Mabel

Midwest mission part 4: Well hello!

Meet Robert Graves Warfield, master moose hunter, man of international mystery, progenitor of scores of multi-talented individuals. This picture was taken on the Gaspé Peninsula, Canada in either 1921 or 1927, my research lab is working on it.

Happy Thanksgiving world! May your day be filled with love and family and friends.

Villenauxe has great champagne

Villenauxe is an extremely sleepy hamlet in the Champagne district of France and we went there to visit a cave and sample some delicious champagne. Of course you know "champagne" can only be called thusly if it is actually produced in this area, by law. Otherwise it is called sparkling wine, even if produced with the same grapes and in exactly the same methods. We visited the tiny operation of Oudard which is run by two brothers after their father started it in the late 80s. I asked him if he grew all the grapes for his champagne and he said regretfully, no I must buy some. But he buys them from his uncle. You can only buy their product from them or at their parents' restaurant in town, or perhaps locally, I'm not sure. I am definitely not a wine expert but I think the Oudard Brut is delicious! I bought several bottles and hopefully I can make it back to the states with at least one. My mother says you should have a bottle of good champagne in the refrigerator at all times, in case something really good happens.

The church was heavily battered during World War Two and in the early 90s they chose to redo the stained glass windows in the beautiful old church with a modernist flair. Here the Virgin is asking why, why?A baby duck ignoring meI will buy this place and make my own champagne.One of the brothers gving us a tour of his caves. If you walked by this building on the street, you would never know - it just looks like a big house.In France, you can rent a building from Shakespeare's time to live in. In America this would be a national monument.A carved figure above the door to the church

Beastly

The beast awakensTrying to catch me in the showerThis is what the beasts see at night, contemplating their next move

J'aime la pluie

I have begun my second Artist-in-Residence tenure of 2011, at the CAMAC Centre D'art in Marnay-sur-Seine, France. The gray skies and clouds and rain all agree with me, as do the cheese and wine, plus I think it will be 99 degrees F tomorrow in NYC. Yikes! The building I am staying in is literally 10 feet from the banks of the Seine, I could slip in and swim to Paris.

the small village of Marnay-sur-Seine in the rainLa Seinereeds in the riverEverywhere I go there are horses.

Little white one

Warhorse

I saw an amazing play last week at Lincoln Center called Warhorse. It was a production originally from the UK about World War One and the massive numbers of humans and animals killed in that conflict. It remains the largest conflict in human history, and hopefully will be able to keep that title forever. I was blown away, especially because for some reason, the number of horses killed has occurred to me before. Here is a drawing I did in August 2009...it is one breed of horse from France, I don't remember which one, but all told over 8 million horses died during WW1. Putting war through the eyes of an animal makes it so much more brutal, as they don't know why they are running into battle, not that we do really either.

Also it occurred to me, how many times have I said the word "war" in my life? Likely millions, as it is part of my name. War, war, war.18"x24" watercolor on paper

Fox shoots hunter

This is not related to my work, my family or friends, but I would definitely buy this fox a beer if I had the chance.

Best Christmas gift:

Thanks mom.Pandas are gifted in so many ways...eating bamboo, building, driving...

proud yankee Rooster

les chevaux et les jumelles

Katixa and Alaia
I feel so blessed to have spent a month in France (with a visit or two to Spain), I can't even really believe it. We just returned last night. I will be updating/changing my real website, ewarfield.com to a more cohesive and simple format in the next few weeks as well as going through the 1000+ images I took in October, both digital and film. I don't feel odd to return, and didn't miss New York at all either. Maybe as long as you are with people you want to be with and have something to do, it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't hurt that France has a attitude towards food I can really wrap my mind around, where not a day goes by without good butter, cheese, saucisson, fruit and vegetables and most importantly, bread.

The horses are Pottok, wild horses native to the Pryenees. They wander where they may and one night showed up after dinner on the lawn at Baptistes' brother Manechs' house in Sare. I was honored to have met them, in fact we ran into these guys quite a bit. Can you imagine if there were wild horses wandering Brooklyn?

made some new friends

bovine eye

A close-up on the eye of the shy girl from the most previous post. I bet she has never been to New York City

Easter Turkey

this little lady was spotted in Battery Park yesterday.

Sukie a.k.a. Ding-Dong

Meredith got a wheaton terrier puppy from an Amish farm in PA. Sukie is very awesome, but apparently doesn't like the rain so much on her tender 12 week old paws. imagine if you could have walked when you were 12 weeks old? Mermot calls her Ding-Dong a lot of the time, which I really enjoy.