Catherine Stock's Blog, page 16

Beach critter

Painting Day in Thegra

Yesterday I was asked to participate in the jury for the annual painting competition in Thegra. I was immediately drawn to this colourful painting. "This painter is visually impaired so we will need to give him a prize too," said the organizer. "But I think it's beautiful!" I replied.

I gave it top marks. It was also the selection of the other professional painter on the jury, but we were over-ruled by the members of the town council who preferred a carefully rendered sepia drawing of a sto...

Forgery or fortune?

There is a superb piece in the July 12 and 19th issue of The New Yorker, by David Grann, on authenticating works of art.

Is one painting acquired at a garage sale for five dollars a real Jackson Pollock worth millions, and another exquisitely rendered young girl painted by the master Leonardo himself? Peter Paul Biro believes they are, and he takes on the establishment in the form of people such as the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of art Thomas Hoving in what reads like a gripp...

Daniel and Julia

Last night I had another sleepless night after watching The Most Dangerous Man in America- Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. I was living in South Africa in the early 70's and so didn't really understand the significant role Ellsberg played in ending the war in Viet Nam, but he has been referred to fairly frequently of late since the Wikileaks revelations about the war in Afghanistan.











So this morning I indulged myself and stayed in bed with Julia Child's My Life in France. Julia and I ...

Summer skies

Twice a week I have AquaTonique at the Gramat pool. The rest of the week I swim laps between 12 and 2pm, when the entrance fee is half price and the pool empty. The French take their lunches very seriously, especially on Sundays.

This is partly because my favourite stroke is the backstroke and I don't have to worry about colliding with anyone. I love looking up at the changing sky and just getting into a good breathing rhythm as I reach backwards with my arms and pull myself through the wate...

Cycling the Canal du Midi

Spent three days cycling the Canal du Midi. We started in Carcassonne and spent nights en route in chambres d'hôte in Marseillette and Argeliers. It was an incredibly beautiful bike ride, with views south over vineyards, wheat fields, and provençal villages to the distant purply Pyrènees. Loud incessant cicada's trilling accompanied us most of the way.

I confess I found it quite tough going, especially the second day which took eight and a half hours to cover 45 kilometers, admittedly with a...

Over ripe fried tomato

That's how I feel after five hours paddling down the Dordogne on a hot summer afternoon, despite numerous dips in the water. We covered almost twenty kilometers.

Got home in time to cheer the Spanish goal and the end of the World Cup. Yeay!

Tomorrow four of us head south to cycle the Canal du Midi which connects the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. It was constructed in the 17th century, amazingly enough.

Gouache

I have discovered something wonderful- white paint! Now instead of drawing with a soft lead or charcoal pencil and using a watercolour wash to add colour and form, I am sketching directly with paint and it's quite liberating. I am still using watercolours but have a big tub of white gouache that I mix with watercolour and am very pleased with the result. It's so rich and painterly, and exciting things happen to the texture of the paint. Here are some 15 minute sketches from last Monday ev...

Pow!

I was invited to participate in the annual summer show in the Château in Lacapelle-Marival this year. I sent in a few drawings, and attended the opening this evening, not expecting terribly much.

The standard of work this year however is very high. One painter who blew me away is former graphic designer Jörg Hermle, a Berliner who has a house in the Lot. I was immediately drawn to his work with it's strong design and colour. The imagery is playful yet very powerful and disturbing. Not only ...

Too much of a good thing...

Since moving to France, I have put on des kilos. At first I thought it was because I wasn't walking Thabo in Central Park for three hours a day the way I used to, so two years ago I got serious about exercise again: Gym Tonique three times a week plus a stretch class. Last summer I bicycled to Aquagym twice a week, and early this year took part in a 4 month cardiac research program involving three hours of speed walking a week.

This morning I had to be tested, measured...and weighed. I was h...