Another full day.  I went to a drawing meet up in Montmartre, in the smallest theater I have ever seen.  It has seats for nine audience members and the tiniest stage.

Here is a view of the inside and some of the people who attended, the model is sitting on the stage.

It was at the top of a big flight of stairs. Montmartre has stairs everwhere, as it is built on a hill overlooking Paris.  I certainly got lots of exercise today.

We had a nice model, who is an actor an a dancer.

I decided to play with some different media, this is pastel pencil.  The light wasn’t very good for photgrphs by the time I got home, but I decided to do the best I could so that I could post pictures tonight.

After our drawing session we all went to a local cafe for refreshments, a visit and a chance to look at each other’s sketchbooks.  One of the ladies told me that she came for a visit for a month,  five years ago, and she is still here!   Hmmmm….

As I was only a couple of blocks from Sacre Coeur, I wandered over for a brief visit.  It is certainly a busy place!

I decided to go home, get something to eat and then come back for the six o’clock Vespers, which are sung by the nuns.  Bob and I did this the last time we were in Paris and we really enjoyed the experience then and it was just as wonderful today.  There was a service right after Vespers so I was there for about two hours, sitting drawing the cathedral and the nuns while I listened to their beautiful voices.  It was a wonderful experience.

The notes at the bottom of the page are from the hour or so I sat before the service started.  A guy  was talking, non stop, to a girl that I don’t think that had known for very long. He expounded at great length on his philosophy of life and religion, and pretty much everything else, including how his birth caused him breathing difficulties his whole life and what he is doing to try to resolve that.  Then he said, ” This is the first time in my life that I have ever been 100% honest with anyone”. It seemed that the lady was falling for all of it, but I thought that she should run as fast as she could!  He sounded like trouble to me, and he was very full of himself, but it was rather entertaining to listen to it all.

When I left the Cathedral it was raining, and I walked home with my pretty blue umbrella, smiling and thinking “I love Paris in the sunshine, I love Paris in the rain”

Here are a few drawings from the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere yesterday.  I decided to try something new, and used a big brush and a watercolour wash with a quick pencil drawing over top while it was still wet.  These are five minute drawings, a bit of a challenge, but fun.  It certainly made me loosen up a bit.

The male model was a very interesting older man with a great big moustache and a bit of a big belly too!  I think he must have been quite a strong muscular man when he was younger.

I am going to an artist’s studio near where I bought my sim card in the 15 arrondissement tomorrow, for another  life drawing session.  It is quite close to the Eiffel Tower so I may stop there for a visit, we will see how the day goes.