my Atelier in 2007

When I moved to Paris in January 2007

I had a commission from Gables Residential 

to create 50 large format paintings 

for the luxurious Villa Rosa, but

I had only seven months to get them done and frame them and send them.

It was freezing cold and terribly grey in January.

Those seven months were filled with tears from missing my buddies in Florence 

and lots of parties with my new friends at the Ateliers of la Fabrique in Ivry sur Seine, the ugliest place in the whole wide world.

I painted, and painted,

and painted.

 Seven months later all the paintings were finished.

I'd been the eye witness of choice and ear-to-bend at the ateliers.  Couples got together, broke up, studio mates punched eachother, others loved eachother. There was a nymphomaniac that loved everyone including a  schizophrenic that followed her like a beaten dog, both wanted to confide in me.  

We drank lots of coffee.

All of the artists that I met disdained my type of painting, considering it commercial, but when they saw me whack out 50 huge ones in  seven months they were impressed.

I rented a truck and drove them all the way to Florence

to have them framed, crated, and shipped.

Now they are in Gables Villa Rosa.