Vieux Grasse from l’escalier de L’Hotel de Ville
France
21 November 1996
Watercolor on cold press Lana paper
4in x 6in, archivally matted & backed to 8in x 10in
US $195 (includes USPS Priority Shipping)
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On my first full day in Nice, I took a bus up to Grasse, the perfume capital of the world. Before the perfume industry fell to products that smell like embalming fluid and every Tom, Dick & Harry had their own signature scent, I used to enjoy memorizing perfume scents and being able to identify them out in the world. Most perfumes developed in the last quarter century give me a brutal headache.
I thought it would be fun to tour the perfume factories in Grasse. Fragonard was the only one open and their tour was interesting enough, especially because we were able to gather around the perfume organ where the "Nose" sits to test the scents. You can visit the beautiful new International Perfume Musuem site and sniff around for yourself.
After that I kicked around and ate lunch in a garden looking out from high up over the Côte d'Azur, then kicked around some more beginning to feel bored with isolation until I found myself in the old city where the walls of the buildings were rubbed deep with rose and orange and yellow and peach. After climbing an old narrow staircase, I turned to find the perfect vantage point to study the Place de la Poissonnerie. Although I was out of the sunlight, the temperature was dropping, and the wind whipped around the stone walls, I pulled out my paint sack and started in to this one. At a certain point, I had to stop because my fingers were so stiff with cold that I was having trouble working. I seem to remember shaking a bit, too. So I finished this off back at the hotel room later in the afternoon and into the evening.
Every Sunday I post a new painting and story behind the watercolors I made while touring as a singer songwriter. Follow the stories behind the paintings of these serialized posts by working your way up from the bottom.
Vieux Grasse
