SHARING WITH ME

A friend from Canada has been staying with me for a week after competing in the International swimming champions in Italy. A childhood dream was to visit Mont Saint Michael in Normandy. Light years ago I had worked in Saint Malo and visited the site many times but was interested to do so again despite the rumours that the new car park was over 2 kilometres from the actual Mount and navettes were rare commodities. The walking doesn’t worry me.  Chateaubriad island late afternoon The other place which I love is Saint Malo. Without any doubt it is one of the most beautiful beaches I know. Some five kilometres long. Shells ? Walking along the beach While the main attraction of St-Malo remains its grandiose walled citadel, all and sundry are also drawn by what lies on the other side of the ramparts. The falling tide reveals several sandy beaches of fine white sand and a cluster of rocky islands that may be reached on foot. The latter are home to a variety of fort

M.S.M. At the beginning of next month but in the meantime...... One of my favorite places..... And where is this ? 

Nikki or I prefer Nicky, is passionate about many things. Her work, art, reading and now a new discovery for me - gardening. She spent a good two hours on my balcony yesterday re-planting, planting and talking to my plants in general. It’s a pleasure for me to see this energy and an activity which pleases her so much. Pantheon in the background View at the right Central view with Notre Dame And there is another passion which has crept into her sculptures. Animals. I crack for many animal sculptures and really enjoyed «L'Animal dans tous ses états» at the Musée des années 30 a month or more ago. (" Reassuring or Otherwise:" 17th May ) Nikki’s animals can never be repeated. They are single pieces so when she gave me her baby snake for Mother’s day, I was enchanted. She had made a larger one but not for me as it is basically an incense burner and I am not an incense lady ! But this little one which I have given the ridiculous name of «Pinky» has found

These days I do not make the effort more than once to look at something, an artist’s work or an installation unless it «speaks to me». It’s very rare that an installation does that. Sol Lewitt’s work which I discovered in New York - was it in the 80’s?  - didn’t at all. I have never made an effort to go and see his wall paintings as I didn’t see the point. Laurent and Jerome would call them wall scribbles....and yet are they? 
 This is an unprecedented retrospective in Europe of Sol LeWitt’s work (1928-2007). This comes from the Pompidou Metz home page relating to the exhibition. "In the 13,000 square feet of Galerie 2, the Centre Pompidou-Metz is hosting a retrospective of Sol LeWitt's wall drawings on a scale never seen before in Europe. The selected thirty-three wall drawings, the largest group ever exhibited in Europe, span the artist's career from its beginnings to his final works. Chosen from the 1,200 wall drawings which LeWitt created between 1968 and 2007, t

How do you start talking, writing or getting your thoughts straight about the Great War of 1914-1918? This is a huge multidisciplinary exhibition which gives an immediate view of one year of the war. «1917». Why this particular year was of extreme diversity and overly creative, I do not know. It is not an exhibition that you go from picture to picture, photo to photo or object to object - not unless you are a historian and know a lot about that period. I certainly knew something about what was going on in the art world but seeing it in this context is entirely different. One of the many propoganda posters  Time needs to be taken to read the texts, study the artifacts, look at the propoganda   and try to understand just what was going on artistically, in the battlefields and how did the war artists (eg. Pierre Bonnard,1867-1949,  Edouard Vuillard 1888-1940...) and artists who were called up such as Otto Dix, (1891-1968) cope with what they saw. Otto Dix - Destroyed villag