Last weekend was a long weekend. I wanted to take the children to visit the dunes and white sandy beaches in Arcachon but the weather has been awful. The kids were awful too. I know now why I don’t like living in apartments. The kids need space for pillow fighting. Anyway, I forgot what day we went out but I remember seeing blue and all I could think of was getting under it before the weather turned bad again (the sun is on vacation here but yesterday it peaked, which was good weather for looking at toes). Here are snaps from last week of St Jean de Luz:
Sur la Rivière—Canon EOS 30D
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A louer—Canon EOS 30D
No we’re not renting anything else. If anything I’m taking up more space than I should. I finally got myself a bebo account.
Remember this portrait?
Girl with a Pearl Earring—Canon Powershot S410
It was an attempt to paint Jan Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring with my camera obscura.
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Jan Vermeer.
Let me tell you what I learned from trying to imitate Vermeer:
1. Winding pieces of material around my head for a headdress wasn’t easy (and I still couldn’t get it right).
2. Large pearls are very expensive (I went in search for some and ended up buying the only pair I could afford; a pair of dangling beads from Claire’s. Claire’s rules!).
3. The word camera obscura is Latin. The French translation for it is chambre noire (which could be translated as “black bedroom” in English).
4. Like every room, a “black bedroom” needs windows to allow in natural light because natural light is good to bathe in (though don’t confuse it with bathing in the sun because Vermeer knew that sunbathing doesn’t do anything for the skin other than age it). Because bathing in natural light is the best makeup secret for creating a smooth complexion in any image not to mention how it sheds light on the matter. And miracle or no, some overexposure can diminish lines and dark circles (but I still want Photoshop):
Lady Writing with her Maid by Jan Vermeer.
That’s why she’s so happy:
Allegory of Faith by Jan Vermeer.
It’s true! She knows that if she continues to be faithful she can leave her “black bedroom” and go to Heaven where all the rooms there bask in natural light (and is a place where everyone will have youthful complexions forever because of it).
5. I read about the chambre noire from a book I have that’s written in French. I had it in my mind that it was talking about a “black bedroom” (it never occurred to me at the time of reading it to look it up in English, especially after what I had learned about Harry Potter’s Chambre des secrets), but I have recently discovered that the word camera obscura is Latin for “dark chamber.” Not “dark bedroom” or heaven forbid, “black bedroom.”
6. My French needs to improve, but happy to report I think I’ve mastered the Girl’s “over the shoulder” look.
Modern day Girl with an Earring—Canon EOS 30D
Snapped in transit—Canon Powershot S410
