Have a dry and Happy 4th!!

Irregardless Landscape, 7x10" watercolor vignette

French is such a pretty language. And lucky for us, many of our words come from the French. Vignette, for instance, the word used to describe a borderless painting. Most of us are familiar with photographic vignettes, those often old-timey photos whose images fade into white. The same word applies to painting.

And then there’s en plein air as well as my term for the method I used yesterday to paint these two paintings, dans la voiture. How I chose to use this term for painting in the car, is better explained on my “Dans la voiture” blog post. Yesterday I had just enough time in which to paint these two vignettes before meeting customers for dinner at Raleigh’s Irregardless Café. It was necessary when I was painting, to turn on the air conditioner intermittently to stay cool, the heat on the dashboard to more quickly dry the base coat, and the defrost to defog the windshield so I could see the scene before me.

All this work was rewarded afterwards by a wonderful dinner at the popular Irregardless. I needn’t recommend this restaurant to those who have had the good fortune to dine there. Not surprising the engaged couple I had dinner with are considering the Irregardless’ catering services for their wedding reception next year.

Irregardless, the café, 10x7 watercolor vignette