Painters in Paris... Also at Rivoli street, 59 !

Maria welcomes me at her place for the week-end in Paris. Her flat looks like a museum, full of her wonderful and colorful paintings, so original. 

She comes from Spain, where colour is from birth. Born in Barcelona, she arrived in Paris in 1936. Sometimes we speak spanish, sometimes french. I tell her "you still have your spanish accent when you speak french." and she looks at me seriously "You mean Catalan !" 

In her art studio, she shows me some techniques. Even how to build a frame with wood and canvas ! We make some collage with a piece of the catalan paper la Vanguardia. And we listen to spanish music which is playing by chance on the radio. Luckily, we can see the Eiffel tower by the window to remind us where we are, because our mind has already gone to la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona...

I draw the little village surviving between buildings behind the window. And I do it again at night, colours change and it's funny to see all the windows light up such as little fireflies. I have to switch off the light to see outside, a bit hard, but if we make simple shapes we get by.

On the afternoon, I visit Juliette Plisson at her art studio at the artist group from Rivoli st, 59. Six floors of intense creation, painters, sculptors, artists of arte povera, photo-on-cloth transferers... A great culture dish !

Another drawer, Martine Kervagoret, joins us and we draw Juliette working, painting colorful views of Paris. That's the good thing of being part of Urban Sketchers, we always can find somebody to draw with !

I also draw the front of Rivoli Street, 59 building. A huge one with nice windows on its top. It doesn't fit in the height of my sketchbook, just bending the lines a bit... And I also draw the people passing by, looks like there's a Scotland Rugby match today ! 

I come back by subway, where I draw thinking of de lignes en ligne, Paris Subway drawers.

A nice artistic week end in Paris !