed 300gr ARCHES
Size: 15 x 25 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015


Seaward
Watercolor, 30 x 20 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015 - in Cabourg, Normandie, France


Rain is coming. The coast of Normandy. 40 X 20 cm
So windy that my box with colors was cowered with sand in few single seconds.
Watercolor (not recommended in such weather conditions).
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015 - in Cabourg, Normandie, France


Ebb Calm The coast of Normandy.
Watercolor, 40 X 20 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015 - in Cabourg, Normandie, France


Seagulls on the North Sea.
Watercolor on cold pressed 300gr ARCHES
Size: 15 x 25 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015 - La Manche, France.

Three of us ( Andre, Vanessa and Lois) started plein air day in sunny and warm day. Then , in few minutes, it turned into heavy storm and we run into the church . You never can plan for the weather in Normandie ! So, we had to return to this village in another day - to finish our paintings.



Notre Dam in Aubervile (Normandie , France)
Watercolor, 31 x 23 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015

Beautiful Normandie

Kites above La Manche
watercolor, 40 x 30 cm
© VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015 — in Cabourg, Normandie, France.



Here we are, in beautiful Normandie.
It's France, but it's different . Humid breath of La Manche and spectacular sky. You can feel the sea everywhere , even when you are not on the cost. Shorts with raincoat , flip-flops with jersey, sunglasses with umbrella - everything that doesn't seem logical in other places , but makes sense here , in Normandie


Petite aquarelle de Normandie
Watercolor on Hahnemühle paper , 21 x 15 cm .
© VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015 — — in Cabourg, Normandie, France.


Dives-sur-Mer (Basse-Normandie, France )
watercolor, 30 x 20 cm
© VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015


It's pretty old, 12th century church .
Notre Dam in Aubervile , Normandie , France
Watercolor, 31 x 23 cm
© VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015


Path trough the forest, Normandy
watercolor
© VANESSA STASHINSKI, 2015

Normandie : Cabourg , Dives-Sur-Mer and Houlgate

We loved Normandie!

CABOURG
Every day at 5pm huge ebb . Sea is sucked inside , leaving crabs and shells on the wet sand. Ponds mirroring the sky . Everything is light-blue , calm. Brave French dressed very light , barefoot , children are splashing in ponds.



No matter how hard you try to do it well - selfie always looks a bit silly ! ( Photo above)

Lois and Andre are painting the ebb. Half an hour earlier the sea was here ! ( Photo below)



Ebb Calm The coast of Normandy.
Watercolor
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015 - in Cabourg, Normandie, France


Vanessa is painting the sunset from the balcony with new-brand watercolors . There are dots of DANIEL SMITH . Great quality ! Thanks to mom and mom's friends who brought it from States.


Here are Lois and us together . Phillipe was photographing . "Big Hair" - he said.


And here is another try to capture all four of us, together in one shot. Made lot of laugh doing this



DIVES-SUR-MER
What a lovely place !



Very nice church , and also it was useful - we hided from the rain under the arch !



Painting is almost done ...





HOULGATE and around it

Houlgate is rainy town. It's shiny and sunny , and then switches to the rain with no any warning.
Next photos are about : (1) the rain in Houlgate, (2) We escaped inside cafe because of rain ( 3) sketching in rain , etc.





And then the rain, thanks God, stopped for a while - and we are sketching outdoors !
Philippe was the project manager !



Each time we went to the fores - rain started again ! It took 3 attempts ( in 3 different days) to reach it with no storm , but we did ! Hurrraauu !





Beautiful in it's minimalism 12th century church of Notre Dam in village Auberville. We came in the sunny day , said "wow, awesome" and run to paint . In less then an hour 'the typical Normandie weather" switched to the serious storm . Happily church was opened and they invited us inside. It was an exhibition of ritual garment - embroidery and handmade ornaments, etc.
The rain passed and "our light" passed. We had to return another day - to complete our paintings.

Friends

This post is about our dear friends and their place.


Pukeko in the garden
watercolor
@ VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015

Our fantastic "French Holidays" happen thanks to Lois and Philippe , who invited us. It was such a fun together ! Very warm memories and lot of paintings to show.

We sketched and painted together, but except of professional field we just had a very pleasant time - talking, cooking, going to other places, picking mushrooms and shells (!) , meeting people and so on , so on .

Lois is an artist . At time of our stay there all three of us were doing watercolors and live sketching , but she also doing oils.


@ Lois Pougnet


@ Lois Pougnet


@ Lois Pougnet

Philippe is a serious man, he is a scientist . But he was just wonderful : so sweet and patient to three of us ( you understand what I'm talking about if you ever travelled or lived in company of artists ;-) ) It took about a week : seeing us sketching everything and everywhere , he suddenly begun to sketch too ! ( Again , will show you if / when receive permission ! )

Other members of the family lives pretty far away. But here is TUI - 14 y.o. , but still in good shape ! Tui was deeply involved in all our forest activities and he was supervising kitchen , painting and other house-keeping works as well.


Sleeping tight.
Watercolor .
© VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015


Le fauteuil de bonne maman
Watercolor, 21 x 15 cm
© ANDRE STASHINSKI 2015


Geranium in the Lois's garden.
Watercolor.
Ⓒ VANESSA STASHINSKI 2015

Plein Air - Jacaranda Workshop

Here is the season of jacaranda blossom once again.

Sketching this week , "hunting" jacarandas for workshop with students at Thursday and  Friday.

Workshop with kids - selfie

Had a chance to work with group of wonderful kids ( 6 to 10 years old). I decided to give them difficult subject - to paint self-portrait , and we did an exhibition after.
It was very interesting process of thinking and taking decisions.
" I don't want to draw nose ! "
" May I draw myself in hood ? "
" I want it black and white!" 
" I don't want to draw portrait . I'd better will draw an apple"
" I don't need anyone teaching me to draw. I know to draw perfectly"
" Selfie - it's painting of inside"

They were twenty and they kept me full time busy. Too busy to take photos of them  - and I bet there were wonderful shot if I'd be able to do. However, I did few.
"How I make brown color?"
( Coming to me for help ) "Can you please to draw my nose ? But I want it in shape of  L ! "
I found that many kids has kind of complicated relations with their noses and ears. Hmmm... it's interesting why that ? These parts seem not important to them.

 As we started our workshop , the girls immediately separated into the "Group of Ladies Only" and only one little boy was allowed to stay in their matriarchal community . Probably he was a little bro of one of those Amazonas.

This boy in green (on the photo below) had no patience to listen and no interest to participate. Of course he was allowed to manage on his own. I was so fully busy with other 19 kids that didn't mention him drawing aside. When we finished our workshop and I collected their paintings. In the way back I found one more painting on the ground. It was very expressive and colorful and I took it with me. At my return children were watching movie and only the boy in green was playing alone. He has seen me coming with the painting in my hands and said:
"It's my painting, but I confused the direction ( was asked to do it horizontal) , so I threw it away."
"Never mind" - I said. "It's very expressive and I like it"
"I look here as a monkey" - he said
"No, not at all. It needs a little fixation and it can be wonderful work" - and I showed him how to fix some minor problem there. Suddenly he got a mood to fix it himself and to add some more details.

I was observing with interest - he really was deeply into it !