Hide and Seek!

Our Summer has really been weeks of playing hide and seek! One or two days of sun, then chucking with rain or cold and windy … at the moment it is pouring down, so time to find somewhere to hide! This beauty might just be the place …… cooling shade from the heat or a place to stay dry in the summer showers! I have had an obsession with Pagodas this summer …. and who knows this sketch maybe the forerunner of a pastel painting! Not for now though because my pastels are packed waiting for their move to a new studio. 

It’s a long time since I tackled architecture with my pastels and I'm sure that the panoply of greens, turquoises and purple shadows would be lovely. Just about as lovely as the pavilion itself. 

I love the play of light and shade on the wooden framework but I'd be the first to admit that even as a sketch it was daunting, although drawing a subject often helps to clarify in your mind what the tricky parts of a painting could/can be before getting slap happy with the pastels.

The light here is the key I think, trying to keep the shadowy atmosphere and the idea of an enchanted, secluded spot away from prying eyes, at least that’s what this pavilion says to me. 

If only this beautiful bench could talk, what tales it might tell, tales of love, scandal, power play, politics and betrayal. You might have guessed I'm a great fan of ''Dangerous Liasons'' by Chodorlos de Laclos; written in 1782, about thirty years after Balthasar Neumann enlarged the palace in Veitshöchheim where this pavilion is situated in the Rococo garden. Not usually a fan of books being filmed, I did think that Glenn Close and John Malkovich (1988 version) gave a fabulous performance as the scheming couple, the Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont; this hidden treasure of a pavilion would be just the place to start plotting the wicked intrigues and seductions that form the plot of both the book and film both of which do not have a happy end.

My sketch did have a happy end, although it did take a few hours, I was happy (ish) with the result, whether it will result in a painting remains in the stars, for at the moment my pastels look like this! I haven’t moved with this many pastels before so this will be a new experience. I covered the every compartment with foam and then stuffed bubble wrap into the individual sections, stuck down with tape to prevent the sticks jiggling around. Finally, the whole tray was wrapped in bubble wrap and sealed in brown packing paper. I did contemplate cleaning my sticks up before packing, but thought perhaps movement would make them mucky again, so big clean up after the move I think. Let’s have a peek together when the move is over and they’re taking centre stage in their new home!