Watercolour Marrow Gratin and TINTAGEL Fudge

£50 Original vegetable portrait - A4

We went to Tintagel in Cornwall for the week-nd.  The Gratin recipe on the picture is the treatment we gave to the marrow waitng for us when we got home.  An eggy-cheesy-nutmeggy custard on top of it and quickly in the often. The result is a warm, soft and sweet gratin. 

 

 

Tintagel (Arthur's Castle, or Camelot) was magical, and magikal. 

(Merlin's cave below)

Before I speak of our encounters and sacred places, I can talk already about the seafood, amazing and just picked from the sea.  We had huges crevettes in buttery sauce with coarse garlic, sea bream with sun-dried tomatoes and hazelnut-garlic salsa verde.  Smoked mackerel and home-smoked mussels.  Just a few of the dishes there. 

 

In Tintagel we had some of Granny Wobly's fudge.  Now until then I thought fudge was a preety bland, albeit slightly caramely blend, of sugar and butter,  Not so there.  An explosion of flavors, melting.  The choice of flavors is just varied enough, without getting confusing.  The banofee one, the maple walnut and the butterscotch one were my favorites.  And the owner (below) is a very peronable guy! Look at his 1/2 ton marble table where he turns the fudge.  He explained it is so the crust gets back in the folds and creates the texture.  Highly recommend this in Tintagel's high street. 

 

 

and Granny Dootlitlle's home-made jams....! With the honesty box to leave the money in!

 

 

 

So much to say about this trip.....more with more pictures soon! 

No off to Paris for a couple of days for work!

 



But I finsh with this Giant's face under Tintagel (earily like Manu's profile!)

 

St Nectan's Glen

Off to Arthur's Castle (at Tintagel in Cornwall) for the Week-end.  Expecting a healthy dose of celtic myths, coastal walks, magic sources and log fires...everyone have a Fab one and I'll report back!
Will try to sketch and if all fails, will bring back pictures!

ST Nectan's Glen

Watercolor Marrow 1

Now that autumn is starting to settle, I am looking forward to wearing my furry boots and making soups and stews.  Marrows are huge here and work well for large families.  Thrown in with the roasting chicken, sprinkled with herbes de provences.  In a gratin: with eggy nutmeg-y-cheesy custard.  Or in a Ratatouille!

 

And of course....fascinating to paint with all its little spots!

 

Framed it could look like this....!  :)

And now framed in MASSIVE proportions in the museum...

What's up Doc? Watercolor carrrots

MORE CARROTS PLEASE!  Fun to draw, and quick so color can be put to paper without too much fuss on the drawing.
Roasted with a free range bird and some whole cumin seeds! Yum!

Cauliflower - West Hampstead Farmer's Market - (WI and walnut cookies)

Picked up a couple of nice cauliflower heads, along with biodynamic eggs at the West Hampstead Farmer's market.  Made a vat of cauliflower mash with milk, salt, papper and a pinch of cumin.
oh yeah...and I sketched one head with a quill....
Now wondering about a little watercolor wash.....? What do you think?

 

I missed the Women's Institute crowd, the market was so busy! But won't miss the October 4th meet at Brioche café!!!

 

 And since the weather is so wet, a batch of roasted walnut butter cookies-pinch of cinnamon sugar on top.  The house smells lovely.

 

 

Donut peach - Feng Shui

£50 - A4 Watercolour paper - Original Painting.

Peach in Feng Shui is a very cheerful symbol of good fortune, as you can read here for example.  "Peach came to be associated with wealth, health, abundance and longevity" and is one of the most popular feng Shui symbols.  Want this peach for your home?  Contact us via the left "Contact us button".

Top Drawer expo: Elena Deshmukh and more

Last week-end, I went with Benedicte to the London show Top Drawer.  It is designed for wholesale traders of creative gifts. One of the stand that stood out is that of Elena Deshmukh. She gave the most amazing hand-made card (above).  Her site is inspiring. 

It was  a collection of creative artists, very inspiring, very interesting. Her's a collection of the products that stood out

Stamp and voyage themed stationary:

Beautiful vintage French notebooks and stationary:

 Ros Shiers, a very graphic collections of things (Black and white)

Brown paper gorgous brown kraft paper and gold graphic products

And of course the trusty Pip Studio.  Always a winner.  The friendly attendant there gave us beautiful trade shopping bags!

Thanks to Benedicte from Benedicte Caillat Art for the free ticket!! :)

MelinArt at the Tate

How cool is this frame for my little lamb's lettuce drawing! This site is so handy
It would look good in your house too!  Contact us for commissions and prices!

 

Watercolour Family portrait - a kitchen drawer view

£50 - A4 size- Custom Spoon Portrait with your family name
This is a family portrait, from the breakfast table!  Papa, Maman and kids (including twins), all with their stages of favorite spoons!  Contact us for your own watercolour spoons family portrait.   You can even send us a pictures of your own spoons along with the names to be added! We'll create it within the next 3 days.

Carrots - drawing ink exercise

 

Carrots in drawing ink, I drew on kraft paper with the fountain pen very quickly but happy with the result.  Farmer's market is coming to West Hampstead 22 september, certainly a source for inspiration!  See the London's Farmer's Market site for West Hampstead

 

 

 

Watercolour Honey and Apple

We live in North London where a jewish population has been there since at least the 11th century. Today we got Happy Rosh Hashanah cards. A sweet custom. The honey and apple symbolism of Rosh Hashanah is too cute to pass.  Works well with the kitchen art theme doesn't it!   Contact us for your custom holiday cards!

Fern and Dandelion - West Hampstead watercolours

To follow up on the last post for West Hampstead leaves, A little fern and some dandelion picked on the way back from the tube.  Simple and uncomplicated like those little leaves.

 

 

 

 

Watercolour West Hampstead Leaves



Here are my West Hampstead leaves.  I intended dandelions ("pavement lettuce" as I call them...) as we have plenty growing in pavement cracks but a bit of house salad sounded more appetizing instead!

Dandelions tommorrow, I promise!  Check out our contact pages for house or shop portraits commissions!

The French Food Watercolour random theme tonight was "Leaves".  I used watercolour, drawing ink and on Kraft paper with a white gel pen.  The lamb's lettuce is actually picked from my dinner's salad.  I will try some greener fresher greens tonight by picking dandelions on the way back from work!  Hope you like them. Details below.

 

 

The Patchouli watercolored leaves are inspired from an aromatherapy book I just read. 

Kraft parper, while gel ink pen and splatters made by shaking the brush about!  :)

 

Radishes

Radishes (in Sennelier watercolours) bought for a picnic at St Albans.  French food watercolours. - August 2012. 

Heirloom Carrots

Had to get some color on paper.  The goal is to start sketching with something simple to get painted.  I never got further that Saturday...!  but I quite liked the fresh runny results.  Next I will try the same theme, with drawing Ink.

Dragon

Reading a book on Feng Shui.  The South wall calls for a dragon...here we are!

First Post!

This is the new website to showcase my artwork.  I will populate it from time to time with new additions but please check the Shop buttons to the site (mine and the Misters').  We work mostly on commission.  Do not hesitate to contact us to tell us what you think of hte artwork or to have a non-committal chat about artwork prices.  We are reasonably priced.  Our goal is to make people happy with Art .  To enable a maximum amount of people to own and give artwork, however small or big.

This is an example of a trilogy of cards for expatriates. who moved from NY, to London to Singapore.  We customized this to each of their city adding the words "done, done, doing..."   It can be framed or used as keepsake.  They loved it and it made their leaving London a little more sweet.