Deja` Bru Cafe` has a new Alfresco area.

My local café has some exciting changes. There is a new roof over part of the café.

This creates a lovely cool alfresco dining area. There is shade and coolness during these steamy days. Then, when we are lucky enough to have some rain, no-one has to scramble for cover.

In keeping with the décor of the Café, a coat of bright red paint enhances sections of the walls of this new area. I have done three paintings of Paris, The Arc De Triomph, The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris. 
I made good use of Google Earth street view. It's the next best thing to being there in real life.This photo shows the three paintings all together.

These paintings have the same colour palette as the large interior mural and keep to the Parisienne theme of Deja` Bru Cafe`. There’s a difference though, these three paintings are for sale.
If you are interested in purchasing any of these paintings please contact me or the Cafe` staff.

Arc De Triomphe - Acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm © 2014 Carol Lee Beckx

Eiffel Tower Paris - Acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm © 2014 Carol Lee Beckx

Notre Dame de Paris - Acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm © 2014 Carol Lee Beckx

And here's a reminder of the interior painting...

Deja` Bru Cafe` acrylic on canvas 1200mm x 3600mm

Deja` Bru Cafe` McDowall Village corner Hamilton and Beckett Roads, McDowall.

Phone: 0438 794 398

Postcards from Europe

The completed painting - Postcards from Europe.

Postcards from Europe - oil on linen - 36" x 48" - Carol Lee Beckx ©2013

I worked in oil on linen. The canvas measures 36” x 48”. This was quite time-consuming as each postcard had a fair amount of detail. Fortunately since each image was an independent little painting I could move to another leaving the first to dry.

Top row L-R Tower Bridge, London; Evening in Paris; The Parthenon Athens; Horse and Carriage, Greece;

2nd row Tivoli Fountains, Italy; Sorrento, Italy; The Blue Grotto, Greece; A St Bernard in the Alps; Ski Lodge & Ski lift;

3rd row  Oktoberfest; The Forum, Rome; The Isle of Capri; Hydra Greece

Bottom Row Oompah Band Germany; Fishermen with Horse and carriage, Spetsa, Greece;

Greek National dress, Mykonos rooftops  

Detail of some images can be seen in this post.

Virtual travelling in Paris - blog by blog.

In a previous post, Deja Bru - The Project  l wrote about surfing the net for references for my Paris street scene. There are also numerous blogs that extol the delights of Paris. I turned to these for more inspiration.

Detail: The Eiffel Tower Deja Bru - acrylic on Linen Carol Lee Beckx

Some of these gave me a lamp post or a café chair; a tree lined street; a blackboard Menu handwritten in lovely French cursive; chimneys unique to Paris or the detail of a wrought iron balcony.

Thank you for the inspiration.

I thought you might enjoy a virtual tour of Paris, so here are some links:

Paris Breakfasts

Paris through my Lens

Little Brown Pen

The Paris Blog

French Essence

Haven in Paris 

The Deja Bru Project

The commission was to create a Paris street scene for a new coffee shop Deja Bru at my local shopping centre. The brief was to include the Eiffel Tower, the buildings of Paris and street cafes painted in black and white. 

To prepare for the work I made a half size drawing of the scene. Half size made sense because the complete work would consist of 3 canvases each measuring 48" x 48". It was important make decisions about the composition where I could see the complete layout.

I obtained large sheets of good quality cartridge paper from Arthouse Northside, strong enough to withstand countless erasures during the drawing process. Two and a half sheets were joined and fixed to the studio wall with tape. Fortunately I had one wall that was long enough to do this!

I turned to the Internet to collect the necessary reference. Some images were a breeze -there are numerous wonderful images of the Eiffel Tower. Google Earth helped with the buildings. First I surfed the Net  for Paris cafes to get the addresses. Once I was there it was down to street view and I was in Paris. The view (complete with people) was then saved as a jpeg.

Sometimes I would want to see the building from further back so I'd move the Google man to a different place in the street only to find that the photo included a bus moving along in front of the building! 

Deja Bru left panel

Deja Bru centre panel

Deja Bru right panel

Once the drawing was approved, and after priming the canvases with good quality gesso, I squared up the canvases. The draft drawing was enlarged by doubling each element. 

Although the brief was for black and white, the painting needed to have tones of grey to add depth and to give more scope to do justice to the architectural details. Since the work was so large I used acrylics because they are fast drying, making it easy to move the canvases off the easels as I alternated between the three sections. The three panels were worked on at the same time keeping each at the same rate of progress to ensure continuity.


As I teach in my studio, the canvases needed to be moved to safety during the classes. It was useful not to have to contend with slow drying oils. Working exclusively in acrylics in tones of grey, black and white was a good exercise in tonal contrast - good lighting was essential. I was also swiftly reminded that acrylic paint dries darker - hmmm. I soon learnt to mix up larger quantities and save these in an air-tight container. In this way, the tones remained more constant and would not dry out too quickly. 

As the work progressed, the client suggested including the name of the cafe, so Deja Bru was transplanted to a street in Paris - with a dash of red. 

Final touches included more black and white in looser brush strokes - and it's done.

The paintings were installed last night and I must admit I am pleased. I'll post a photograph soon.

Painting Paris - work in progress

The painting of the streets of Paris is progressing slowly but surely. I have worked on each of the three canvases in rotation so each is brought to the same degree of finish simultaneously. This allows me to keep tonal values constant and ensure that the work is cohesive across the three separate canvases.

Although the brief is essentially for a black and white painting I needed to add tones of grey to add depth to the piece. Now I am starting to add more black and white and those areas are really starting to pop.

Today I added some street lights and the first tree and I feel as though Paris is becoming more real. 

Parts of the Eiffel Tower are also almost done.

The cafe`s and the people are now my major focus. It's hard to say how much longer I'll need but I am quite pleased with the rate of progress. Working in acrylics has made the work go quickly as I haven't had to wait for paint to dry. (Sometimes it's dried rather too quickly but that's the nature of the beast!)