Bordeaux Sun

Finally, a large dose of sun overexposure in the beautiful region of "Entre-Deux Mers".  Meaning "in between 2 seas", t is a region featuring 2 major rivers.  La Dordogne river in particular is a delight to swim in, all light and clear and very slow in some places.
Fresh herbs for foraging are plentiful as this is a wetter climate than the riviera, all the better for landscape diversity.
The Bay leaves are from the herbalist medieval garden at La Sauve-Majeure and will do extremely well in the next ratatouille.

Edible French Preview

We received yesterday the watercolor originals back from the Editor with the first hard copies of Edible French!  JOY! :)
Clotilde created a mini-site here with a preview.  It is on sale on Amazon.com or Amazon UK if you are so inclined and Anthropologie in the US is set to carry it.

Dream Map

This is a little island I made up. Nice to go there for the holidays. But cliffs of pirate hazards to be avoided!!  What is your ideal spot?

Eggs - continued, wolves and MFK Fisher

Started to read the Art of Eating by MFK Fisher, lots of fantastic quotes and reasons for a few doodle... Both strike a chord about recent experiences.

Want one of them, or any quote illustration, as Kitchen art? contact us!

Easter in Cumbria

We spent Easter in the Lake District of England, a wonderful place full of cold pure streams, ancient stone circles, high valleys and peaks.  We had spring lamb, farm eggs, local honey.  We made bread with our sourdough (brought from London, like a pet - it needs to be fed!) and the local water-milled stoneground biodynamic flour.  The lovely mill is next to Long Meg stone circle and includes a café with chicken running free outside and the view onto the stream.  The region clearly has a love of huge earthy crumbly fruit scones.

At the Keswick market, we got some Benzoin and lemon-scented gardener's hand cream made by a local women under the name of  "Essential Spirit". 

The market lady sent us to Calbeck, a stunning village full of energy and streams, with a church named after the local Celtic saint St Kentigern ! Lots of amazing mystical stories attached to this saint, hard to imagine it is an official Catholic saint!  He is featured on the Glasgow coat of arms, with the main features of his legend:
Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bell that never rang
Here is the fish that never swam

 

 

 

Martini Olives

I read somewhere that Martinis are for alcoholics.... probably true.  But the olives are always such a cool thing to watch in that recognizable-shaped glass!

Mangelwurzel or mangold wurzel

I learned a new little mangled word when showing one of my watercolours: "Mangelwurzel" !

Sounding very medieval or saxon and referring to this:

(FOR SALE at Achilleas on Mill Lane (London NW6) or contact us here)

or quite possibly this:

Wikipedia tells us that Mangelwurzel or mangold wurzel (from German Mangel/Mangold, "chard", and Wurzel, "root"), also called mangold,^[1] mangel beet,^[1] field beet^[2] and fodder beet, is a cultivated root vegetable derived from Beta vulgaris. Its large white, yellow or orange-yellow swollen roots were developed in the 18th century as a fodder crop for feeding livestock

Apparently Brits used to eat "Mangowuzels" during the war and that left an upalatable dislike for this root vegetable! Not having experience that, I personally love root vegs, and they still looks good enough to paint.

Cheveux Poivre et Sel - Salt and Pepper Hair

We now have the pleasure to illustrate the French Edible idioms on a regular basis over at the lovely Chocolate and Zucchini site.  Here is the latest:  "Cheveux Poivre et Sel" or "Pepper and Salt Hair" explained skillfully by Clotilde!  The comments are also so fun and Thank You Sylvie for the compliment!

The entire edible idioms series can be found here.

Achillea Flowers

We met Clare, of Achillea Flowers on Mill Lane at the West Hampstead Christmas Market.  The mom and daughter shop is bursting with beautiful flowers that are not your typical Florist offerings.  Bursting with what I can only describe as vintage chic with a pinch of countryside natural organic beauty, the shop is located slightly outside reality.  You step in and surrounding the masses of perfumed flowers, there are little antiques, vases, teapots and various knick knacks collected over the years.

It reminds me very much of the movie Practical Magic, where the witchy sisters had the most insanely beautiful decorated house complete with a green house for their potion plants.

Long story short, you can pick up a Melinart watercolour there now with your trendy bouquet if you are local to West Hampstead!!  We even offer the possibility to order custom paintings of whatever antiques are in the shop!

I made these little business signs to put under the first watercolours to be presented there.  Hope Achillea's clients will like the paintings!

Galette or King's cake

Galette des Rois or King's cake is a delicious puff pastry concotion with an almond cream filling, sometimes an almond-creme patissiere filling, and now coming in almost any variation in the fancy Paris bakeries (banana-chocolate, seriously?).

 

The watercolour recipe goes something like this:

 

 

Original or High resolution prints available by contacting us here.

Originally a symbol of the Magis' arrival to bring presents to the newborn Jesus (the "Epiphany"), it was meant to ressemble middle-eastern treats such as baklawas.  Hence the heavy almond use and puff pastry, akin to Phillo pastry. 

 

We've had about 10 of these since the 6th of January (the official "Epiphany" date).  The husband even made the puff pastry at some point.  A delicious tradition.

 

Heart-shaped Owl or Chouette!

This little barn owl, screetch was a christmas present custom-made for a person who loves all things owl.  It reads "Effraie de Clocher".  Their name describes that they live in church roofs. They are the archetypal French owl.  Recognizable in the way their face is heart-shaped.

If you would like you own custom watercolour, contact us!

A little juicy detail

The Carrots Of Love

Carrots are one of my favorites subjects to paint.  Don't know why I find them oddly relaxing.  That and I love all shades of oranges.  These includes the purple and yellow carrots found at the farmer's market. 
In a soup with cabbage and leeks, the carrots give sweet creaminess and body.

Zesty Clementine

This juicy sweet clementine was taken by the little hands and dispatched before I return to complete the leaves.  We also made a cake with the rest of the lot, using all the juices and zests.  Poppy seeds added for crunch.  YUM!

This watercolour is now displayed in a little girl's room, and she is named Clémentine!

If you would like your own custom watercolour, contact us!

Just Beet it!

In the famous words of Michael Jackson....!  :)
Ok so his one will be on sale at the Xmas market this Saturday, unless of course you snatch it before by contacting us here !

Close-up of the wonderfully runny colors..!

Watercolor Mushrooms

I am back from a one week business trip and painting like crazy for next Week-End's Christmas Market.  It will be on West End Green 10am to 4pm on Saturday 8 December. 

I hope it will be a success!

Velvet Tub Chairs

Back from a long week working in Paris.  I missed the kids.   This lovely "Tub" chair is how I see very colorful things: The vibe of the colors, then the shapes.

 

Original Watercolour 6x6inch (15x15 cm) FOR SALE please contact us!

 

Back Talk

I really like this English expression which is now very handy now that I find myself with a teenager and little ball of toddleristic energy!  "Back talking" also mean "giving lip" as in "Don't give me lip!"

This watercolor is inspired from a painting I did with a macaron been eaten.  I isolated the mouth and the watercolor ran a little.  It ended up looking so nice that I did another one and shook the paper to get it to run again! That is one of the effect I like the most in watercolor, the randomness that becomes integral to the drawing!  You can get that in cooking somethimes with leftovers that become a perfect one-time only dish!

Hope you enjoy!

FOR SALE Original watercolor 6x6 inch (15x15 cm)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - Why do we dress as witches?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MELINART!

Halloween, All saints, Toussaint, Eid Al Adha, Shemini Atzeret what do they have in common?  Read on.....

This watercolour witch is riding a watercolour paintbrush....
Interestingly, halloween matches the French "Toussaint" where you traditionally go with your family to visit the tomb of your ancestors/departed family.  It involves a lot less candy.....

So why is this holiday asssociated with witches and grim reapers?

In astronomy, halloween represents the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice, the last of four "cross-quarter" days on the solar calendar.  It was the end of the year, beginning of the new one for the celts. And in esoteric tradition the day of the year where the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest. 

The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld. People gathered to sacrifice animals, fruits, and vegetables.

Shemini Atzeret in the Jewish religion is around the same time and marks the end of the year's weekly readings of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) in the synagogue, and the beginning of the new cycle of reading.
Eid Al-Adha for Muslims concludes the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. 
Many more religions have major celebration linked to end/beginning of year around Halloween.

We will be spending Halloween going around West Hampstead and Hampstead with a group of Pokemon dressed teenagers.  I guess it good that these happy teenagers don't really like to dress in ghoulish styles.  But I'll be sure to explain to them why they shouldn't look too cheerful when going to bed less the Hallloween spirits find them too delicious!  (That a good halloween scary story isn't it!)
I'll be dressed as a witch, like every year before!

(Cropped picture below to see better cheeks and ragged hat!)

Halloween Pumpkin Soup



Hello there! I am back from a short trip and a spicy pumpkin soup was waiting for me at home.  Just what you want to eat for diner rolling off the plane. 

 

"Hearsay" recipe from Husband: A huge butternut squash, 2 small onions and a couple of small potatoes thrown in, a couple of carrots, 2 cloves of garllic, salt, cracked pepper and lots of pepper flakes!  Creme fraiche was witheld due to (my...) diet concerns but the soup did not need any. 

 

 

We are now the proud owner of one of these.  I brought it back in my carry-on suitcases.  Iberia personnel did not see anything odd about having a hoof sticking a fair way out of my suitcase!

 





So one of this now hangs from the kitchen ceiling in a "sock" the shop gave us for it.    It took 2 of us and some fairly deep cuts (finger cuts) but the transparently thin slices are awesome with a bit of pumpkin soup!

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!
FOR SALE - Contact me!

Fat Free Calorie Free Donuts!

I had to sit in front of a perfect plate of fresh baked, warm, wafting assortment of chocolate cookies in a very serious morning meeting....and I am on a post-baby diet! 

 

So these Fat Free calories free all you can eat (with your eyes) glazed donuts are the revenge!  Aniseed and rose glazing I'll call them.  What do you think?

Are donut a French Food, ok, maybe not in the strictest sense, but beignets are donuts right?? :)

FOR SALE - Close to A4 size (8x10 inch) .... Contact us using this link!

I finished the donutsat the same time that I put finishing touches to a new commission.

Framed, the watercolor could look like this!