A kind of magic

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose

I have visited the Mont Saint Michel many times before but at the beginning of this week I literally saw it in a different light. We wanted to show MIL the MSM but it is not really suitable if you cannot walk very far. So a driving tour around the baie ~ bay was just the thing.

People in the summer take guided walks across the treacherous sands, the tide goes out a very long way and it can be a very dangerous place.

Far from the madding crowds

I love the coast after the summer visitors have left, the sun was blinding and it shimmered across the wet sands, giving us a spectacle I have never seen before. So now the baie, has become rather special to me.

So now I see the tourist attraction really has some magic!

Once upon a time

Beach art

Read more about the Mont Saint Michel HERE.

You could use the French word scintiller for shimmer and sparkle
The French word for tide is marée

Mystery tours

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. ~Pablo Picasso

I have recently started to paint again, and it must be well over 30 years since I had picked up a brush, several people inspired me to try again, and on the whole I am enjoying it. It is like starting a journey but without an intinery, never really knowing what I will see at the end. A complete mystery.

I started just before we went to the Vendee and have tried my hand at various scenes since the middle of September.

On our short break when we walked around St Gilles Croix de vie I came across this delightful information board it was about an artist Charles Garabed Atamian (1872-1947) who was born in Constantinople.

When he was 13, he was sent to Venice to study at an Armenian school, where he was very interested in painting, so the school administrators had him enroll in the studio run by the teachers Paoletti and Tagliapietra, with whom he studied until 1894.

When he returned home to Constantinople, Charles worked as a designer in a ceramics studio belonging to the court of the sultan Abd-ul-Hamid, however he left two years later because of the persecution of his people (the Armenians) ordered by the sultan. With great difficulty, he was finally able to flee to Paris in 1897-----where he set up his permanent residence.

There are many images of Charles Atamian's work for sale on the Internet.

I don't produce pictures like Charles maybe I am more like Van Gogh, tee hee a bit wild with a glass of wine in my hand!

I am mainly choosing forest scenes since I have so many pictures to work from.

Decembre on the tapis rouge.

Bien Encadre

A Fresh morning

A French word for scene or place is lieu
A French word for enroll or register is inscrire

PS.Many thanks to Carol and Sally for inspiring me to dabble with paint again!