February's watercolour painting of gran!

This months theme is my gran aka Mama! And wrinkles! Just before Christmas my gran had dislocated her shoulder, so on Christmas Eve, me and my family went to visit her at the hospital, getting to the ward felt like we were in some maze, walking up the stairs then down, left, right, left, up, down, found it! Anyway, she was laughing away and not really making any sense, she refuses to wear fake teeth so she does mumble, she also suffers from schizophrenia so sometimes the mumbling has no reference of today or what's going on around her and really doesn't make any sense, but she thought I was my sister and my sister was me, and that my bro was my dad, she is in her 80's and blind in one eye, don't know if that explains it. She also thought that the doctor wanted to kiss her and then couldn't stop laughing until she was red in the face and...farted! 

I know she's very wrinkly, old age and all that, but that day it really stood out, all these deep lines covering her face, arms and hands. It did amaze me that one day if i get to that age my 'smooth' skin will turn like this, no control over it (unless you have botox). I took a photo of my gran and wanted to capture the lines on her face by doodling and then painting, letting the watercolours drip down the wrinkles, I also took a photo of my hand holding hers, its like a before and after many many years shot! One day I might end up like that so I have to make the most of my skin now..skinny dipping!!! I actually cant swim so that's not going to work haha

January's doodling and painting of the Eiffel Tower!

Januarys theme was Paris! Ive got a scrap book which has little notes and memoirs, tickets and doodles of Paris!

My painting is of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night, it was magical, like a giant christmas tree! Its sparkles every hour in the evening, and I remember waiting impatiently in the cold thinking we've missed the lights lets go back to the hotel but then it sparkled and at the same time a man proposed to his gf, so my friend was aww-ing at them and I was wowing at the tower! The focus turned itself back onto the tower!

Paris scrapbook

Charcoal drawing of the view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Charcoal drawing of the Eiffel Towet at night with the moon shining

Me painting the Tower on black paper using oil paints

The finished painting of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night under the moon, 
with a lazer beam shooting out from the Tower

Drawing / painting a month in 2013!

Ay up! I have decided to paint or draw anything in big scale once a month, I want to get creative again and need to motivate myself! I know I have missed out on posting the January painting and drawing but i did do it in January! Hope you enjoy it as much I did!

Places I visited in Paris

Notre Dame Cathedral, historic Roman Catholic Marian cathedral, widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and among the largest and most well-known churches in the world ever built. Beautiful architecture, it was just amazing to see little details of the design and the statues of people, very spiritual inside too.

Musee D'Orsay, this museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. (and the bus tour!).

Once again amazing architecture inside and out!

This was the one of the reasons why I visited Musee D'Orsay, to see impressionism paintings especially by Van Gogh! I studied and analysed this painting at Art Alevel in college
so it was pretty cool to see this in reality!

Centre Pompidou, Modern Art museum, the inside-out building by moving functional elements such as escalators, water pipes and air conditioning to the outside of the building, freeing interior space for the display of art works. The pipes and ducts are all color-coded: blue for air, green for water, red for elevators, yellow for electricity, gray for corridors and white for the building itself. The Centre Pompidou also contains a very popular library, a bookshop, a movie theater and a panoramic terrace. 

Sad to say but me and my friend were almost star struck when we saw this Cubism painting by Picasso as we did a whole module in Art A level on Cubism and Picasso and I remember I had to analyse and paint a still life of this style. Such geeks I know!

Crazy colourful optical room! Musee D'Orsay

We took a 'romantic' boat cruise at the River Seine at night, was a bit windy though :s

Oo la la Moulin Rouge..the shops on that street :o

Arc De Triomphe

Paris!!

I went to Paris for the first time in November 2012 with my friend Nasreen, and it was amazing! The culture, architecture, museums, the arts, food and the men...ahem! Its so rich in its culture and elegant and classy, would defo go back again and would like to go to the places I didn't get to visit, like the Palace of Versailles and especially Disneyland!

We traveled on the Eurostar which was almost a 2 hour journey, it went so quick, make sure you give yourself enough time, an hour at least, before checking in at the station, not like us, we arrived at London St Pancras at 5pm and the Eurostar was to depart at 5:35pm so we ran like Forest Gump but got there on time huffing and puffing, not a good look!

Me and Nas on the Eurostar looking very excited!

We stayed at a 3-star hotel called Hotel Elysees 8,which was a pleasant stay, good location, its very close to Champs Elysees and not too far from all the sights, and the metro is close by, staff were very helpful, rooms were spacious and clean, although the windows were big doors which flew open at the middle of the night and scared the crap out of me and my friend. Breakfast was nice; croissants, boiled eggs and bread that kept breaking up into pieces.I would definitely go back to this hotel :)

If you would like to visit Paris but only want to go for a short break and want to do a lot of sightseeing I would definitely recommend you to buy the Paris Pass, you save money, skip lines and hassle of buying tickets to museums, galleries, metro and bus tours, I was so glad that I had bought it!! Visit www.parispass.com

Places I visited

As this was the first time we went to Paris, I wanted to make sure we went to the main attractions that needed to be seen, Eiffel Tower which we booked a short tour of,Lourve Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, Centre Pompidou, Musee D'Orsay, Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysees and Moulin Rouge. I think we did well considering we only stayed for three nights and had two full days to do most of the sight seeing, going on the bus tour is a must!!

We booked a Skip the Line: Eiffel Tower Tickets and Small-Group Tour, you save time from waiting in the que and the tour guide takes you right to the top of the Eiffel Tower and you get to see amazing views!! The tour guide was funny, charming and had some good stories to tell us about the Tower and Paris. Also make sure you visit the Eiffel Tower at night too as it sparkles magically every hour!!

Lourve Museum

The Louvre—is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). With more than 8 million visitors each year, the Louvre is the world's most visited museum.

I was very excited to see the very famous painting Mona Lisa, there was a big crowd which I had to push in to take this photo but when I saw it, I was like ohh..is that it? lol its not a big painting but because of the whole frenzy created about it since it had been stolen many years ago and the mythologies and symbolism and the millions of pounds it is worth, it has become one the most famous portrait paintings, otherwise its just like any other painting you see.