(dancing life)

oil on canvas 30×32 inches, 2001

Private collection

The flower shop in this painting is located on rue Montorgueil, one of the last of the traditional pedestrian market streets in Paris. It is within a few blocks of our apartment, so we walk and shop there daily, always stopping to study and sketch interesting things along the way.

The actvity along the street is a loosely choreographed dance, repeated daily with subtle variations in rhythm and motion: Beginning with deliveries at dawn and ending with cobble cleaning at night. In between is a constant flurry of setting up, selling, replacing, and replenishing, accompanied by the sounds of people chatting and laughing and carrying on. Each shop is a crazy-busy little world unto itself.

The flower shop is especially intriquing, not only because of its spectacular display, but also because of the kaleidoscopic effects created by lights and people shape-shifting in the wobbly glass of its storefont windows.

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