Notre Dame Burns

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2 of 5 Prints SOLD

In 2012 I visited Paris and had the opportunity to spend several hours sketching Notre Dame Cathedral from the banks of the Seine. I was following in the footsteps of Ronald Searle who creating an amazing series of sketches of the city in the 1950s. I tracked down the same locations he sketched and sketched the scenes myself. The styles of the cars had changed but otherwise history had stood still. With his sketch in hand I walked the banks of the river until I found the same view.

It was a quiet sunny day with locals and tourists checking their phones and shooting photos. I was humbled by the buildings immensity. I felt I was in the true heart of the city. I was in the exact same place one of my favorite artists had created about 50 years before. Construction on the cathedral was begun in 1160 and largely completed by 1260, though it was modified frequently in the following centuries. In 1858 some of the statues were damaged by Huguenots who considered them idolatrous. In 1793 after the French Revolution many of the art treasures were destroyed or plundered. 28 statues of biblical  kings were beheaded being mistaken for French kings.The cathedral became battered and ruined from neglect but Victor Hugo‘s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame written in 1831,  brought a new interest to the structure. During the liberation of Paris in 1944 the building experienced some damage due to stray bullets. In 2016 there was a failed cathedral bombing attempt, and in 2017 four people were arrested on charged that they planned to travel to Paris and attack the cathedral.

None of these damages over the centuries compared to the horrible fire that engulfed the building starting about 6:50pm on April 15, 2019. It is believed it was caused by construction workers who were renovating the building. The fire possibly began in the bell tower. The fire caused the collapse of the spire and the roof. A small statue of a rooster on the top of the spire contained relics including a tiny piece of the crown of thorns which was acquired in 1239.

There is a water reservoir, covered with a lead roof, that is located between the two
towers, behind the colonnade and the gallery and in front of the nave. It was designed to quickly extinguish a fire.  Many of the statues, including statues of the twelve apostles, were removed just last week to allow for construction, so that is some good news. A bucket brigade of people also passes relics to safety as the roof burned. Firefighters have saved the cathedral from total destruction. There are no confirmed deaths. The fire is being treated as an accident.

As news of the fire blazed into my studio via social media, I immediately started to alter the sketch I had created in 2012. I painted the fire and smoke darkened the scene. Seeing the cathedral towers on the western facade engulfed in smoke of course brought back memories of September 11 when the twin towers collapsed in New York City. Thankfully the firefighters saved the twin towers on Notre Dames Western facade. The interior was blackened yet a golden cross remained suspended above the damage. The full extent of the damage is being assessed.  The phoenix must now rise from the ashes.

La Femme Fondue

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Christie and Evan Miga needed time off after the mad rush to bring Dog Powered Robot to Fringe last year. They had four months of extensive rehearsals and a whole cast of cardboard robots that were built. They were constantly managing people. After the show they decided to live in Paris for two months. Fisher Miga, the dog behind Dog Powered Robot went with them. Christie said that within four days they had settled into the Parisian lifestyle. Three days a week Evan freelanced for the design firm he was working for in Orlando. Though he was living in Paris, he worked Orlando hours, sharing his work via the Internet. That left the rest of the week open for the couple to explore Paris. They discovered quirky arts outlets that few tourists visit. Christie loved a tiny Museum of Magic that had rooms filled with mechanized tin toys. Right next to the Eiffel tower was a sumptuous garden that only Parisians frequent.

 When Christie Miga returned to Orlando she started a series of paintings inspired by the trip to Paris. Though abstract, the work is autobiographical as she explains with pure color how Paris inspired her. This series explodes with rich vibrant color. The blue is the exact color of the Mediterranean and the bright magenta reminds her of tight bright magenta pants that many women were wearing in Paris. Provence inspired her use of bright yellow and orange. She mixes her own water based paints and she has some idea how the paints will interact when they are poured on the canvas side by side. The word fondue is the feminine of the French verb fondre (‘to melt’). The colors seem to melt an flow together on the canvas. The paintings are abstract yet they feel like violent storm clouds on a distant planet or the delicate vibrant colors of a butterfly wing. The black dripping motif is used often and it reminded me of a piano keyboard as I tried to sketch it. Ironically, earlier that day, I had been writing about color for a Book on Urban Sketching. Christie’s bold use of fluid primary colors offered amazing insights about how colors interact. She worked to modern pop French music.

Many of the pieces have bold urban graphic elements that look like graffiti stencils. For instance one canvas has a bold image of the Eiffel Tower that then melts into vibrant dripping colors. Subtle blue lettering in French says, “This is not the Eiffel tower.” A bright splotch of moon then drips as well. Once Christie starts one of these liquid abstracts, she has to finish it while the paint remains wet. Amazingly she finished her canvas in the same amount of time it took me to do the sketch.

La Femme Fondue is being shown at the Timucua White House, (2000 South Summerlin Avenue, Orlando FL), on March 22nd starting at 7:30PM. This reception is one night only. The artwork and prints will be for sale.The White House is a fantastic venue to see Christie’s work since the spotlight literally make her canvases glow.

Last Tango in Paris

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Our last evening in France, Terry and I returned to Paris and found a hotel near the train station so we could get to the airport early the next morning. Unfortunately it was raining. Regardless, we decided to walk to Place des Vosges which is a gorgeous manicured park surrounded on all sides by historic architecture. It is the oldest planned square in Paris dating back to 1612. The corner building in my sketch was once the home of Victor Hugo from 1832-1848.  It is now a museum devoted to his memory.

As I sketched, Terry scouted around and discovered several gallery openings. We grabbed glasses of wine at an opening of paintings of bull fighters and tango dancers. Outside music was playing on a radio and  four or five couples were dancing the tango. These were skilled sensual dancers who understood their partners every movement. This was a truly memorable Parisian moment, a perfect way to cap off the trip.

A gallery several doors down was showing bright colorful paintings done of opulent interiors done entirely with pallet knivesand thick juicy paint. I rather liked the work and we met the artist. One last time we hiked back to the hotel watching the bustle and bright lights in the city of light.

Château de Fontainebleau

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We took a train out of Paris on a day trip to Fontainebleau. Terry wanted to see a large opulent palace. The Château de Fontainebleau, once belonged to the kings of France. We took a bus from the train station into the town and then walked to the palace. We walked past this carousel on the way there. Terry wanted to take a tour of the interior. I set my stool up at the base of a large staircase and started blocking in a sketch. Within 15 minutes a guard walked up to me and told me I couldn’t sketch. I hiked back to the center of town to find the carousel.

I leaned up against the palace gates and started sketching the carousel.  Half way into the sketch a large ice cream truck parked in front of me, blocking my view. I moved my stool back in front of the truck and continued to work. The ice cream vendor invited me to lean back against the truck’s tires. The owner of the carousel came over and she discussed my sketch over with the ice cream vendor. A motor cycle was rear ended by a car right in front of me. A very vehement and animated argument broke out. The car’s bumper got caught on the motorcycle’s rear tire, but there was no actual visible damage once the vehicles were disentangled.

After the sketch was done, I hiked back to the palace. Terry and I ordered some croissants from the palace commissary, then we walked around the immense gardens. Several weddings were taking place on the grounds.

Eiffel Tower

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Terry and I eventually make it to see the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it in the distance from the other side of Paris from the Pantheon. The whole tower lights up with blinking flash bulbs. We decided to go to the tower at sunset to catch the light show. Neither of us wanted to to go to the top of the tower. Large crowds stood in line at the base of the tower to get in the elevators that go up into the lattice work. The structure was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Police were walking along the hedges keeping an eye open for abandoned packages. In the park across the street vendors hawked metal models of the tower hanging from metal rings. I never actually saw anyone buy one of these tourist trinkets, but there were dozens of these vendors aggressively selling their wares. As the sun set, the tower caught the warm orange light as the park turned blue in the shadows.

There must be billions of cell phone photos of the tower. Tourists stood and sat on the stone steps taking pictures of their loved ones with the tower in the background. The steps grew cold as it got darker and we bundled up. Once the sky was dark enough, the tower finally flickered on. The crowd murmured. Terry scrambled to find her cell phone to take a picture. The last time she saw the tower she didn’t have enough  time to take a photo. The blinking light show only lasts for ten minutes every hour to save energy.  

When it was built, not everyone liked the tower. A committee of 300, one member for each meter of the towers height, wrote, “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of
the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength,
with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against
the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our
arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower
dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its
barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe,
all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream.
And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the
hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal”

Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said
that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A
Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. French hearts in time warmed to the landmark.

Notre Dame Cathedral

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The Pont de l’Archevêché bridge over the Seine had thousands of small padlocks, locked onto the iron grating. They sparkled, golden and silver in the sun like so many jewels. Known as Love Locks, the trend took off more than three years ago, thousands of padlocks have been locked to the bridge by lovers looking to symbolize their endless passion. A Paris municipal authority announced that the locks were becoming an eyesore. He further added that the practice “posed the
question of preserving heritage, and that in time the padlocks would
have to be removed”. In May of 2010 all but a handful of the padlocks
vanished overnight from the bridge. All eyes turned to the Mayor’s office, but he denied authorizing the removal. Some suggested the locks were removed during the night to avoid negative
publicity, others speculated that it was the work of scrap metal
thieves. But as soon as they were removed, shiny new locks started to
reappear. I wasn’t about to try and sketch thousands of padlocks, but I felt I had to sketch Notre Dame.

I escaped the crowd on the bridge by walking down the stone steps to the Quai. I set up my artist stool against a tall tree and started to sketch. There was an artist doing an oil painting less than fifty yards away. Restaurant barges dock here and tourists were filing in for lunch. It was rather quiet and peaceful down on the Quai whereas the bridges and the island Notre Dame sat on were a constant mob scene. A group of tourists gathered at the water taxi stop. The trees were turning orange with the first fall chills. I seldom sketch outside in Orlando since is is always so darn hot.  Thus it was a real pleasure to relax in the shade to sketch hundreds of years of Gothic architectural history.

Terry and I did go inside Notre Dame and the Rose windows were gorgeous. The shear scale of the space is humbling. An angry french woman shouted at the tourists in the square in front of the cathedral. In the evening, roller bladers, musicians and performers of all kinds converge on the square to seek tips from tourists. The Île de la Cité on which Notre Dame was built is the true heart and center of Paris.

Musee d’Orsay

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The first museum Terry and I went to in Paris was the Musee d’Orsay. Once a railroad station, the museum now houses an amazing art collection. We were expecting long lines but the line into the museum was surprisingly short. A security guard didn’t like the looks of my portable artist stool however and I had to check it. We climbed immediately to the top floor where I started quickly surveying the paintings. I checked myself when I realized Terry was several rooms behind. There were rooms full of Corbet paintings, endless impressionistic landscapes and a fabulous collection of sculptures. The top floor windows opened up to a beautiful vista overlooking the Seine River as a statue stood vigilantly at the precipice. It was in this museum where the fantastic Honore Daumier sculpted busts of politicians was on exhibition. My only regret is that we somehow missed seeing a Vermeer painting.

Museum burn set in after we hit every floor. The museum is compact enough where you can see the whole collection in one day. It felt good to be back outside. Terry introduced me to a Parisian delicacy, the Croque-monsieur at cafe across the street from the museum. A Croque-monsieur is a delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwich. It is much better than any American made grilled cheese and it became a regular part of my diet in Paris. We sat on a stone wall and I did a quick sketch of these sculpture. Artists who did the sculptures were, Mathum Moreau, Aime Millet, Eugene Molie, Eugene Deplaplanche, and Alexandre Falguiere. I’m always annoyed that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has bare cinder blocks decorating the entry columns of the museum. Why on earth don’t they commission an artist to do classical sculptures like these?

Louvre

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The Louvre in Paris is a museum which definitely can not be seen in one day. Vast halls of sculpture and paintings go on and on in this huge palace. It was funny to see the crowds swarm towards the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The portrait appeared postage stamp sized when viewed from the middle of the room. Mona Lisa smiled at the endless crowd of tourists who crushed up to shoot photos on their cell phones. Many couldn’t get close enough, so they raised the cameras up over their heads to get a clear shot. Her image echoed across every view screen. One tourist decided to shoot a black and white sign with Mona Lisa’s likeness that pointed towards the room. In the hallway outside there were several more paintings by da Vinci, but they went largely ignored. One woman almost sat in the lap of a statue’s lap when she wanted to rest. Security guards quickly asked her to move.

Terry and I put in a marathon effort, seeing as much art as we could in one day. Terry wanted to see the Napoleonic Apartments which I thought would be a bore, but I was well impressed by the lavish, excessive opulence.  I’m amazed the rooms survived the French Revolution. I didn’t sketch until we left the museum. Seeing so much art left me itching to draw. I immediately sat down opposite this Louis XlV statue as the sun set. I should have thought twice because half way into the sketch, the sun burst out from behind the clouds blinding me as I stared straight at it.  In another way it was a blessing because it forced me to only see bold simple silhouettes. Artists seem able to work in absolute anonymity in Paris. I was surrounded once by a Japanese tourist group. I didn’t understand a thing they said but I have to assume that the chatter was positive. Terry and I went out for a magnificent diner that night, I believe at Un P’tit Coin Du Cuisine. The fine dining and wine helped us recoup from our museum burn.

Basilique du Sacre Coeur

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Terry and I took the Metro to the Paris hillside neighborhood of Montmartre. This area has been known to be a sanctuary for artists through the years. When we walked up the staircase of the metro we were surprised to find ourselves in a seedier part of Paris. A Policeman on a bicycle saw us trying to get our bearings and he directed us to a staircase that climbed up the hill. He warned us about pickpockets and sent us on our way.

The staircase went up forever. Several tourists were lugging their luggage up to try and find a bed and breakfast entrance half way up. They were still searching as we passed them. We were completely winded when we got to the top, but this was our view of the Basilique du Sacre Coeur once we reached the top. Terry wanted to explore the inside of the Cathedral so I walked her up the last set of steps to the entrance and then I returned to this spot to sketch. A woman sat half wan up the steps begging for change. Another woman sat at the entrance to the cathedral begging. She looked just like the woman I saw begging at another church and I wondered if she was following us.

The spot where I sat was surprisingly peaceful. About 100 yards to my left, street performers, and musicians were doing their acts for a large crowd of tourists. Terry was annoyed that the musicians didn’t have much talent. It was a zoo. From right in front of the cathedral we had a view over all of Paris. Wandering the side streets we found a boat load of artists selling their pallet knife paintings of Paris. We found the art studio where Pablo Picasso first started painting his cubist paintings. Then we relaxed in a cafe as it started to rain.

The Pantheon

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For much of our time in Paris, we stayed at the Hotel Pantheon which aptly is right across the street from the Pantheon. Most every hotel in Paris was booked up so, later in the week we had to change hotels. We must have been spoiled by our spacious room at Hotel Pantheon. The second hotel we stayed at was modern but small. The bathroom was so small that I needed to open the door in order to lean over and brush my teeth using the dentist size sink.

Being near the Pantheon meant it was a little easier to navigate our way back in the evening. The dome was illuminated and could be seen from many blocks away. One evening as we stood in Place du Pantheon, we looked west and could see the Eiffel Tower illuminated far off in the distance. It began to sparkle with thousands of lights flashing. Terry struggled to find her camera and just as she was ready to shoot, the sparkling stopped. Apparently this light show only happens for a few minutes every hour.

 The Pantheon (from Greek Pantheon, meaning “Every god”) was originally built as a church
dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now functions as a
secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French
citizens. It is an early example of neoclassicism, with a facade modeled
on the Pantheon in Rome.

The neighborhood around the Pantheon is bustling with young college students going and coming from classed. I saw a sign that pointed towards an animation academy, so we might have been near Gobelins which is probably the best animation school in the world.  The Paris government helps subsidize Gobelins which guarantees the city’s prominence in producing talented animators.