My wife Peg is in the Night Cafe in Arles, France, made famous by Van Gogh. Original digital painting.
Pegs in the Night Cafe
Gary Kirkpatrick
Woman (With Red Lips) Walks Dog
The original drawing is in pen and ink, below. With Red Lips is the same drawing but painted digitally.
Polish cuisine
Polish food has long since been a part of American cuisine, even if a small part. Who has not had kielbasa sausage or dill pickles. Polish cuisine is a calorie and fat rich cuisine, heavy on pork, chicken and beef to a lesser extent. Cabbage is a major item — there were three types of cabbage served with the huge platter we shared on our first night. They use a lot of cream and eggs, as well as grains. Bigos is a hearty stew made of finely chopped meats sauerkraut and cabbage. Pirogi are a major feature, stuffed noodles or rolled pancakes– I had one stuffed with cheese and spinach. You can get a variety of pretzel (but soft) in food carts and bakeries everywhere. Sour dough breads are common, including its use in soups. In the main square there are booths. At one we tried a grilled smoke cheese with cherry jam. It was excellent!
A small place open just for lunch is called Lunch- that’s right, Lunch. We noticed that locals were piling in so figured it was probably both good and a good value, and it was indeed. This meal plus a beer and coke was just $15.00, and either would have been enough for two people. The pirogi had a potato pancake on top and another on the bottom.
Goulash was borrowed from the Hungarians, becoming an integral part of the cuisine.
I have my doubts about spinach as a traditional ingredient.
I’ll have more to add as we go.
Krakow: city of architecture and culture
Krakow sits on the banks of the Vistula. Settlement dates from the 7th century, finding Wawel hill a defensible position. and has long been a major center of Polish culture and economy. It was a member of the Hanseatic league despite not being coastal and thus had its own fleet during that period (circa 1000-1500). It was the capitol of Poland from 1038-1569, when Wawel Castle
castle burned, after which the capital was moved to Warsaw. It was capitol again during the Nazi era. In 1978, Karol Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian in 455 years. Auschwitz is close by, and Schindler had his factory here, which is now a museum. Its current population is 760,000, with a total regional population of 8 million. On our first day it seemed like a few million children were taking a field drip to the city, long lines of them being moved about by teachers trying to show them the town.
http://www.garyjkirkpatrick.com/krakow/Wawel Castle at nightKrakow means “town of Krakus,” a legendary ruler of the country. The area’s first named inhabitants, the Vistulian tribe (700 CE), gave the river its name. However, there is evidence of habitation dating well before, to 50,000 years. Wawel Castle, now a fine arts museum, was built circa 1350 and much renovated in the 16th century, when King Sigusmund brought in Italian architects, German decorators as well as local craftsmen.
In 1364 Casimir III founded the University of Krakow, the second oldest in central Europe after Charles University in Prague. By the 15th century the city had entered its golden age, whence the examples of Polish Renaissance architecture. The architecture includes fine examples of Gothic, Renaissance and the Baroque.
Carol — 1954-2018 (Version 2)
My previous painting of Carol was in watercolor whose shimmering qualities gives a kind of what one might call a ‘spirit shimmer.’ This rendition tells more about her fiery qualities, her strength, her defiance.
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid- fabulous paintings
This first is a Toulouse-Lautrec, if you can believe it
These next two are Sorollas from the Sorolla Museum
Keystone Kraps
The Keystone Cops was a silent slapstick movie short that played in the 1920’s. The faces are painted by hand using a Wacom tablet. “Keystone” is a straight copy of a title used in the movies.
Digital painting
Hungarian Woman II
Hungarian Woman II was created from Hungarian Woman (http://www.garyjkirkpatrick.com/hungarian-woman/. Using a high quality photo imported into a drawing program (GNU), I can then work on it with a Wacom drawing tablet.
A Storm Brews
