Still Inside the Galerie des Glaces

This was actually the first sketch I did. One naturally looks up to the ceiling, plus my views toward the windows on the left were blocked by the masses of tourists, so it became a vertical sketch.

The Hall of Mirrors, or Galerie des Glaces, was started in 1678 by Mansart, who filled in a terrace and took over a few interior rooms to create this space.  It is symmetrically on axis with the vast view of the vast gardens.  For me, though, it was difficult to see the view out from the space.  I had originally thought I could have drawn the axial view to the gardens for my Gabriel Prize project, but it was too hard to see with the windows/doors closed to the outside.

Mirrors were extremely expensive to produce during the 1600's as the technology of the time made it very difficult to produce large sheets of glass...but workers were brought from Italy and the glass was made.  Today we don't see them as particularly large panes of glass, but it was a major production triumph and a major expense for that time.  To the courtiers, it must have been quite spectacular then, as it is still pretty over-the-top spectacular now.  After so many dark rooms throughout the palace, it is a relief to get to this space which sparkles with light and gold.  And after all, Louis XIV was the Sun King.

Difficult to draw and full of people, the Galerie des Glaces still
shimmers.  It was great to get the special permssion
to draw inside the chateau--my thanks to the Versailles Museum
for the opportunity.

Inside Versailles

It took weeks to get the letter--special permission to sketch inside the château of Versailles! In August, I battled the massive crowds and made my way up to...that's right, you guessed it...the Hall of Mirrors...straight to the most difficult but most iconic space to draw.

I showed my letter to the guard, who read it many times and made several phone calls until finally, her boss arrived.  She granted me permission to set up my sketching stool INSIDE the cordoned off area at the end of the hall.  So feeling very self-conscious, I climbed over the barrier, sat down, looked up, and felt totally overwhelmed.

It took a long time to do these sketches, and it was so fatiguing, my brain was mush by the end of the day.  There was just so much visual information, not to mention the hundreds of people passing by my right ear.  Of course I couldn't pull out my paints (can't get watercolor on the silk!), so the sketches were painted later.

I'll post one today and the next one tomorrow...

Special permission to sketch inside Versailles, the Hall of Mirrors!

Paint Out

This week, I'm up on beautiful Samish Island for the Northwest Watercolor Society's painting retreat called PAINT OUT.  It's a great event, about 50 watercolorists all together in one large room painting up a storm.  We're fed great food, stay in rustic cabins, and enjoy the inspiration, the amazing setting, and camaraderie.

Also this week I became an official signature member of the NWWS!!!! It's a wonderful honor.

My time here is usually spent painting landscapes, but my goal for these precious days is to finish up and add final touches to my final Gabriel Prize paintings.

See the location and the progress painting below...

4 of the 5 sequence paintings of the gardens at Vaux le Vicomte, in progress...more to do!

A beautiful day, the view out the window toward the bay and Mt. Baker

Such a beautiful landscape here, this will likely become a future painting.  This was taken out the window on
the passenger side while the car was moving!

Just Me and the Ghost of Le Nôtre

My initial Gabriel Prize proposal was to investigate the collaboration between Le Nôtre, Le Vau, and Le Brun at 3 french châteaux, but after visiting the sites and getting to know them quite well, I modified the project to study the clever use of perspective in the design of the gardens.  

Created during a time when the rules of formal perspective were relatively new and celebrated, Le Nôtre and his peers studied art, architecture, gardens and plants, mathematics, optics, philosophy, painting, and more.  The trio--and in particular landscape architect Le Nôtre--incorporated a broad range of the knowledge of the day into their work.

Le Nôtre used all kinds of tricks to manipulate the experience of the space, and I became somewhat obsessed with the grading changes in the ground plane in particular--so, so clever--subtle ramping of the slopes up or down to change the vanishing/focal points, dark hedges punctuated with white water fountains and statues, clipped trees that become massive long walls of vibrant, glowing green.  If you removed the Baroque ornamentation in these gardens, they would be very modern, formal landscape designs.  By DRAWING these gardens, I learned so much and finally developed a sketching style I really liked as well.  In my world, that is HUGE.

When I told Versailles' Chief Landscape Architect Pierre-André LABLAUDE that I would go into the gardens so early in the morning that I'd be the first person there (I stayed in a hotel literally across the street, and I WAS the first person walking the grounds!), he laughed warmly and said it would be just me and the ghost of Le Nôtre walking the paths.  He was right!!  After so much time in the gardens, I rather felt that Le Nôtre and I had become friends.

For those interested in the technical aspects of perspective, look closely and you'll see the vanishing points, the horizon lines, etc. that helped to draw the sketch accurately and revealed Le Nôtre's secrets.

These sketches were done on site and are in order from the first view of the gardens near the château, to the 6th view at the very end of the canal looking back toward the château in the distance.

Learning from Le Nôtre

With my Gabriel Prize project, I spent quite a bit of time at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. The landscape architect Le Nôtre (and this year is the 400th anniversary of his birth, so exhibits and celebrations are happening at all the châteaux he worked on), the architect Le Vau, and the interior designer/painter Le Brun all collaborated with each other in the mid-1600's to create both châteaux and vast gardens... which had a big influence on centuries of design.

In particular, I spent quite a bit of time in the gardens.  They are HUGE, the scale at Versailles is truly overwhelming.  I think I walked the grounds for days, and I was always faced with a dilemma:  do I spend time walking around, seeing and learning things, or do I sit and spend the time sketching and seeing less?  I tried to strike a balance, but it was difficult.

This is one of the sketches from Versailles that was part of a sequence through the spaces of the main axis.  Tomorrow, I'll post the entire sequence.

Learning from Le Nôtre

I learned so very much from doing these drawings, it was if I was peering directly into the mind of Le Nôtre as I discovered his use of perspective in the design. I never would have understood these things by simply snapping a photo. This learning through hand drawing and direct observation of architecture is the very premise of the Gabriel Prize award!

For example, note that the water in the distance appears to be tilting up!
Of course, the giant canal can't tilt, it's the plane in front that in fact ramps down...and look at that clever Le Nôtre...he places a sculpture/fountain right at the vanishing point for that sloping plane.  In fact, the head of Apollo IS the vanishing point, and the shape of the sculpture is a low, flat triangle that virtually completes the apex of the triangular grass area.

The walkways feel busy and populated--and they are, with carved topiary and white marble statues that punctuate the walk and contribute to the sense of perspective.

My favorite church, Saint Eustache

This was probably my favorite church in Paris--so noble, usually few people inside, and it feels very real somehow.  Saint Eustache is near Les Halles, which is basically a big construction site, so it was hard to get a good view of the exterior.  It was built between 1532-1632 and is a great example of high gothic architecture.  According to Wikipedia, Mozart chose this location for his mother's funeral, Louis XIV had communion here, and Moliere was baptized and married amidst this stone.

I went to sketch it on one of the really HOT days in Paris hoping it would be cool inside, but I happened to get there 10 minutes before closing.  Darn.  I did make it back several days later, as I was determined to do a sketch here before leaving France.

This particular day, I walked in and discovered organ music filling the cavernous space.  It seems there was a woman giving lessons, as several students were lined up waiting for their turn on the giant organ. What a sense of power it must be to press the keys and have that glorious sound fill such a huge church!  It was magical to sit and sketch while listening to this music.

The top of this sketch is literally the pipe organ directly above my head.  The ceiling was particularly hard to draw...I wish my sketch did justice to this magnificent building.

Paris. Saint Eustache...large image so you can see the detail.

Three thousand five hundred and seventeen...

Now that I've had some time to scan images, this marks the start of posting more of the sketches from France, Italy, and Spain that didn't make it onto this blog before...

I just checked my Flickr page and somehow, this view (which I do NOT consider to be one of my best) has received 
3,517 views and 64 favorites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's the most of any sketch I've ever done by far.  I have no idea how, why...but this phenomenon is pretty wonderful.  I suspect this sketch somehow captures an aspect of Paris that appeals to people?

It was HOT evening, was wonderful to sit with the Paris Urban Sketchers and Paul (I hope Paul continues to sketch with the group!), listen to swing music where I was sitting, Tango next door, and take in the activity along the banks of the Seine...pretty magical.

Summer Evening watching the swing dances along the Seine, Paris...

Back in Seattle, up and down...

After my wonderful time in Paris (and Italy, Spain, and Holland!), it is taking some time to adjust to life back in Seattle.  So I took about a month off from posting.  Thank goodness, the weather has been unusually warm and sunny--probably the nicest summer on record here.

I continue to enjoy sketching the really wide and tall views--something about the expanse provides a good challenge to my knowledge of perspective, and it also gives a broader sense of the space.  I hope to do more and more of these!

I also am finally scanning many more sketches from Paris, so look for more images from this summer on this blog coming soon!  
I'm also planning my Civita workshop for next July, so if you are interested in participating next summer or information, let me know!

Seattle Waterfront from above the Viaduct...

Seattle Viaduct from below...