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Art Thursday - There's No Place Like Home

 After fifteen years in the same place, we recently sold our home and moved. It's both daunting and exciting (and all-consuming work), starting over fresh in a new house. But at the same time, it feels as if we've left a piece of ourselves behind in the old abode. All that history. All the good times and memories.  And of course, all the books written in my old office. Every book I've published (plus the two that will be out in October) was written there.

Don't get me started on how many moving truck-loads-full it took to simply move across town.  It's embarrassing to see how much stuff you can accumulate over the course of fifteen years. I suppose that's why people have moving sales. <g>

Even so, as we were deep in the process, it dawned on me that moving was sort of like a review of the past fifteen years.  A celebration. An assessment.  And a much needed Spring/Summer cleaning. It also made me wonder what it would be like to live in the same place all your life -- to have an ancestral home. With that in mind, I'm posting this beautiful painting by Renoir --  House in Collett at Cagnes.  Not only is it yellow like our old place, it has that homey, much-loved look of a house that love has made a home.

I'm not exactly homesick for the yellow house -- more like wistful and I'm way too jazzed as we embark on this new path. But as we settle into the new place -- as we paint and set out flowers, taking the first steps toward making this house our home, I have to remind myself that home doesn't happen over night. It happens one day at a time. One memory at a time. Until the newness surrenders to the patina of home.   

Or is home simply a state of mind?  What do you think? Do you like to move? If so, why and how do you make new places home?

Delicious Monday...News!! Delicious news!!

    

I mentioned I would have some news soon… Friday, I learned that Harlequin will, indeed, launch a new trade paperback program in April 2009.  The new program will include books from both the Next and Everlasting lines.  They will release one book per month alternating Nexts and Everlastings in a two-books-in-one package. I am pleased to report that my story, “An American Angel in Paris,” will be paired with my previously published Next Novel, “What Happens in Paris.”  It’s scheduled for release in October 2009.  The books will be shelved in single title section and will be branded with the Harlequin name. 

Art Thursday... Luncheon on the Grass

Luncheon on the Grass (Le dejeuner sur l’herbe) is the painting that earned Manet the title of rebel artist.  Her entered it in the 1863 Paris Salon, but it was rejected because the academics thought his juxtaposition of fully-dressed men and a nude woman was scandalous. So, they said, was his sketch-like technique—an innovation that soon became his trademark. So what was a guy to do when the establishment rejected him and brands him a scoundrel?  He took his luncheon party to the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the rejected), an exhibit Emperor Napoleon III initiated after the Paris Salon rejected more than 4,000 paintings in 1863. It was at the Salon des Refusés that he garnered the attention that would soon elevate him to master status.

   

Art Thursday... Mother and Daughter

I just finished line edits on my October Special Edition, The Accidental Princess. I overnighted them to my editor yesterday.  Last night, I slept the sleep of the dead.  It's a wonderful feeling to finish a project.  To me writing a book is akin to carving a sculpture.  Sometimes it shapes easily - as with clay. Other times it's more like chiseling each scene from a block of marble. Either way, the end result is always thrilling!

Speaking of sculpture... today is Art Thursday. That means I have for you another Impressionist painting that relates to With Violets. 

After Berthe married Eugene, they had one child, a girl named, Julie, who ended up being quite an artist herself. This Renoir painting, Berthe Morisot and her Daughter Julie, shows Berthe in her later years.

Today, I plan on taking the day off.  I will do nothing more than brew tea and read. Ahhh...sounds like heaven. How do you celebrate the completion of a project that takes a lot out of you?

Art Thursday... Trocadéro Then and Now

The Trocadéro is an area of Paris in the 16^th arrondissement, across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The location of the gorgeous Berth Morisot painting, "On the Balcony," appears to be slightly west of the Trocadéro.  It also happened to be Berthe's neighborhood, Passy.  The last time I was in Paris, I roamed the streets of Passy looking for signs that she once lived there.  Aside from her grave in the Cimetiére de Passy (where she's buried in the Manet family plot along side both Édouard Manet and her husband, Eugène  Manet), I saw the church where she and Eugène  married and the apartment where she and Eugène lived afterward. Unfortunately, the house she grew up in is no longer standing. I spent a great deal of time gazing across the Seine (from both directions -- from the terrace of the Trocadéro and from the Eiffel Tower on the other side of the river) trying to block out the modern sounds of people and traffic, trying to imagine Berthe’s 19^th century Passy.

The first picture is, of course Berthe’s  "On the Balcony" painting done around 1872.  The second is a photo of the modern Trocadéro – look to the far left of the photo, just above the tree line and you’ll see the gold-domed Church at the Invalides, located on the leftbank in the 7^th arrondissement (where we stayed in a great little apartment off the rue Cler). If you’ll look back up at Berthe’s painting, you’ll see the same dome near the right side of the canvas (which makes me think she was a bit west of the Trocadéro). The final photo is one of me on the mid-level observation deck of the Eiffel Tower -- on the other side of the Seine from the location of her painting. So, the view behind me would’ve been where she was painting and the models -- Berthe's sister Yves and niece 'Bichette' – were standing.

Have you ever visited a place you’ve read about/dreamed of visiting?  Where was it and did it live up to your expectations? 

Art Thursday... Morisot or Self-portrait?

   This Manet is called "Berthe Morisot With Veil." The interesting thing about it, art historians say, is that it looks as though Manet might have been projecting a bit of himself into this portrait of Berthe.  The lacey edge of her veil does give the impression of a beard, doesn't it...?  Perhaps it was his sly way of staking his claim?

I'm here! Really, I am...

I've failed you. I've been in my writing cave and have let several Thursdays slip by without the promised Art Thursday paintings.

There will be one tomorrow. Please check back. In the meantime, a quick update:

I've been hard at work finishing up THE ACCIDENTAL PRINCESS (October, Silhouette Special Edition), a fun story about a woman who discovers her royal roots midlife. In the midst of this, I broke my foot. Well, not in the midst of writing (that evokes some strange possibilities), but on this deadline when I SHOULD'VE been writing.  Probably the Universe's way of forcing me to stay at my.  Geeez -- talk about extreme measures. <vbg>

Okay, painting tomorrow. I promise.

And in the next few weeks I'm going to have some exciting news... so check back...

Art Thursday... So Degas!

There's a great story behind this Degas painting, which I detail in my book, "With Violets," (Avon, September 2008).  The painting is called, "Manet Listening to His Wife Play the Piano." The story goes that when Degas gifted it to Manet, Manet was a less than gracious recipient. In fact, Manet is responsible for the ochre stripe down the right side of the canvas.  What do you see in this painting?

Art Thursday... My Favorite Morisot

"La Lecture," is one of my very favorite Berthe Morisot paintings. This is quintesssential Morisot -- the colors, the delicate brushwork, the dreamy, romantic feel of the composition.  I have a copy of this one on the wall behind my desk. In fact, if you look back at my February 16, "A Little Romance" post, you can see it in the uppermost right corner of the picture. It's tucked behind the corner of the gold frame.  Which reminds me, I must have it framed!

Delicious Monday...Delicious Anticipation

I’m so excited about the re-release of “With Violets” – September 2008, Avon Trade Paperback – that I have several treats in store for you over the months leading up to the book’s release. 

In this love story about French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot and master artist Édouard Manet, fact and fiction merge. It’s based on documented historical facts with the missing pieces “painted in.”  I’ve woven in several of the couple’s famous paintings, supposing the circumstances that might have lent inspiration to the creation of these great works of art.

Be sure to check back on Art Thursdays (starting this week and running through September), for a sneak peek at some of these paintings.  To kick things off, I thought it would be fun to show you the actual Manet painting on which Avon based the book’s cover.  It’s called “Repose,” and what I imagine led up to it when Manet painted it in 1870 is in the book.  Berthe’s posture and little foot peeking out beneath the hem of her gown would’ve been considered quite sensual back in the day... Oh la la!