Monday, July 31, 2006

First month in Paris . . .



I'm back from the Riviera! We spent 4 all too brief days in the sun on the beaches of Nice, Cannes & Monaco. Beautiful part of the world - the coastal train ride between these towns is just unreal. C'est dommage a retourne a Paris dans la pluie!






C'est tout pour maintenant, je vais a la Cote D'Azur pour le weekend.


More Parisiennes.





Public sculpture.




Through the guys I work with I've been introduced to the work of some amazing artists that I'd never heard of before, some of whom work at the studio & some who are dead!


Look at the illustrations of Georges Beuville - link on the right.




Rembrandt Bugatti had a great first name, a great surname, a famous brother & was a GENIUS of animal sculpture too! Missed this great exhibition of his work in London a couple years ago but there's a book & I intend to find it.





Superb, dynamic sculpture & drawing by Michel Lauricella, Professor of anatomy at Les Gobelins. I'd love to take a class taught by this maestro. Link on the right.




http://www.cyberie.net/michael/
This is the website of an animator I'm working with here, Michael Bataille - he animates directly on a Wacom in ToonBoom & makes incredible line tests! No paper, no pencils - they do everything a little differently over here!






Personnes sur la rues et le Metro de Paris. . . et un pigeon.



Last week a French colleague told me that with his limited English & my poor French it was easier for him to converse with a DOG! A German one!! So to improve communication he's learning German & I'm learning Alsatian.



Paris street graphics.



Musée du Quai Branly
is Paris' brand new museum dedicated to tribal artifacts from African, Asian, Oceania & the Americas. I spent an afternoon in here but you could easily draw for a week & still find interesting objects to study.





OK, here come the sketches. Had some trouble adapting to French scanners which are disguised as photocopiers or fax machines & getting to grips with Photoshop in French! Anyway, here's the first, another from Les Buttes Chaumont

42 comments:

TRAZPAZ said...

very nice ilustration.

Unknown said...

Jolies buttes!

Joel said...

Nice Monsieur Jones,

Have you succumbed to the gaelic moustache yet? Please show me some wrought ironwork of the parisienne variety..and maybe some rooftops??

Perry Linton Joseph Osuna said...

Excellent framing and story telling in this !!!

Oscar Grillo said...

Excuses, excuses!

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Sacre bleu!

edhead said...

Mon dieu! Gris, noir et blanc.

Oscar Grillo said...

The picture at the top...Are they anthropomopic dildos?

Oscar Grillo said...

...I mean: anthropomorphic dildoes!

Matt Jones said...

They were 8 foot high !!

Oscar Grillo said...

Just my size.

Elliot Cowan said...

I thought they may be friends of Mr Hanky.

shawnee said...

Wow. Beautiful drawings.

Unknown said...

Woooo ... awesome sketches as always. Love those African Arts!! Wicked expression!!

Toni Reyna said...

Always an interesting work here.

Dan said...

very nice stuff dude...really inspiring.

Oscar Grillo said...

Does The Quai Branly have something to do with the Quay Brothers?

gur-B said...

Did you find an Ikea box on the street? very Hip!

Matt Jones said...

I'm living in it!

Double0zero said...

Hey Matt check out this Aardman Cookie Crisps job.
http://www.aardman.com/directors.asp

Matt Jones said...

Yup, saw that a while back @ Uli's. This is why we lost the pitch brother!

Double0zero said...

Makes me feel abit sick

edhead said...

let me know about that Rembrandt Bugatti book...

Matt Jones said...

Oh man, one of the animators @ work brought it in today & it's freakin' FANTASTIC - his work is like Frazetta/Wendling designs in 3-D! It can be purchased from the Sladmore Gallery, Mayfair. Check out their website. If I was still in London I'd be straight over there! Fascinating life - he killed himself @ 32 because an unrequited love rejected a sculpture he offered her!

Richard Mitchelson said...

Hello Matt, hope all's going well, been a while!

sorry i missed the fond send off, the pictures on the EVAC site are very amusing, the gang all out looked like a ball. Did you see the last stage of the Tour ? (de France) would have made for some great studies, 150 skinny drugged up cycling monsters charging up and down the champ eleyse (sp?) anyway good to see the blog is healthy as always. I'll be back

Monsieur Flambo

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Bon Jolie dessin mon chien andalou.

Perry Linton Joseph Osuna said...

Hey Matt glad to have u stop by just some exercises for the hand and mind still so much yet to learn but I love the sharing of ideas and knowledge so it's more fun for me to have while I try to make something happen in the biz of life and art hope Paris is treating u great and the exhibit sketches are so sweet love the raw lines helps to convey the nature of the art bold and true well have a great weekend man till next time stay fresh!!!

edhead said...

Man I went to the gallery on Fri lunch but they were shut! NOOOOOOO! No sign of life at all...

Matt Jones said...

K- you ARE good, but there's always room for improvement, glad to be of service/inspiration.

Rich - gave Le Tour a miss that day- the Champs are packed enoug halready without those bike lovin' crowds.

Crookie- your French has vastly improved- it's better than mine! How's your ValleySpeak?

StJ- Thanks man, your comment sans punctuation is even more impressive than your sketches!

Loret - merci beaucoup!

Ed- bad luck hombre - forgot to tell you - the gallery is shut on Fridays!

Jampix said...

Hi MJ, come one man! The south of France, Paris what more do you want...a little rain shouldn't dampen the experience ;-)
By the way, great drawings and sketches.

Matt Jones said...

HEY DARRAN! Where the heck have you been man?! Good to hear from you, I'll email you to catch up. Get a blog Mr.Complicated !!

edhead said...

Hahaha! Oh man! Did you deliberately tell me about that book when it was a Thursday evening?! And its Friday again tomorrow so I'll have to wait till next week now...! It'll be worth the wait!

max said...

Hi Matt, these two pieces in the Sout of France are great, I feel like I've been on holiday. That one on on the beach is fantastic. Great stuff

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Howdy doody, dang it, did you meet that thare they Meester Ronald Searle?

Gots to get- I'm fresh out a chewing tobacco.

Oscar Grillo said...

I like the man made of sand in the beach scene.

We miss you, Jonez. Come back...All is forgiven

alberto mielgo said...

god, thanks for so much information.
the last pic, the one between the trees: absolutely beautifull

alberto mielgo said...

and also the beach is lovely.
How long are you going to be there?

Unknown said...

Bon maintenant ca suffit, on comprends rien a ton Francais!

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Not everything has been forgiven Oscar, but he would be good fun to have a jar with.

limbolo said...

I didn't know there were so many fatties on the sands at Cannes. Next time you should get your gal to take you to some vulgar places on the French Med. You'd find a feast for your satyric hand.

aussi... C'est tres mignon ton Franglais, Mattou

the doodlers said...

This post just keeps getting more and more interesting. I especially love the photos you took of sculptures in Paris. Thanks for the link to Beuville. His work looks familiar, and perhaps I've seen it before... not sure... excellent!!

Matt Jones said...

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Alberto- I've left the beach now but I hope to go back soon!

Limbolo - I intend to make an extensive tour of the Southern Regions & record all the vulgar tourists in their naked glory.

Doodlers -I have more sculpture pics to post soon. Glad you liked Beuville as much as me.