The First Week Back

Georgian BaySt JeanBridge

30.10.07. It has been a busy week. I have done the usual housekeeping things, filled the fridge, bank, charged the flat battery of the scooter etc and have started working in my new studio. I’m not quite comfortable there yet but I keep moving things around so eventually I’ll find the best way of working. I have started two paintings of Georgian Bay based on colour sketches that I did there this summer and above is one of the finished pieces. I went on a hike on Sunday with my friend Claire from Montpellier. We hiked along the bank of the Buèges river from St Jean de Buèges. It was a warm, sunny day and for most of the walk the river was dry. En route back to Clermont we stopped at le pont de St Etienne d’Issenssac on the Herault to check out possibilities for my new series of paintings on the Herault.

Le Retour

new-house.jpg22. 10. 07. Back in Clermont after a great time in TO. It was great catching up with everybody and for those I couldn’t see this time, I will be back at Christmas! Uneventful journey back, Zoom to CDG Paris T3, over to T2 to catch the TGV to Montpellier and then bus to Clermont. Left TO 18.30 Sunday Cdn time and got into Clermont 18.30 French time Monday. It was sunny but cool here when I arrived. Looking forward to getting on with some serious painting.

First shoot

16. 10. 07. Today was Poppy’s first photo shoot. Jason’s friend Anna was shooting the cover of a community magazine for young parents and she had arranged to meet Poppy and Jason at the Brickworks. I went along as a minder/assistant. Poppy is a “natural” and she has begun her career earlier than her Dad as I didn’t use Jason on a shoot until he was 3!

poppy

Nearly 40

Birthday Boy

14. 10. 07. Today was the public acknowledgement that Jason was nearly 40. Many of Jason’s old and new friends gathered at The House on Parliament for an early (his birthday is actually on 18 October) celebration of this momentous event. Carole, Julia and Daisy flew in from the UK, Geoff, Sherry and Heather came in from Cobourg, Alan and Lea from Kitchener and the rest of us just rolled in from TO. Many of Poppy’s contemporaries also turned up as well, along with their minders! A good time was had by all!

More Merrickville

29/30. 09. 07. Spent another weekend in the studio and finally sold a painting to Pam Chiles who had bought two paintings from me previously. She chastized me on not using archival tape for mounting my paintings! Sunday was the day for friends to come by, Virginia Clark from Toronto and Roy and Suzette MacSkimming from Perth (Roy’s new novel Macdonald has had great reviews in the Citizen and the Globe). The other good news is that I met Judith Moore who has taken 14 of my paintings to hang in her gallery in Merrickville.