Calligraphy, 'Famous' Calligrapher, Kentucky Wedding

My good friend Donna Hacker and I recently attended Scribehaven, a calligraphy retreat put on by the Nashville Calligraphy Guild at Lake Barkley Lodge in Kentucky. The setting was beautiful. The company was excellent.

Views from my room:

There is nothing like 'retreating' to the woods or some other peaceful place to study and play at the art we love. In this case it was calligraphy. Most people worked on their own projects. Donna presented breathtaking slides from her recent trip to Italy. There was no formal instruction. Indeed, the closest we came to that was when Janie Cravens, former president of Iampeth, did an impromptu 'sharing' of tips and tricks. When I sat down she made me laugh by saying, "But I can't teach you anything; you're famous!" Janie had us all laughing later as she imparted her seemingly never-ending stream of ideas with great humor. One involved lettering on mats, something I have done before. Her method was faster than mine with a more light-hearted effect. She had small mats for all of us. I lettered Dr. Seuss titles on mine and gave it to my niece as part of her baby shower gift. Dr. Seuss books were among her favorites and were part of her gift registry, so I knew she'd like it, but I have also done poems and song lyrics on photo mats for wedding and anniversary gifts, and baby names and statistics for baby gifts.

Two of Janie's tips and tricks involved making portable lightboards for travel. The first was a clear plexiglass clipboard with a line guide clipped to it and a tiny but bright flashlight as the light source. You simply support one end on a book or what have you, slip the flashlight underneath and Voila! It takes up practically no room in your luggage, and also could be kept in your car for last minute placecard changes. I suggested adding a small piece of rubber shelf liner to slip under it to help prevent slippage. The other was even more genius, and ultra-modern. Use your iPad as a lightboard! Just place a line guide on the turned-on iPad and, once again, Voila! Of course, you would also need to keep pen, nibs and ink in a travel package.

At one point on Saturday we witnessed a wedding photo session. The beautiful bride and handsome groom posed right outside of our lodge conference room for some of their photos. Weddings to calligraphers are natural voyeuristic events! Here is a photo I took, purposely not too close-up to give the happy couple a modicum of privacy. You can still clearly tell how lovely the bride is in her gorgeous gown and veil. We all wanted to have done her wedding calligraphy.

The iPad also comes in handy to use as a portfolio of your work. I plan to copy many of my calligraphy and art photos to my iPad to be able to show prospective clients and others. No more bulky portfolios!

Below is a photo of the ruling pen lettered name tags we all received, compliments of Vicki Brandt. Sheryl Bracey had recently taught a ruling pen class to the guild, and Vicki made good use of her practice. (My photo was taken in the dark and does not adequately show the beautiful watercolor marks that made up the backgrounds.)

I met some wonderful people at Scribehaven and had a good time. I spent so much time talking and looking that I didn't get any calligraphy done, but I will be prepared to show and share and work more next year! Thanks, Nashville Calligraphy Guild! Thanks, Janie, Donna, Ann (great brownies!) and all others who shared so much. P.S. Lake Barkley Lodge dining hall - please do not ever change your banana pudding recipe. It is the best I have ever had - served warm! Yum!

Jace the Face - December update

We met Jace, Sandy and Steve at Bass Pro Shop to see Santa for a photo. This place has lots of interesting displays all year round, but at Christmas time there are even more, including a train, a carousel and Santa and his elves and reindeer.

Here, Jace sports his 'run-a-way style' in the parking lot.

Jace enjoying the unusual experience of being on top of Pappy's car.

Jace pointing to one of his favorite things - an airplane flying over. (Pappy is wearing his IU gear following IU's win over then number 1 UK.)

Jace with Daddy riding a polar bear cub on the carousel.

Jace with Pappy, riding a reindeer.

Boys do love trains.

And finally, Jace with the main event. He was not impressed.

Montauban France (in Tarn-et-Garonne department of Midi-Pyrénées region)

Although our new-found friends had advised us that there was nothing to see there, we went to Montauban France anyway. It is the birthplace of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and is home to Musee d'Ingres. We found Montauban to be a lovely city, though we probably only saw a very small portion of it. The shopping area had nicely patterned brick streets and lovely little shops. Unfortunately, we got about the worst meal (especially considering the cost) of our trip at a hotel restaurant in the shopping area we visited there. Darn shame too, because other restaurant menu boards and plates looked like they had really good fare - probably why they were so crowded! This one cost more and wasn't good. (Several menu boards throughout the region were highlighted in an earlier post on my letterlady's letters blog.)

Here are a few snapshots of Montauban.

I spied a pair of shoes drying on a clothesline on a porch. (Can you see them?) The shadow-image of the shutters demonstrates that the shutters on homes in France are not merely decorative, but are decidedly useful.

In one of the two ancient cathedrals we visited in Montauban I took this photo of a hand-lettered prayer (Our Father.)

The flower market was quite lovely.

Beautiful scene from the bridge. Note the flowers. In most places I've visited in Europe there are many public floral plantings, which really add a lot to the travel experience, and I'm sure to everyday life there.

On the bridge and near one cathedral, the rock sidewalks were laid in patterns...art for art's sake. Lovely touch!

It was lunchtime while we were there, so streets were fairly deserted - and most shops were closed. (A money saving tactic on our part?)

A shop window display.

We toured Musee d'Ingres, and two huge old cathedrals - one of which seemed especially active, despite a plethora of pigeon feathers on the floors near the entrances. The museum is located in a building which was once the residence of the bishops of Montauban. Most of the structure is of the 17th century, but some portions are much older, notably an underground chamber known as the Hall of the Black Prince (Salle du Prince Noir). There are many fragments of carved lettering and other relics of ancient times in the chamber. During World War II, a secret chamber behind a wine cellar in the chamber served as one of the temporary storage places for daVinci's Mona Lisa, which had been removed from the Louvre for safekeeping.

As a calligrapher, the lettering in a place always intrigues me. Here are some photos of centuries old lettering fragments in La Salle du Prince Noir. The chamber was dim, and my photos are not the best, but you can see the samples are very different from one another in style.

Due to a little mishap, we met a very nice young man at a service station in Montauban. I was able to polish up my French a bit with the two of us speaking our respective 'pigeon' languages to each other. It worked! His English was better than fair, and my French was getting slightly better than when I'd arrived in France, and our smiles helped a lot too. We met a few really nice people during our travels and they helped make the trip memorable.

Thanksgiving Day 2011

Hiding in Plain Sight. We were delighted to see a Tom Turkey as we turned the corner onto my brother's road for our Thanksgiving feasting. Here's one who got lucky!

Here are two beautiful cousins and a beautiful mom. I was busy handling an asthma attack and didn't get many family photos.

Roger pointed out these birds nest mushrooms with spore 'eggs'. I may have seen them before, but I didn't know what they were called. He and my sister in law Wanda are quite the naturalists, and it's evident in their lovely surroundings.

On our way down the drive I spotted this farm equipment and took this quick pastoral snapshot from the back seat.

We stopped at the forestry where Steve, Sandy and Jace climbed to the top of the fire tower.

Jace and Daddy on the top level.

Jamma didn't make the climb.

Looks like there have been some naughty people on the fire tower. These undergarments are in a tree beside it. Santa knows when you've been bad or good...

After the fire tower, we visited a sliding board...the metal was COLD! The slide was slow. That didn't stop Jace from having fun.

My Jace is a well-rounded boy. Athletic, cute as can be, and well-read too.

Some Additional Sights in Toulouse

Imagine our surprise when we encountered this painting of President Barack Obama in the Galeries Lafayette on one of our first days in France. Sue's luggage had been lost so we spent a few days shopping. Quite fun to have this USA reminder there.

I loved this iris grillwork on a side street in Toulouse. Hated the poor situation it was in though.

Las Crosses was our major bearing street as we traversed the streets in downtown Toulouse.

Two shots at a small flower store on Las Crosses.

Beautiful stonework - including complete stone houses made of smallish stones - and grillwork and statuary...so many things to see if you just look around.

These two garcons were outside taking a smoke break.

Rental bike stands were a common sight in this college city.

Speaking of bikes...

This is Basilica of St. Sernin viewed from a side street.

Lovely flowers in the churchyard.

I think I spied this steeple during one of our 'we're lost' drives as road closings and one way streets took us on mini adventures.

This is the lobby of the Grand Hotel Du Opera on the Capitol Plaza. We ate a very expensive but happy lunch there on Sue's last day with us. We were joined by Saro and Gilles, the two lovely people who helped us find our way to Gargas when we got lost leaving the grocery near the airport. (We spent a fair portion of our first few days getting lost.)

This Happy Mannequin outside a shop on a side street was kind of frightening.

The Capitol.

A clock I spotted on a walking tour.

Loved this little fountain vignette in an out of the way niche.

A sweet shoppe in downtown near the Capitol.

This historic looking building now houses a shop for the championship Rugby team in Toulouse.

A train we never rode. Only saw it this once as we sat eating our cornettes on the Capitol Plaza.

Transportation and a movie poster. Does the movie look familiar?