Floors, Ceilings and Unintentional Quilt Blocks at the Louvre

Recently I was at the Louvre, where I saw celebrities:

Ms. Lisa wasn't crooked - I was crooked, after fighting my way to the front of an aggressive backwards-facing selfie-snapping crowd.

Along with famous people and enthralling paintings (especially blue-and-gold ones), I took time to photograph some of the floors, which, for a French palace, were surprisingly American-quilty. Like this one, littered with blocks: 

A drain was well disguised. 

This floor wasn't interesting in the middle...

..but I was impressed by the improvisational edges.

In American quilting, this next design is called a Mariner's Compass....

I like the arrowhead triangles at the outer tips.

(I found this floor's soulmate in an ancient Egyptian jar, decorated with a similar mariner's compass on the lid, and square patches down the sides. )

Next, not a floor, but similar - a 16th Century Roman marble platter. Wouldn't this make an amazing quilt? (Apologies for the glare).

Whenever possible, I also tried to remember to look upwards. This gal had her own personal dome. 

The next young lady had enviably pert anatomy. What could it cost to paint my living room ceiling like this? 

Finally, in the competition for the most charming objet: The blue hippo in the last installment was a contender - but this Neoloithic Jordanian statue gazed at me poignantly, proving that one doesn't need pert or even conventional anatomy to be adorable.

In conclusion, always check out floors and ceilings! 

Lifted from the Louvre: My New Favorite Color Scheme

I was lucky enough to be a tourist in Paris a couple of weeks ago,  (where I visited fabric stores, flea markets and Notre Dame, days before the fire). Of course, one afternoon, DH and I went to the Louvre. 

We headed first to the 16th-19th century French painting galleries There I found myself unexpectedly fixated on a heavenly color combination:

That's Eustache Le Sueur's "St Bruno Being Carried Up to Heaven," painted circa 1650. And it's how I felt looking at it. Similarly,  Le Sueur's "Dream of St. Bruno."

And here's "Imaginary Landscape" by Pierre Patel:

I was seized by lapis and gold, plus variations. Here's an early 17th century painting by Francois Perrier, "Acis and Galatea Hiding from the Gaze of the Giant Polyphemus."

Closer:

Below, an equestrian portrait by Antoine Gros, early 18th century.  I am counting the gold in the frames as part of the hypnotic color scheme. 

Closer. His shapely knee, in golden yoga pants/tights, enchanted  me. (Not to mention that poor tiger saddle.)

And speaking of  horses, here's Charles LeBrun 17th century equestrian portrait of Pierre Segulier, 

Check out the elaborate gold fabric, contrasted with the cobalt/blue-grey tights. 

Below, Jean Auguste Dominic Ingres' Joan of Arc, dated 1854. 

Next, Ary Scheffer's 19th century "Temptation of Christ," 

My DH had a lively chat with these two amiable guys (they're Parisian city officials, painted by Philippe de Champaigne, circa 1650). I love the sky color against the gold frame, against a wall painted in a color similar to the sky.

The next confection, by 18th century artist Jean-Honore Fragonard was one of my absolute favorites. It's called "Rinaldo in the Gardens of Armida." The colors are brilliant, the frame is perfection.

It's impossible not to get lost at the Louvre, so at some point we found ourselves among Egyptian antiquities, where I was hailed by this Middle Kingdom (1900 BC) Egyptian ceramic hippopotamus. (Replicas are in the gift shop at the Louvre, or in New York, where her twin, William, is the unofficial mascot of the Metropolitan Museum.) 

Once we left the Louvre, I started seeing my new favorite colors  everywhere. Like at the Orsay Museum - this breathtaking painting by Georges Lacomb, circa 1893, called "Marine Bleu: Effet de Vagues".

Monet's 1880 'Villas at Bodhighera": 

Van Gogh's "Church at Auvers", 1890: 

Nowhere was it more spectacular than in the apse of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre: 

But I also found it in the streets, like this darling tray and teacup set in a shop window.

And this scene at the Theatre Edgar in Montparnasse.

And these two pieces of fabric, in Montmartre fabric stores:

(The piece above is Klimt-inspired. The piece below is macarons alternating with teddy bears in teacups. Yes, you saw them in a blog post a couple of weeks ago.)

And moving across continents, from the sublime to the ridiculous, even Fragonard might approve of the graphics in this arcade game that I photographed at a completely different time, in Ventura, California. 

What do you do when you get obsessed with a color combination and need to see more? Go to TinEye, at http://labs.tineye.com/multicolr/. Select the colors you want to include - it searches 20 million Creative Commons images to give you many more examples! A bath for the eyes!

[Note: I have no financial or other affiliation with any of the artists, organizations, or websites in this blog post!]