Peace,
-H$
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Nice and Cassis... Jacques Cousteau!
So I've finally gotten around to writing about Nice and Cassis, the two coastal towns I visited this past weekend.
On Saturday, we all piled into a bus and headed towards Nice. It's about two hours away from Aix, and it was just about the prettiest drive I've ever done. Leaving Aix, we went south east, passing the long part of Mont Sainte Victoire. That mountain is enormous. Climbing it next weekend, as I hope to do, will be quite the adventure. It's pretty tall, but what's most impressive is that its cliff face must stretch for three miles! Very impressive. Then we wound through the countryside, passing by small french town after small french town, and loads of rolling hills, all covered in beautifully scraggly brush and dwarfed, stunted trees. We passed by Cannes, where we got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean, and soon arrived in the aptly named Nice.
Upon arrival in the French Riviera, we got paninis at an outdoor cafe, and walked over to the pebbled beaches, where we met up with some of the other IAU kids. Most of the early afternoon, we floated in the clear blue water. It's impressive how far down you can see, and how steeply the shore drops off. You can get about 50 feet out and you're in 20 foot deep water. The really amazing part is that you'd really have to try pretty hard to drown, not only because of the total lack of waves and current, but because the water is so salty, should you get tired treading water or swimming, you can just relax and end up with all 10 toes out of the water, floating on your back.
After a couple hours of sea side play time, we decided to climb up to the top of the hill and get a good look at the city. So we walked up the maze of stairs and walkways leading to the top of a shockingly steep hill on the eastern edge of the city, where we found vast views and a waterfall. I was puzzled at how a waterfall could start at the top of such a steep hill, and nobody could really give me an answer, but there it was. After some serious photo taking, we wandered back down, through the market in the old city, and back to the bus that took us back to Aix via a restaurant.
The next day we woke up bright and early to go to Cassis, a coastal fishing village, still unspoiled by foreign tourism. After checking out the harbor and the shops for a half hour or so, we went with the same people we had explored Nice with on about a 90 minute hike to the west, to explore a series of inlets in the cliffs, known as "les calanques," each with it's own little "hidden" beach. There we spent the day picknicking on baguette sandwiches, lounging by the beach, and, at the suggestion of a funny elderly french couple who had docked their yacht in the calanque, jumping off the tall, white cliffs. It was pretty great. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from our little paradise we had discovered, and walk back to the boat.
After the excitement of this weekend, this week has been pretty slow. I'm learning a lot about drawing, tho, between the advice I've been getting from my teachers and the help on the side that all the other students can give me (they pretty much all have previous training in drawing). So I'm learning helpful technique tidbits from my fellow students, and from my teachers, i'm slowly learning how to create a vibrant and cohesive world of my own on the page, instead of just copying down what I see. Every day I spend here, I get happier and happier with my decision to come here. As I told mom yesterday, I really think I'm going to grow a bunch here. I'm trying very hard to buy into the whole attitude they have that, regardless of my previous experience (or lack thereof) I became an artist as soon as I started at Marchutz, and I think the more I'm able to get myself to think that way, the more success I'll have in the program.
That's all for now, but I'll have more to say soon, as we leave for Oktoberfest in 24 hours!
On Saturday, we all piled into a bus and headed towards Nice. It's about two hours away from Aix, and it was just about the prettiest drive I've ever done. Leaving Aix, we went south east, passing the long part of Mont Sainte Victoire. That mountain is enormous. Climbing it next weekend, as I hope to do, will be quite the adventure. It's pretty tall, but what's most impressive is that its cliff face must stretch for three miles! Very impressive. Then we wound through the countryside, passing by small french town after small french town, and loads of rolling hills, all covered in beautifully scraggly brush and dwarfed, stunted trees. We passed by Cannes, where we got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean, and soon arrived in the aptly named Nice.
Upon arrival in the French Riviera, we got paninis at an outdoor cafe, and walked over to the pebbled beaches, where we met up with some of the other IAU kids. Most of the early afternoon, we floated in the clear blue water. It's impressive how far down you can see, and how steeply the shore drops off. You can get about 50 feet out and you're in 20 foot deep water. The really amazing part is that you'd really have to try pretty hard to drown, not only because of the total lack of waves and current, but because the water is so salty, should you get tired treading water or swimming, you can just relax and end up with all 10 toes out of the water, floating on your back.
After a couple hours of sea side play time, we decided to climb up to the top of the hill and get a good look at the city. So we walked up the maze of stairs and walkways leading to the top of a shockingly steep hill on the eastern edge of the city, where we found vast views and a waterfall. I was puzzled at how a waterfall could start at the top of such a steep hill, and nobody could really give me an answer, but there it was. After some serious photo taking, we wandered back down, through the market in the old city, and back to the bus that took us back to Aix via a restaurant.
The next day we woke up bright and early to go to Cassis, a coastal fishing village, still unspoiled by foreign tourism. After checking out the harbor and the shops for a half hour or so, we went with the same people we had explored Nice with on about a 90 minute hike to the west, to explore a series of inlets in the cliffs, known as "les calanques," each with it's own little "hidden" beach. There we spent the day picknicking on baguette sandwiches, lounging by the beach, and, at the suggestion of a funny elderly french couple who had docked their yacht in the calanque, jumping off the tall, white cliffs. It was pretty great. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from our little paradise we had discovered, and walk back to the boat.
After the excitement of this weekend, this week has been pretty slow. I'm learning a lot about drawing, tho, between the advice I've been getting from my teachers and the help on the side that all the other students can give me (they pretty much all have previous training in drawing). So I'm learning helpful technique tidbits from my fellow students, and from my teachers, i'm slowly learning how to create a vibrant and cohesive world of my own on the page, instead of just copying down what I see. Every day I spend here, I get happier and happier with my decision to come here. As I told mom yesterday, I really think I'm going to grow a bunch here. I'm trying very hard to buy into the whole attitude they have that, regardless of my previous experience (or lack thereof) I became an artist as soon as I started at Marchutz, and I think the more I'm able to get myself to think that way, the more success I'll have in the program.
That's all for now, but I'll have more to say soon, as we leave for Oktoberfest in 24 hours!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Bonjour, mon petit bureau de change!
Things are really taking off here in Aix-en-Provence. We’re finished with our orientation, and I’m in the middle of my first classes. I’ve already had my first 19th century French impressionism class, which was pretty cool, as well as the first studio session. The Marchutz program is amazing. Our director is this guy named Alan, who runs the program with the help of John, another man, and the two of them make quite the duo. They’re exactly the types of people you would expect to randomly decide to expatriate to the south of France and take up art. John came from Seattle to Marchutz to study as an architecture student, and Alan, who used to live in and around the Carolinas, left the US to go to a Cat Stevens concert in Tunis, traveled around Europe for a while, camping and making friends, then tried painting for the first time after a trip to Ireland, and left only to get his MFA in Vermont. They’re both very soft spoken, and just indescribably spacy.
The studio is absolutely stunning. It’s just outside the city limits, in a town called Tholonet, literally 150 meters from the spot where Cezanne panted this: http://www.fineartprintsondemand.com/artists/cezanne/mont_sainte-victoire_tholonet-400.jpg
The drawing went well today, I think. I didn’t get any criticism, which seems like a good sign, I’m not doing it completely wrong, but I’d love to know what to work on. The only two comments I got today were that my inclination to start with areas of strong contrast was good, and then at the end he told me I had a good first day. It’s not like a regular art school in that they really don’t spend time teaching us technique. The way Alan put it, they’re “going to give us a brush and some paint, and tell us they’d prefer we use the side with the bristles, but we don’t have to.” They’re more worried about how we see. The school used to be called the Marchutz School of Vision, and, while the name changed once the 70s were over, the approach (and faculty, apparently) has stayed the same.
This weekend they’re bussing us down to Cassis on Sunday, and Nice on Saturday. Nice is supposed to be... well... nice to say the least, and Cassis is known for its "calanques," little inlets in the cliffs on the shore of the Mediterranean, each with its own beach, complete with baby blue water and pristine white sand. The photos I've seen in the guide books look absolutely breathtaking, so I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes, and I'll be sure to take some pictures of my own.
Tonight Mme Tissot had 20 of her friends over for what couldn't be described as anything short of a banquet-style feast. She had about 10 different types of quiche going, accompanied by a huge platter of different pates, an enormous salad, a special black olive and anchovy tampanade, a specialty of both Provance, and, according to the lady sitting next to me, Mme Tissot, as well as bread, and, of course, wine. Then after that had all been cleared away, came the typical French cheese course.
So here I am, with my mind blown and my tummy full after the feast, and I havn't been able to make myself finish my art history homework.
I'll keep y'all updated on how Nice and Cassis are for sure, and get pumped for next weekend, because my partner in crime and I are off to Munich for a Bavarian cultural festival.
A bien tot!
The studio is absolutely stunning. It’s just outside the city limits, in a town called Tholonet, literally 150 meters from the spot where Cezanne panted this: http://www.fineartprintsondemand.com/artists/cezanne/mont_sainte-victoire_tholonet-400.jpg
The drawing went well today, I think. I didn’t get any criticism, which seems like a good sign, I’m not doing it completely wrong, but I’d love to know what to work on. The only two comments I got today were that my inclination to start with areas of strong contrast was good, and then at the end he told me I had a good first day. It’s not like a regular art school in that they really don’t spend time teaching us technique. The way Alan put it, they’re “going to give us a brush and some paint, and tell us they’d prefer we use the side with the bristles, but we don’t have to.” They’re more worried about how we see. The school used to be called the Marchutz School of Vision, and, while the name changed once the 70s were over, the approach (and faculty, apparently) has stayed the same.
This weekend they’re bussing us down to Cassis on Sunday, and Nice on Saturday. Nice is supposed to be... well... nice to say the least, and Cassis is known for its "calanques," little inlets in the cliffs on the shore of the Mediterranean, each with its own beach, complete with baby blue water and pristine white sand. The photos I've seen in the guide books look absolutely breathtaking, so I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes, and I'll be sure to take some pictures of my own.
Tonight Mme Tissot had 20 of her friends over for what couldn't be described as anything short of a banquet-style feast. She had about 10 different types of quiche going, accompanied by a huge platter of different pates, an enormous salad, a special black olive and anchovy tampanade, a specialty of both Provance, and, according to the lady sitting next to me, Mme Tissot, as well as bread, and, of course, wine. Then after that had all been cleared away, came the typical French cheese course.
So here I am, with my mind blown and my tummy full after the feast, and I havn't been able to make myself finish my art history homework.
I'll keep y'all updated on how Nice and Cassis are for sure, and get pumped for next weekend, because my partner in crime and I are off to Munich for a Bavarian cultural festival.
A bien tot!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The French Connection
Je suis arrivé.
The flight from Dulles to Heathrow was pretty awful. The guy sitting directly behind me was a sleep kicker, so I had knees in my back all night, but despite that, I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep. The transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick was really easy, however, and the flight to Marseille was quite nice. The people I was sitting next to were these really sarcastic French people who kept making fun of the flight attendants' disorganization in passing out drinks and collecting trash.
And I don't know if you've ever flown into Marseille but the view is absolutely breathtaking. From my window-seat vantage point, I was able to watch as we flew over the more industrial part of the city. I saw a power plant, a ship yard, some factories, and a big pile of rubble that was on fire. I have to say I was a bit worried that this was an accurate representation of the city, but then the flight path took us out over the Mediterranean and when we turned around I saw the nice part of the city and my mind was blown. It was a huge maze of orange clay rooftops along the coast with a series of bleach-white mountainous cliffs along the coast and western part of the city. It really was amazing to see.
Once I made it through what had to have been the most ineffective customs I've ever seen (I'm pretty sure the customs agent never even looked at the picture page in my passport, and there were about 7 other customs agents just standing around looking bored), I was greeted by Nick, Mme Tissot, and what appeared to be her boyfriend, Paul, who is quite the character. Mme Tissot is about 20 years younger than Mike made her out to be. She's a really nice lady, but very french. Last night she had to go to a wedding, so she couldn't eat with us, but she made a pretty amazing quiche.
Then it was time to explore Aix, which is aptly nicknamed the city of fountains. They're all over the place. Enough so that each map of the town has it's own symbol for the fountains that pepper its intersections. Nick, who has been here a few days already with his mom, took me around a bit, but he didn't really seem to know much more than I did where we were going. The city is divided into two parts: the medieval part and the other part. We live in the other part, which is a large grid of what used to be huge (and I mean HUGE) town-house style mansions, which have since been divided into condos. We live on the top floor of one of these, about 4 short blocks from Le Cours Mirabeau, which is essentially the 5th Ave Aixois. Across the Cours Mirabeau is the medieval part which is a never-ending labyrinth of streets hardly wide enough to ride a bike down. People driving their cars in the medieval part are never more than about 5 inches from both curbs at the same time. It'll be a while before we start painting (they teach us to sketch first) but when I do, I'm going to love painting downtown.
Today is a day off. We'll probably do some more exploring, and there is also le festival des Calissons. If I get fat this semester, i will blame Calissons. They're a candy unique to Aix, although they are probably recreated in other places in france, that are basically lemon flavored marzipan, spread thickly on a wafer, with a sugary glaze/icing on top. Ils sont incroyables. According to Mme Tissot, this festival is a display of all the cultural aspects of Aix and Provence as a whole. the "queen" of a neighboring town will be there with her mounted guards, all in their provencal garb. I'll try to remember my camera.
I think next weekend we're going to take a day trip to Cassis, because apparently this time of year is when the ocean is warmest, around 20 or 21 degrees C, and there's an easy train that will take us there, and a beautiful hike out to some cove where we can jump in.
Life is rough
The flight from Dulles to Heathrow was pretty awful. The guy sitting directly behind me was a sleep kicker, so I had knees in my back all night, but despite that, I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep. The transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick was really easy, however, and the flight to Marseille was quite nice. The people I was sitting next to were these really sarcastic French people who kept making fun of the flight attendants' disorganization in passing out drinks and collecting trash.
And I don't know if you've ever flown into Marseille but the view is absolutely breathtaking. From my window-seat vantage point, I was able to watch as we flew over the more industrial part of the city. I saw a power plant, a ship yard, some factories, and a big pile of rubble that was on fire. I have to say I was a bit worried that this was an accurate representation of the city, but then the flight path took us out over the Mediterranean and when we turned around I saw the nice part of the city and my mind was blown. It was a huge maze of orange clay rooftops along the coast with a series of bleach-white mountainous cliffs along the coast and western part of the city. It really was amazing to see.
Once I made it through what had to have been the most ineffective customs I've ever seen (I'm pretty sure the customs agent never even looked at the picture page in my passport, and there were about 7 other customs agents just standing around looking bored), I was greeted by Nick, Mme Tissot, and what appeared to be her boyfriend, Paul, who is quite the character. Mme Tissot is about 20 years younger than Mike made her out to be. She's a really nice lady, but very french. Last night she had to go to a wedding, so she couldn't eat with us, but she made a pretty amazing quiche.
Then it was time to explore Aix, which is aptly nicknamed the city of fountains. They're all over the place. Enough so that each map of the town has it's own symbol for the fountains that pepper its intersections. Nick, who has been here a few days already with his mom, took me around a bit, but he didn't really seem to know much more than I did where we were going. The city is divided into two parts: the medieval part and the other part. We live in the other part, which is a large grid of what used to be huge (and I mean HUGE) town-house style mansions, which have since been divided into condos. We live on the top floor of one of these, about 4 short blocks from Le Cours Mirabeau, which is essentially the 5th Ave Aixois. Across the Cours Mirabeau is the medieval part which is a never-ending labyrinth of streets hardly wide enough to ride a bike down. People driving their cars in the medieval part are never more than about 5 inches from both curbs at the same time. It'll be a while before we start painting (they teach us to sketch first) but when I do, I'm going to love painting downtown.
Today is a day off. We'll probably do some more exploring, and there is also le festival des Calissons. If I get fat this semester, i will blame Calissons. They're a candy unique to Aix, although they are probably recreated in other places in france, that are basically lemon flavored marzipan, spread thickly on a wafer, with a sugary glaze/icing on top. Ils sont incroyables. According to Mme Tissot, this festival is a display of all the cultural aspects of Aix and Provence as a whole. the "queen" of a neighboring town will be there with her mounted guards, all in their provencal garb. I'll try to remember my camera.
I think next weekend we're going to take a day trip to Cassis, because apparently this time of year is when the ocean is warmest, around 20 or 21 degrees C, and there's an easy train that will take us there, and a beautiful hike out to some cove where we can jump in.
Life is rough
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