Google Books has a new feature allowing anyone to take a part of a public domain book that Google has scanned and embed it into a blog.

And guess what I picked to embed…. a page from my favorite painter, Paul Cezanne.

By the way, I’m getting ready to send 2 paintings to Christine Boulet, my friend who lives in Aix-en-Provence.   I miss Aix, miss Cezanne and had a good time with Christine.

Here’s the paintings I did last month of Christine, after I got back from France.  Darn, wish I spent more time there.   Maybe next time.

I also had some Moo Cards made up recently, and these two images among those on the cards.

I did another mountain view with my friend Christine Boulet against Mount St. Victoire; it was her idea but of walking out of the picture frame against Mount St. Victoire.  Christine  took me on a tour of the rocky plateau of Bibémus two months ago and I’m eternally grateful for that – many of my videos from the Paris Trip are of Aix, Cezanne’s Studio and Mount St. Victoire.

And now I want to say something else – I put a lot of healing energy and love into this painting and I’ll send it to Christine shortly, along with the first one.  I’d like to think my painting will bring good things to Christine, who’s having a pretty tough time, and I really hope it does – I certainly put my soul and hoped I captured the healing energy of Mount St. Victoire.

Enjoy…Christine!  The colors are pretty close – I have the painting in front of me as I view my post and, perhaps, the only thing that I would change is some of the darker colors, shadows, are a little more pronounced than the picture – but with a 1.3 Mega Pixel camera this is as good as it gets (or I can get it).

And I think I got Christine as she walks out of the picture – and even the face, while not as perfect as I’d like to have made it – I’m not unhappy with it either.

Overall, I like this painting and I hope Christine Boulet likes it too.

And that reminds me, Peter Wallace, the owner of Brooklyn Artists Gym, came over to me and said my work had improved a lot since I’ve been painting in the studio and that my pastels (that I’ve chosen Pastels to work with) have gotten much, much better.

That felt good.  I replied to Peter that I’m lazy and that’s why I use pastels and he said, no, that’s on the case – your not lazy and your suing the medium that suits you, Peter said…..pastels.

Here’s the last of the three videos I made which comprise most of the footage from that day – I’ve provided the first two video URLs as well. Enjoy

Video Part 3 (the longest segment) – also note the Tree Breast at 1 minute into this clip – it’s special and way off the path (you have to climb down to it and it’s not seen from the road). Also, there’s some footage of the best and most expensive restaurant in Aix-en-Provence, Le Clos De La Violette, at the end of the file (but the URL link does not seem to work).

part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZleHXMqK-8

part 2 -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXuBVOaqayE

part 3 – http://youtube.com/watch?v=j3LJW43WEGk

My guide, Christine Boulet (who lives in Aix-en-Provence and who I met the day before)  on this 4 or 5 hour walk to my favorite Painter, Paul Cezanne, happened on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 and took most of the afternoon and early evening.  At the end of the long, long walk/hike, it rained. 

Note: The quality of the video that gets uploaded and shown on YouTube is considerably less than the original files – I noticed that, no matter what I do, preparing and uploading online video footage for streaming video makes the videos loose a lot of the details.

Also, my recollection of the color of the sky – it was much bluer than richer than what is coming over from the videos.  My take on that – whenever we translate an experience from one form to another (IE: a part of my life is transformed into a video) something is lost (in this case, a lot is lost).

On the other hand, what is gained is the memory I have as I look at these videos that warms my heart and brings back the fresh air, whooshing sounds, thundering and pungent smell of the the moist earth – the rich warm reddish browns of the earth and the brilliant blue of the sky.   A gray-lavender band of wood, part of the foliage / trees is pushed more towards lavender by the rich greens of the tree leaves and grass on the grounds. 

After the first hour, or so, of our walk, we had the sandwiches and Pepsi Light (we brought no water – or sunglasses) – the heat got to be almost unbearable and when we reached a midway point there was a water fountain – near a dam – and I got my shirt all wet, just to deal with the the intense heat/sun.   But then, as the afternoon progressed, it cooled down and rained and that was magical.

My guide, Christine Boulet, was wonderful company – but little of that is really translated in this movie and yet, I hope all of that comes though, past the limitations of the medium of Online Streaming Video – via YouTube.

Again, Enjoy and for any of my readers on ArtNewYorkCity.com  – I’d love to hear your feedback.  Bear in mind, I’m not the best photographer – fortunately, Christine Boulet took over for much of the footage, she has a much steadier hand than I – but I’m learning.