It has taken me a few weeks to get back into my art work after having had a nasty accident which resulted in four broken ribs amongst numerous cuts and bruises.  I am now back into the studio on a daily basis where I balance my time between learning Italian, sketching and writing.  I intend to begin another painting soon and have my canvas prepared with gesso ready and waiting.  I am still motivated by the collection material from our European trip.  I loved the rich colours of Burano,  the antiquity of Rome, the pond and waterlilies at Giverny as well as the local cats, dogs and people.  As much as I love perusing art galleries I love finding art in real life situations.  In our studio I have a collection of found objects such as shells, leaves, seed pods along with a variety of pots, tins and vases.  The task  I have set myself  for the next month is to complete a sketch each day.  Apart from enjoying what I do I find it extremely useful to have samples  for my students who come to take art classes with me in addition to demonstrating the processes during the class.  I work in a range of media from pencil, graphite, coloured pencil, coloured inks, oil pastel, water colour or gouache.   I said 'Je suis desolee' and he said 'Non, c'est moi madame, c'est ma faute' as we got in each others way.  I could not resist taking his photo particularly as he looked so like the portraits on the wall!  The gentleman in question is below.

Red Pepper -watercolour pencil

 Marmottan Gallery Paris

 Paris 2013 - pencil

 Pear Study-watercolour