Walled Gardens and Pageant Dress, Only in NOLA

9:44 AM

Our last full day in NOLA dawned cold and clear with a strong wind from the northwest that robbed the warmth from the sunshine. However, that morning we spent touring the Beauregard-Keyes house (Keyes rhymes with eyes) and then sketching in the walled gardens. The walls made it possible for us to sketch without being totally miserable!

St. Francis in the Beauregard-Keyes Walled Gardens
Sketched on location
The house is named after its two most celebrated owners, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and author, Ms. Frances Parkinson. We had an absolutely delightful guide and learned a good deal about what it might have been like to live back in the mid-1900's in New Orleans.

[I recently had someone ask "Don't you ever make mistakes!?!" Take a close look at the page above and you'll note one colossal mistake—the bricks....I drew what I THOUGHT I saw there rather than what I OBSERVED to be there. To downplay the wrong perspective, I washed some darker color over the bricks so that they are less noticeable. So the answer is "YES. I make mistakes. I also do what I can do downplay or correct them and move on. Lastly, I seldom point out mistakes because most of the time, if we don't say anything, no one notices anyway!"]

Other shots of the house and gardens:
Interior Courtyard behind the house
Cold, but determined sketchers in the walled gardens
Resurrection Fear growing on the wall of the garden
We took off for lunch and then spent the first part of the afternoon doing some shopping (purchasing pralines) and we then gathered to go to the Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum at Arnaud's Restaurant:
Sketched on Location
The museum houses dresses worn by Ms. Wells, who is Count Arnaud's daughter. She is the one woman who has presided over more Krewes than any other. There were also outfits worn by her mother, daughter and the Count as the King of Mardi Gras. It was a very interesting and close-up look at the opulence and details of the Mardi Gras dress of yesteryear as contrasted against our visit to Mardi Gras World on our first day.
The dress is encrusted with beading and other
embellishments. The train is made of velvet and
trimmed with real fur—it had to weigh a ton!!
Intrepid sketchers sitting on the floor
after a mishap with a broken stool
Our evening finished off with a fabulous meal at Arnaud's. The restaurant harkens back to another era where you wore your best to go to dinner, the door was held for women and the chair pulled back. Men wore jackets and the ladies were dressed to the nines. (It's more relaxed now, but only by a little bit!)

It was a wonderful way to wrap up our week in NOLA with a fabulously wonderful group of sketchers!

[I have a few more pages to share (that are out of order) where I've done a few different and fun things to change them up a bit!]

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25 Creative Thought(s)

  1. Great place to travel to and sketch. Bet it was hard to choose what to include! Good save in the garden. I love keeping the 'Ut ohs.' They make for great workshop lessons :) Your lettering really celebrates the beauty you captured. Bravo!

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    1. Pam, I could easily do another 20 pages and I'm still not sure if I'd be done!

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  2. The Beauregard-Keyes house and garden was one of my absolute favorites of that trip, which reminds me, I need to pull out my sketchbook and finish those pages! All my art things got put away over the holidays and haven't come back out to play yet!

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  3. What a fun time y'all had. I would love to do something like this one day.

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  4. I noticed the bricks but not that they were wrong. I just noted that the ground there must have been brick. I think our brains accept what we see unless we are looking for details. I just enjoyed the sketch!

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    1. Thanks, Timaree, and I think you're right. It's only when we start pointing out "mistakes" that folks realize there's something off/wrong with the image.

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  5. Ooooooh! So much to see and paint, what a wonderful trip you guys had!

    Do my old eyes see a'right? Resurrection Fear is plant's name? I couldn't find anything on google about it. Looks very interesting and a bit macabre.

    Looking forward to more of your trip...

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    1. The fern was called Resurrection FERN by a number of people in different locations, but not Fear. My mistake.

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  6. These are great sketches and I agree.. why point out mistakes..We probably wouldnt notice anyways and if we did we would jsut think you planned it that way. :) How long do you spend sketching something? Do you have a time set or just how ever long it takes? Oh I answered your question about the hummers on my blog, but in case you dont see it, we have Annas hummers winter here every year. We dont get much snow as a rule.

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    1. Cris, I had about 45 minutes into just the sketch. The journaling was finished later after the trip. I usually try to match up the amount of sketching I *think* I can get done to the amount of time I have on location.

      Thanks for letting me know about the hummers—I was worried!

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  7. It's so fun to see more of your sketches and relive a little bit of our trip.

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    1. It has been a wonderful escape for me too, Cheryl!

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  8. Laure,
    Nice to see you are blogging again. :) Thanks for the sketches and photos - really brings back the memories from our fabulous trip. When is the next trip going to be and where are we going is what I want to know? LOL Trying not to get too excited.
    Antique Palette, in my notes I wrote resurrection fern - not sure if that helps or maybe they are two different plants. My notes were from a plantation we went to on the trip.

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    1. Thanks, Kay, it's good to be back. I am pulling together some plans on a few trips now and hope to have some details out very soon.

      And yes, it was resurrection fern not fear! My bad!

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  9. Thank you, Kay (If you come back to see this...) I found it! Also called miracle fern, quite a unique plant. Guess I gotta get out of New York state to see things!
    Someday I may be travel hardy and can come on one of Laure's real trips!

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  10. Oh, how I wish we still had restaurants like that now. I'd love to dine someplace quiet, where kids aren't running everywhere. Oh well...
    Love the sketches and the photos. (I hadn't noticed the mistake in the firs one until you pointed it out.)I've always had a desire to see NOLA but was reluctant since the hurricane. You make me see that it's still a lovely place to visit.

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    1. It wasn't exactly quiet as it was a big room, but I didn't see any children, now that you mention it.

      Oh, do go back, Katie, or come with me on my next trip to NOLA! The city has really rebounded well.

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  11. Oh what a treat to read (and see) a bit more of your NOLA adventure. It brings back so many wonderful memories!!

    Just wondering if you remember 'who' is in the teal green hooded coat in the photo next to Kay. I might know who it is, but I'm not sure. Wondered if you remembered.

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    1. Yes, I know "who" is in the teal green hooded coat—she's a lovely lady that I've had the privilege of knowing for about three years now. She's a wonderful artist and a lot of fun too!

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  12. P.S. I want to fill in more of my pages too! The holidays interrupted my momentum on this journal.

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  13. Oh how I wish I could have gone! Looks like you all had a blast. It is so fun seeing what you did. Maybe next time?

    I am so sorry about your sweet dog. My Gigi has been gone two years yesterday and I still miss her terribly. My heart goes out to you.

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