A quick tour to Paris

Vierzon train station, Cher, Centre-Val de Loire

Harvey and I took a last-minute trip up to Paris last week.

SNCF trains at Gare d’Austerlitz, Paris

Riding the train is so much fun, so relaxing, and the railroad cars give such a smooth ride! I loved every minute of the trip, even when I ended up walking 4.5 km at midnight in sandal heels—remind me not to do that again!⁠

Montparnasse Tower, Paris, 14th arrondissement

Did I say that we arrived at Gare d'Austerlitz after midnight and walked to our hotel in Montparnasse? ⁠

The weather was perfect, we had only backpacks, and the hotel was open all night. We even tried to go by Café Daguerre to celebrate our arrival, but they had closed only a few minutes earlier—at 1 a.m.⁠

That was sad—we thought they would be open until at least 2 a.m! But we were more than halfway to the hotel, so we carried on (and returned to the Café for tea the next morning).⁠

Luxembourg Garden, Paris, 6th arrondisement

The Luxembourg Garden was in full bloom. The experience of sitting there watching the world go by is fabulously relaxing. We took a picnic and sat by the pond, watching all of the people live their lives in quiet beauty.⁠

In Paris, I encountered this lovely urban street art that was more like a tunnel wall you could walk through. Absolutely stunning and a real gift to the senses. Merci, Paris.⁠

Ode to Love and Creation", Paris, 14th arrondissement

Here is the proper credit for this mosaic art; it was a such a thrill to find it by happenstance!

Génie du lieu: Ode à l’amour et a la création (Genius of the place: Ode to love and to creation) is the title of the piece. Created by Nacarat Color Design, it is located near the Pernety metro stop in the 14th arrondissement.

I’m glad that I can share our trip properly and give more information about the urban art there. I love walking on the streets of Paris and taking in the sights, the sounds, the people and the activity.

Paris, je t'aime.

L'Église Saint-Merri, Paris. 4th arrondissement. Painting on silk, 13" x13"

Welcome a little piece of Paris into your home! I have three offerings for you today. This 10"x10" silk painting, in a lovely deep red color includes a blond wooden frame (13"x13"x 1.5"). L'Église Saint-Merri, Paris, 4th arrondissement, describes a wicker chair discovered in the 16th century church that is located between the Seine River and the Pompidou Center on the Right Bank.

La Caféothèque de Paris, Paris, 4th arrondissement

Printed on on luxurious Fine Art Velvet paper, these two black and white designs both describe the personality and experience of each café I visited in Paris, and would make a lovely set for your kitchen, dining room or breakfast nook.

Café Daguerre, Paris, 14th arrondissement

Both would look very good together!

I thank my lucky stars that I live so close to Paris now. Do you love taking trips, too?

A Rainbow Created Just for You

Eileen's custom pillow #1

A dear friend in Felletin asked me to create a custom grid accent pillow for her. She admired the Silkies in my shop, but didn’t have a need for a quilted silk item at that size.

What a good idea she had! I happily went to work, and as I knew the colors she enjoyed, and I was familiar with her living room decor, I realized that she would want something subtle rather than bright, so I was able to mix these colors just for her.

Voilà! She enjoyed the first pillow so much, she asked for another.

Wouldn’t you like to have a custom hand-painted accent pillow for your interiors?

I’m sure my pillows would play well with any decor - modern, classic, eclectic, minimalist - whichever style that is personally yours.

And who wouldn't want a custom made accent pillow?

Eileen's sun-lit porch welcomes visitors to her home

These beautiful custom-made hand-dyed silk pillows have silk charmeuse fronts and raw silk backs. The colors are luxuriant and the charmeuse silk reflects light splendidly. At 16” square they bring a beautiful presence to your living space.

Eileen's custom pillow #2

“Hand-painted” means each and every pillow is unique.⁠

Custom dyed grid silk pillows - created just for you!

Quilting the silk charmeuse top with my classic Singer sewing machine

Details:⁠

-hand-painted with dye on silk charmeuse⁠

-cushion size: 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 in) ⁠

-custom sewn with a quilted top⁠

-cushion cover can be washed by hand or dry cleaned⁠

-cushion is feather fill

-made in France

-each pillow is signed by the artist⁠

Allow one month from order date to allow for creation.

Brighten your living space with a lovely silk charmeuse cushion

Interested? Just tap here to place your order, or hit "reply" to this email with questions, ideas⁠, comments or orders.

The rainbow basking in the sun

Love,

Celebrate Spring with a glass of wine in the garden and a beautiful blue...

Michaela enjoying the sunshine, the bubbly, and her new Globe T-shirt

It’s officially springtime! How does it feel where you are? Even if it's still cool outside (like it is here in La Creuse), or hot (which it might be in Athens, GA), I think we can agree that it’s definitely springtime.

What’s the best way to celebrate Spring’s arrival? Well, you could drink wine outside. You could dig in the dirt and watch the flowers and vegetables grow. And you could enjoy these spring activities in a beautiful blue T-shirt celebrating camaraderie, civic pride, friendship, and comfort. A T-shirt to celebrate this extraordinary event of the earth orbiting the sun, inclining at 66 degrees 33’ so we can receive the sun’s rays at the angle that brings us warmer weather and longer days of sunlight!

How should we celebrate? I have the perfect answer:

LE Globe t-shirt!

Hot off the presses! Just silkscreened this week! In the shop and ready to buy RIGHT NOW!

The Globe (the bar) is getting ready to re-open after the pandemic forced them to close to protect their staff. Now that more people are vaccinated, restrictions are lifting, and people are getting excited about going out and mingling with others again, we can celebrate our beloved Globe by wearing our new t-shirts and advertising how great and community-minded the Globe team are! A popular gathering place for intellectuals, hipsters, professors, students, townies, and everybody else, the Globe welcomes us with a warm smile, good beers, great whiskeys, and yummy food.

Diane celebrates spring’s arrival with chocolate at Condor’s in Athens

The Globe opened in 1989 and we need to show our support for its ongoing success. In 2007, Esquire Magazine named it one of the best bars in America and in 2019, Delish.com named them the best college bar in the state of Georgia. Let’s show them that we can do it again!

Even if you’ve never been to the Globe or Athens, GA, I’m sure you will delight in wearing this original design created from a woodblock print and printed locally in Athens.

I have a limited number of shirts, so get your gettin’ on.

And yes, we ship internationally!

Enjoy your time outdoors. Spring is such a nice season, and the heat of summer will be here soon.

With gratitude,

-René

Drawing the Horizon

I’ve had a vision for quite a long time for a new series of artwork I now look forward to sharing with you. About five years ago, around the time we moved to France, the vision became clearer and stronger, and I started creating silk paintings I called the Horizon Series.

While some consider the horizon line strictly an artistic device, in this work I am using the horizon to create a feeling of balance and ease. I am endlessly intrigued by how the placement of a line on the picture plane can affect viewers’ feelings in various ways.

Questions of color, form, line, and design are endlessly fascinating to me, as are the innumerable possibilities for the placement of the horizon line in a work of art. Envisioning and then painting these designs in rich color on luminescent silk reminds me of standing at the ocean’s edge, hearing the waves gently kiss the sand, staring off at the horizon where the immense sky meets the solid mass of water covering the earth.

I realized today that I’ve been waiting for permission to begin this project, to work on this investigation, when in reality that permission can only come from me. There is no longer any reason to wait to begin.

I’d love to take you on this journey of discovery with me. I'll share my drawings, inspiration, and process, and each time I’ve completed 10 paintings I will release the series for sale. I’ve been waiting a number of years to exhibit these as a collection in a gallery or museum, and I can so clearly visualize how that exhibit would be arranged. But given the restrictions Covid has placed on us, working with you directly seems like a much better way to get my art out into the world and share my new work without further delay.

What exactly is the inspiration, you ask? Why am I steering away from architecture, from that which we find in our physical surroundings, to focus instead on a highly abstract, non-representational and ephemeral concept in time and space? My interest in this project stems from my wish to continually view the physical world with fresh eyes, unfettered by old habits and established patterns.

I am extremely excited to create this body of work that has lain dormant in my psyche for so long. I can’t wait to begin, and for us to shepherd it into the world together!

I hope you’ll accompany me on this creative venture and I invite you to share your thoughts below. You can follow my progress on Instagram at @rene.shoemaker.art and on a new Instagram account created solely for my art (minus the photos of France, cows, and travels) at @rene.shoemaker.art.only . Please share these links with friends who might be interested and encourage them to sign up for my newsletter, too! 

Before I go, I wanted to say, if you’ve had your Covid vaccination, congratulations! I have, too. If you find that you’re eager to visit family and friends after you’ve had your vaccination, doesn’t that feel good? At least now there is some hope that our lives will return to a sense of normalcy. I CAN’T WAIT TO START HUGGING PEOPLE AGAIN!!

Enjoy the spring! -René