Romance in the Air

Timing is everything.  Our evening walk around Pepiniere Park coincided with a lot of animal activity.  The doves were also feeling romantic.  And the peacocks, well I don't know if they had romance in mind, but they were screaming their heads off. 

Trees of Pepiniere Park

Pepiniere Park

Walking through the gilded gates of Place Stanislas we discovered the lovely Pepiniere Park.  It was quite busy with families visiting the zoo, amusement rides, and couples strolling through the beautiful trees, fountains, and playgrounds.  Teens crowded around a concert or maybe it was a dance competition and everyone seemed to be enjoying the lovely summer evening. 

Place Stanislas, Nancy, France

We checked into our strange, drab accommodations feeling uncertain about our choice and headed off to the city center which Matt had read was supposed to be pretty neat.  And in fact it was pretty cool.  Apparently Nancy was the seat of the French government at one point.  The square continued the shades of white theme of the town but added gilding.  Lots of gilding.  And some fountains.  And on top of all that we ate dinner at one of the best restaurants and had the best food.  Ever.  We got the last table sitting out front and were still there when the rain started.  The awning helped a little but Matt ran back to the car for the umbrellas and we finished dinner scrunched together trying to keep dry.  And it was so good we didn't even care. 

Approaching Nancy

After the adorable cuteness of Colmar we drove on to Nancy which was...not so adorable.  The gritty intensity of a city can be a lot of fun unless you are already very travel weary and were expecting more adorable cuteness.  Eventually I realized one of the really striking things about Nancy, France, especially after all those brightly painted buildings in all the other places we visited, was that it was nearly entirely shades of white. 

More American Bittern

 

Saturday morning this American Bittern spent quite a few hours hunting and feeding near the boardwalk at Heinz NWR.  He came amazingly close to the people watching him, even walking underneath the boardwalk.  In the final photo you can see him preparing to defend against whatever threat was above him but he did not fly away.

Fall Migration Highlights

Blue-headed Vireo

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

American Bittern

Swamp Sparrow

Sora Rail

This weekend had the most outrageous weather changes.  One day I needed silk long underwear, hat, gloves, winter coat and then the next I'm getting a sun burn on my bare arms in 70 degree temps.  Hmm.  Either way it was great to be outside!

Colmar, France

We stopped for lunch in Colmar on our way to Nancy.  It's an adorable little town, touting both it's having provided the world with the guy who designed the Statue of Liberty AND it's canal-like resemblance to Venice.  So a little touristy but still fun to visit.

On the Road: Germany to France

Complementary Colors

Carissa Robinson

Elliot Clark

Julie Lam

Katherine Videira

Kyle Fenerty

Liz Dwyer

I don't normally post student images but these are so much fun and seasonally appropriate.  It's a two credit Color & Composition class which is one credit less than the usual studio.  So we have to keep things simple and direct.  I always had a facial expression day when I taught figure drawing classes so I added that to our Complementary Color paintings.  And then I made them take the photos in class and managed to bully most of them into not trying to be "pretty."