Catherine Stock's Blog, page 10

Done with the blues

Hey hey! Through persistence and diligence I have managed to track down my iPod! Dropped it in the plane and some kind soul picked it up and turned it in to Lost&Found at the airport.

Kittens have found a home- together. Yeay.

And my fab buddies cleaned up SIX Tony's at the Beekman.

La Dépeche review of our show

Rocamadour. Une exposition de qualité

Le village de Rignac, les amis et amateurs d'art s'étaient réunis vendredi 27 mai pour la 3e édition des « peintres du lundi » comme l'a si bien défini Daniel Wattier au vernissage de l'exposition « Entre Corps et Ame » qui s'est tenue dans la Galerie « La sirène du Causse ». Autour de Catherine Stock se tenaient Daniel Wattier (maire de Rignac), Jean Launay (Député du Lot) qui a rappelé qu'il était important de faire connaître la culture sous toutes ses formes et que la vallée de la Dordogne Lotoise est titulaire du label d'Art et Histoire. Sur le thème « Entre corps et âmes », Nicole Gemard, Patricia Larousse Guirbal, Clare Harries, René Laurensou, Bernadette Melinard, Sophie Raynaud, Jean-Christophe Rouzieres, Daniel Wattier, Catherine Stock, ont exposé leurs œuvres. D'admirables nus et portraits sous toutes les formes, figurative, concrète ou abstraite, aussi bien en esquisse qu'en huile sur toile ou sur papier, couvraient les murs de la Galerie qui sert également d'atelier aux élèves de Catherine Stock. Le beau temps étant de la partie, les invités ont terminé la soirée dans le jardin autour d'un buffet campagnard. Une exposition à voir et à revoir.

Landing home with a thump

Got home to Rignac to find these little critters in my laundry basket. Someone obviously had dumped them in my garden, knowing that I wouldn't toss them into the gutter. I have found a home for one but if anyone in the vicinity would like a kitten please let me know. They are extremely friendly and sweet and playful. I already have three cats and a dog.

The next thing was realising that somewhere between Stansted and Rignac, I lost my iPod. Can't imagine when or where it was taken or I dropped it.

And then this morning, cottage tenants who had booked for two weeks left abruptly without paying. Had to rush off to hospital due to cat allergies they said!

Trouble comes in threes, so let's hope this is it for awhile.

The Three Bears and more...

I was to arrive in England the day after the Edward Ardizzone show closed at the Illustrator's Cupboard Gallery in London. He and Ernest Shepard have to be my favourite illustrators and I was bitterly disappointed. However when I emailed the gallery, I was told that they would be happy to pull out some pieces to show me if I stopped in. I arrived on my last morning to find that the gallery only opened in the afternoon on Saturdays, but just as I was about to trudge off dejectedly, a young woman arrived and inserted her key in the door. She welcomed me in and pulled out all the pieces. What a treat to be able to pour over the pen and line work, and see where and when Ardizzone had reworked a small part of a picture. Sigh, if only I had a spare thousand pounds or two I would have gladly exchanged them for one of these exquisite little treasures.

A bit of Peter Rabbit country for 29 euros RT!

One of the great things about living in Rignac is being a 29 euro RT flight from London, so I pop over once or twice a year for some bright lights. Though this time I was collected at Stansted and whisked off for a few days in Suffolk for a bit of a seaside holiday: lots of long beautiful walks along the coastline and saltwater estuaries, fishcakes and scones with clotted cream in village pubs, a visit to Orford Castle and another to the small museum about Dunwich, once the second largest port in England which has over the centuries collapsed into the North Sea. On the way back to London we explored Constable country on footpaths and country lanes. This is the England I learned about as a small child in books about Winnie-the-Poo and Mrs. TIggywinkle...

Entre Corps et Âme

Daniel Wattier, Rignac's mayor and member of our Monday evening life drawing group made this preview of our exhibition which opens tomorrow in La Sirène de Causse gallery.

"Remembrance of Things Past"

An old friend from the Upper East Side on Manhattan is about to come out with the third volumn of her tongue-in-cheek cookbook, written by her alter ego Parsley. She asked me to contribute a naked sketch of Parsley and one of her lovers. I battled with this commission for awhile, and finally made a composite of some life drawings in my studio.

Totally off key! was the response. Parsley is a size 3, not 18. She is young, trendy and sexy. Her lover is black.

Oops. I realise I have completely fallen of the Style Ladder here in rural France where I spend my day weeding the garden in a frumpy paint splattered tee shirt, doing the NY Times crossword puzzle on the Internet, and searching through piles of rubbish to find small treasures in village vide greniers, or garage sales. I can't even imagine let alone remember my misspent youth as a young zizzy UES girl anymore.

This is bad. I am changing my clothes, gulping a spot of expresso, gritting my teeth and picking up my pen to recommence...

Flying

Instead of sketching with a pencil, I have churned out two, five, ten, fifteen minute and one hour paintings in the Monday
evening drawing session recently. I paint so fast that I have a quite breathless sensation of flying at times. In spite of the solid form of the model, I think the paintings convey this aerial weightlessness.

Nothing like good neighbours :-)

About a year ago, a young Belgian couple opened up a home made ice cream concession stand on the road to Rocamadour. A little while later, a long abandoned farmhouse on the intersection was bought by another young English couple and turned into a chambres d'hote, La Noyeraie. They also offer cream teas with fresh scones if requested in advance. At the same corner, Le Mas de Douze restaurant has recently been taken over by a delightful new French couple who have made their pool available to diners and even my house guests who want to spend an afternoon there cooling off.

I bicycled over the other day to introduce myself and invited everyone to dinner. I forgot that friends from New York who are restoring a house nearby were arriving the same day, and then suddenly my friend Lyle invited another couple, annual clients at his boutique who spend a week every summer visiting the local monkey park.

It was a gorgeous balmy summer evening and the garden filled quickly with not only the guests but their small children and dogs. Everyone brought sparkling white and red Cahors wine, vin de pêche, cabecou goat cheeses, tubs of artisanal ice cream and sorbet, and Belgian chocolates and even a New York cheesecake. Somehow I managed to serve everyone small grilled quiches and salads, magret with raspberry/cream/shallot sauce, sautéed new potatoes, and vegetables, and fresh minty chocolate mousse and strawberries. What with all the contributions from guests, it was quite a feast.

I unfortunately didn't take any photographs of the candle lit garden dinner, so can only post a photograph of my laundered table linens as evidence of our lovely evening.

The group paints itself

Yesterday afternoon the model called to cancel. She had a bad back and was in terrible pain. I called around but couldn't find a replacement, so when the group pitched up, I suggested we all paint each other painting each other.

Sometimes I think it looks like different artists painted my pictures.

Sophie is the mother of Marie-Camille, who sat for us two weeks ago. Daniel is our village mayor who needs to reissue my carte de sejour this week... Hope I get it!