Tomorrow will be the end of my first week in Giverny so I decided to share the work that I've done so far. I've never felt so artistically satisfied in my life and I'm proud of the work that I'm doing. I've also been having a lot of realizations and it's given me a lot of confidence as an artist. I've settled into a nice routine of getting up at 6:30, eating breakfast, entering the gardens at 7 to paint for 2 hours; I break for lunch to rest and do some sketching and maybe a watercolor in the afternoon. In the evening, after dinner, I paint again since the sun sets around 9:30/10. Painting has been great, but I've also been drawing a lot. My sketchbook is acting like a visual journal for what I see around me. In the future, I know that I will really treasure these sketches and the memories they depict. My next step is to plan some larger and more ambitious works. I'll need to do some sketches and maybe a color study in preparation. And I really want to do some portraits also! My motto: Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. Sketchbook
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The weather has been really nice so I've been painting every day in the morning and the evening. This morning, I was in the clos normand and working on a painting of my favorite flowers: irises. While in the garden, a photographer named Jean Gaumy came to see what I was painting and he even took a photo of me (see below). He's visiting to take photos and I saw him last night in the water garden also. In the afternoon, I took my first solo trip to the grocery store which is in a town called Vernon. It's not too far by bicycle and the scenery is amazing. I'm also picking up some french and able to order fully in French at the Boulangerie. I gotta say that this residency has been absolutely amazing. Every single aspect of it is beyond belief. So grateful right now. The bike trip to the grocery store is pretty spectacular.
It was overcast this morning, but it wasn't raining so I got into the garden around 7am to begin painting. I did a watercolor of the central path in the clos normand. This is my first official painting in Monet's garden in Giverny. It was surreal to be painting such an iconic scene and it's so cool to stand in the same spots as Monet and to have free rein to paint anywhere in the garden. After lunch I stretched some canvases. And the sun came out so I'm going to go to the water garden this evening to do an oil painting. I'm just sitting in the courtyard now and enjoying the weather. The light and atmosphere here is something that I've never experienced before; it makes the scenery very clear and easier to paint. I can see why Monet enjoyed it so much here and why he used the colors that he did. The Sennelier stretcher bars are really nice.
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