Musee D'Orsay

This is the facade of the D'Orsay Museum - formerly a train station for the Paris - Orleans Railway.  It is quite remarkable how extravagant the architecture and ornamentation is for something so pedestrian as a train station.

 All the towns visited by the trains are carved into the side of the building.

It is crowned by rows of elaborate sculptures.

Remember - this wasn't a palace - it was  a TRAIN Station!

View from the D'Orsay to Sacre Coeur.

Now onto a sampling of the amazing impressionist paintings....

Manet

 Degas

 Degas

Van Gogh 

Van Gogh 

Van Gogh

Maurice Denis 

Pissaro 

Sadly only got to see a snippet of a Monet waterlilies.  The Orangerie gallery which has most of the large paintings was closed.

 Renoir

Renoir

My Sister-Law Tammy!

(on display at my sister's house, not the D'Orsay)

BTW - i wasn't like the Asian school girls giggling through the salons taking selfies and not really LOOKING at the art.  I sat and studied these paintings - i just grabbed a few snapshots to remember this wonderful experience.

Opera model

One of several clock windows

Many beautiful marble sculptures.

A segment of a model of a door done by Rodin.

And here is a quick glimpse of the ACTUAL thinker at the Rodin museum, a few blocks away.

 Bear

 Ceiling detail.  this was a TRAIN STATION people!

 Another clock

 Interior shot

 Replica of lady liberty

 E and Dee at the D-Orsay cafe.

A brief pause for Limoncello sorbet and Kir Royale.  As one does....

Painterly ceiling decoration at the museum cafe - the original ballroom for the D'orsay Hotel.

 We were also able to see the special exhibit of Italian art from 1900 to 1950,

I loved this poster,

Not an impressionist work - but i loved this piece by Sartorio - 
part of the Dolce Vita! exposition.
What a magical relaxing therapeutic day we spent at the D'Orsay.  There are dozens of museums to choose from, and i am sure they are all amazing.  but with limited time, i think we made the best choice.

Terrie's French Themed Calendar

Continuing the Calendar Girls 2010 round robin project, here is the book i had the pleasure to work on for the month of February.

Terrie used a Van Gogh illustrated journal for her book, and decided on a French theme.  She is planning a watercolour workshop and tour later this year - so what a better way to get in the mood!

Her book had lovely romantic collaged pages - so i let my pages follow in soft blue and green tones. Someone once brought a bunch of fine art stickers to one of my classes for us to share.  So i knew i had some images that would work well with this theme.  On this page Terrie had added the blue printed paper and the Eiffel tower.  I added the small self portrait and the clipping of stone arches from a French dictionary. On the right side i added some additional paint strokes with Pitt pens and a sticker with the word for February to kick off my spreads.

My first spread had a painting with a sailboat - so i went with Le Mer as my theme. I applied some painted deli paper in blue and green tones.  I found the vintage photo of a woman renting sail boats at a park in Paris and added that.  I used splatters of white gesso to add texture and stamp Le Mer - only it should have been "la mer" since "The Sea" is apparently feminine and not masculine.  Oh well...

The next spread was blank - in that there were no illustrations on the two pages.  So i used several Degas ballerinas to create my spread. I used some printed soft blue paper, adding some french text and a quote about dance.  I added some lace, velvet ribbon and a tassle that echoes the blue skirt on the bronze sculpture.

The next spread had a Van Gogh apple orchard painting - so i went with a charming french countryside theme. One of the challenges working with these illustrated calenders is how to integrate the images to your collage.  On the right side i added some printed paper as well as a strip of stones and a strip of grass torn out of a magazine to "ground" the orchard.  At the top i used paint pens to fill in the sky.   The lady with a walking stick is from the Anthropologie catalog - and excellent source of lovely females! For a touch of whimsy i added the hungry birds and I know they are woefully out of scale - but i think that makes it fun!

On the left side i added a flap with a swirly printed scrapbook paper, that it evocative of timeworn stucco.  I added the stone arch door and the blue painted shutters i found in a book of Tuscany illustrations. You have to be careful with doors and windows so that you have something interesting on the other side! I added another out-of-scale blue bird to the top of the window.

Inside the flap you can see i continued the apple orchard with a photo of a blooming apple tree plus another Van Gogh art sticker.  I added a nice stone building to the back of my flap.

I love how the different elements all came together.  The dictionary definition for "arbre" completes the spread.