Catherine Stock's Blog, page 7

3D

When the Monday night life drawing group started up four years ago, I was doing what I referred to as Boudoir Haiku, very simple drawings with watercolour washes.  Then I discovered white paint and big brushes and am discovering form using large strokes of gouache. I am now thinking that I would love to start modeling in clay again to really explore the third dimension. Here are four sketches from last night's class.

Circling

Friends surprised me this morning at ten to find me in bed. Very embarrassing as I had turned down their dinner invitation because I have an end of April deadline to finish a book.

I explained that I need to faff around  most of the day before the panic builds up and I am able to overcome the negative magnetic field repulsing any approach towards my drawing table.  I don't know why this happens. Once I actually start working I really enjoy it, but this happens day after day, and then I work until three or four in the morning.  One of my friends compared it with a bitch needing to circle and circle relentlessly before giving birth to a litter of puppies.  OK, I can relate to that.

This is an illustration for the book, Ready and Waiting, for Eerdman's. I haven't quite worked out how to resolve the faces and wish I could leave them blank, but the editors will have none of it.

Piazzolla and pizza

Fabulous drawing evening last night. We had the lovely Marie-Camille down from Paris posing for us. She came in a silky short black chiffon dress, her long legs in black stockings, and set it all off with a large flower pinned in her hair which was always the first thing I drew. She slowly danced, occasionally freezing in a position, to Piazzolla, Tiersen, and Laya Chithra while we all sketched frantically.

At our break Daniel, our mayor, disappeared and returned five minutes later with two hot pizzas for us to munch on with our wine. The Rignac Café is serving pizza every Monday night.

Olé!

Chez moi

When I was in Cape Town, I couldn't understand why I ever left. When I was in Zimbabwe, I wanted to up stakes and move there. But now I am home and energized from my holiday.

Last night the life drawing group convened for our Monday session after a long pause. My first effort was rubbish but the second one is better.

I have a writer in my Winter Cottage for a month, working on a book on Daniel Defoe, and was able to persuade her to pose for us.

A student last year told me she had a teacher who worked only with square brushes. I have never worked with a square brush before, so tried it. Square brush strokes tend to give a nice strong angular effect and I could see why one would get fussy students fiddling around with little brushes to use them.

I need to rework the neck to more clearly define her pearls on the right, which are blending into the neck to make it too wide. Then I think I will be happy.

Worudzi- the whistler

People keep telling me how lucky I am to live in France and are totally unsympathetic to any woes, groans, kvetches, etc emanating from moi. Well let me tell you that winter in a draughty cold stone barn when the temperatures plummet to -19C and all you have to heat the joint is a small woodstove is no picnic.

I have just come home after two weeks in Zimbabwe and believe me, forget what the newspapers have to say, it's definitely the destination of choice in February. Cape Town ain't too bad neither.

These photos were swiped from my sister's website, except for the one of the penguins which was taken with my point&shoot. Rex, the lion, grew up in Vanessa's house with two other young female cubs.

My brother-in-law, who speaks fluent Venda, tells me that the farm workers call me Worudzi because I am always whistling. Kind of cool.

Back to 17th century French rural life

People keep telling me how lucky I am to live in France and are totally unsympathetic to any woes, groans, kvetches, etc emanating from moi. Well let me tell you that winter in a draughty cold stone barn when the temperatures plummet to -19C and all you have to heat the joint is a small woodstove is no picnic.

I have just come home after two weeks in Zimbabwe and believe me, forget what the newspapers have to say, it's definitely the destination of choice in February. Cape Town ain't too bad neither.

These photos were swiped from my sister's website, except for the one of the penguins which was taken with my point&shoot. Rex, the lion, grew up in Vanessa's house with two other young female cubs.

From surf to turf

From Cape Town I flew to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe where my sister Vanessa and her husband collected me and two friends to take us down to their farm, Sentinel on the Limpopo River. It is a very special part of the world: a land of dinosaur fossils (including the most complete massospondylus speciman in Zimbabwe), ancient African kingdoms, bushman paintings, and magnificent wildlife. In the past, inhabitants of the house have included a young zebra, three lion, and an assortment of bizarre looking reptiles. I have snagged a photo from Vanessa's website, www.sentinel-eco.com for my blog. Check out her website for some more really terrific photographs.

Tomorrow is Vanessa's birthday and her adopted son Robert has crossed the crocodile infested Limpopo to buy eggs in South Africa so I can make my chocolate almond souffle cake. Our eggs were too shaken up on the drive down from Bulawayo and the yolks were damaged so I couldn't separate the whites from the yolks.

Update: After nervously waiting about two hours for Robert to return with new eggs, I was greatlyrelieved when he arrived, in spite of not having found any eggs. I managed to whip some salvaged whites and fold them into the cake batter but no sooner had I put the cake in the oven when we had a power failure. The poor cake was bundled into the Landrover and taken to the camp kitchen to bake. It rose dramatically but collapsed as soon as we took it out of the oven. Delicious nevertheless but here is the recipe for those of you who live near shops and have proper kitchens and a reliable power supply:

Gauteau de la Reine (Queen cake- a French chocolate flourless cake recipe)

1. Melt 200 grams of butter with 200 grams of good dark chocolate

2. Cream six egg yolks with 200 grams of sugar

3. Mix 200 grams of ground almonds or hazlenuts with 3 tablespoons of Maizena corn starch, two teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Mix 1. and 2. Add 3. Whip six egg whites till very stiff and gently and briefly fold into mixture and pour into well greased round high cake tin with buttered paper lined bottom and stick in medium hot oven (350F or 180C) for 25 minutes. DO NOT OVER COOK. Should be very moist. Cool and dust with icing powder before serving. Nice with strawberries and rasberries and cream.

Blue

The fairest Cape. Only nine days to swim in the sea and bask in the sun. I knew they would pass in a flash of sunlight and they did.

From 40 F to 40 C

After the frigid and snowy weather in France, it was been a great relief to escape to Cape Town to visit family and old friends.

I am staying in one of my favourite places in the whole world, scruffy and chic little Kalk Bay.

Typical day begins with a plunge in Dalebrook tidal pool, breakfast at Kirstenbosch with an old antiquarian book dealer friend, lunch at the old wine estate Alphen in Constantia with other family friends, and dinner at the fancy and delicious restaurant owned by French chef Franck Dangereux, The Food Barn... I could definitely get used to this.

One thing for sure, I would rather die in fire than ice.

My blood is up!

Don't really have an image to go with this grumbly post, so I thought I would show off my new couch in the Winter Palace. (I have two cottages here which I refer to as the Winter and Summer Cottages, but a friend upgraded them to Palaces, I think just a tad ironically.) Red colour incidental.

I have just discovered that as a resident, I need to get a French driving license, and as New York State does not have a reciprocal agreement with France, I have to take written and driving tests to obtain one. The Préfecture referred me to a local driving school to prepare for these tests, but when I discovered that this was going to set me back a cool 600 or so euros, I objected. Finally the lady at the Préfecture allowed that I could take the tests after just one hour of practical driving with the school as a Candidat Libre. The written Code de la Route is notoriously difficult to pass and I am dreading it, but last night the school called me up to ask me why I hadn't been by to register. When I explained to the lady that I was being allowed to take the written test as a Candidat Libre, without having to attend driving school, she snorted. "You'll never be able to pass it without us!" she declared angrily, as she saw her 600 euros slipping away...

Thank you Madame. Your sarcasm has transformed my dread into determination!