PARIS 2009

When we began to plan our trip, we only had France in mind, beginning with Paris. Gradually we expanded our itinerary to include other countries and France somehow got shuffled to the end. I had been to France a few times but Paul hadn't been yet. Leaving Paris to the end of the three weeks was, in retrospect, a mistake. Paris requires a lot of energy to see and do everything the city has to offer and we were by that time a little worn out. We did, however, manage to see the Louvre, D'Orsay and the Rodin Museums. On foot we explored the back streets and galleries of St. Germaine des Pres, Montparnasse and some of the Rive Gauche.

Some of the most interesting, welcoming Parisians we met were immigrants to the country. Much has been written by others about the character of the native French people. Some of it is true and some is exaggeration. Even in Paris a smile goes a long way to bridging the cultural divide.

As artists, we spend the majority of our trips in the museums and galleries of the countries we visit. We linger for hours over the artwork and consequently can spend an entire day in one museum or another. This trip we tried something new. In every city we visited we took a sightseeing boat cruise or bus ride. I've always thought these were too touristy for my taste but I was wrong. We enjoyed them, met and talked with travelers from other countries and learned a lot about the history of each city from the guides. It's also a great way to get off your weary feet. The city buses turned out to be preferable to the Metro (too much walking from stop to stop). They were cleaner and safer. 

Paris is terribly expensive. Even the Parisians complain of the cost of food etc. This trip I noticed that the city seems a bit run down. The buildings were grimy and to my amazement there were crumbling ceilings in parts of the Louvre. I think it takes a certain type of person to fall in love with Paris. I'm not that type but I admit, Paris is definitely one of the cities you must see before you die.

BATH AND THE COTSWOLDS 2009

For more than twenty years I've been a devoted follower of Masterpiece Theater and Mystery on PBS. I love all the Merchant and Ivory movies and any British costume drama on the big or small screen. So naturally I thought when I finally made it to England I would be prepared for the experience. I was wrong. England is greener, more civilized, more enchanted, more of everything than I expected. I think Bath and the villages of the Cotswolds are the prettiest places I've ever seen. 

We wandered the narrow alleyways of Bath at night and in the morning took a slow, meandering boat trip on the Avon River  (learned that there are many different Avon Rivers in England). A swan floated by with six signets tucked under her wings. Spring green hillsides rolled down to the riverside, rushes swayed gently in our wake. A brief cloudburst cooled us. Later we went into a shop on the Bath bridge selling stamps, coins and old medals. The elderly, wizened proprietress was right out of Dickens. Called me Dear.

We toured Stonehenge, the village of Avebury with the great stone circle and had lunch in a sixteenth century pub in Castle Comb.

For me, the five days we spent in southern England were the highlight of our 2009 trip.  

LONDON 2009

From the time I was a teenager I've wanted to go to London. I've been to Europe many times and never made it there. Paul was born there and had studied a short course in microscopy during the eighties in London. I was very excited to be going to England. We took the Chunnel from Brussels and arrived at St. Pancras station. 

We had booked our hotel in  Bloomsbury near the train station for convenience. The East Indian desk clerk, Hans, was originally from Africa. He kept asking if Paul was related to a previous guest from Wales and seemed to find it hard to take no for an answer.  The Booking.com description of the hotel said that some rooms overlooked a garden so we requested one in our reservation. The garden turned out to be a 10' x 10' walled brick patio with wilted potted plants and a stack of moldy mattresses. To say that the room was "cozy" is an overstatement. We could barely move. While clean, the shower was impossibly small and water went everywhere. Still the proximity to the British Museum and being two blocks from all the bus lines and the train station made up for the inadequacies and the full English breakfast included in the price of the room helped.

The collection at the British Museum is fabulous. Notorious treasures like the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, antiquities from every corner of the globe are housed in the British Museum and we spent days revisiting the collections. For free! The British are so civilized!

The British people are some of the most polite, friendly and hospitable I've ever met in my travels. Some of them were the stuff of fiction. Sitting across from us on a city bus on the way to the Tate Modern was a man in his sixties with a tuft of hair on his otherwise bald head, glasses like coke bottle bottoms and missing teeth who whistled a three note tune every so often and I think said something about tickety-boo. You know someone that out of it has had a rough time but his good humor and odd behavior are pure Monty Python.

Listening to a young East Indian man studying economics complain of the cost of college in London over a curry dinner, watching children play in the fountain in Russell Square, a Sri Lankan demonstration in front of the Parliament buildings, doing our laundry in a laundry mat with an elderly Chinese woman; all these experiences make London a wonderful memory and a place I can't wait to get back to.

BRUSSELS 2009

We were advised by friends and travel books to bypass Brussels and go to Brugge instead. I'm glad we didn't listen to their advice. While Brussels will never be on the list of my favorite European cities it is fascinating on a number of levels. Brussels is the seat of the European Union and consequently buzzes with diplomatic activity. The juxtaposition of the ancient architecture with the ultra modern is interesting. The Museum of Ancient and Modern Art houses the most magnificent collection of Northern European art in the world. Belgium is a monarchy and when the King is in the country (he was) the flag flies over his palace and the royal gardens were beautiful.

We spent our few days in the heart of the city which is geared to tourists and diplomats, from the sublime to the profane. Contrary to what we'd read the food was unremarkable and no we didn't have mussels in Brussels. We discovered that a french fry is a french fry whether it comes in a fancy paper cone or newsprint. 

RECENT PICTURES OF EUROPE

We recently returned from three weeks in Europe. We began our trip in Amsterdam then moved on to Brussels. We took the Eurostar under the channel to London then on to Bath and the Cottswolds. We finished our trip in Paris. Here are some of Paul's photographs beginning in Amsterdam.

LOOKING BACK AGAIN

   In 1993 I resolved to put my music career to rest. I had been a professional singer/songwriter for twenty-seven years at that point.  I had been 'paying to play' for years and the musicians I was working with at the time, although very talented individually, had absolutely no concept of inter connectivity when we performed. They ran over me like a freight train with amplification and I have the hearing loss today to prove it. 

   The music industry and I had a mutual mistrust of one another. The industry couldn't figure out how to categorize me for marketing and I didn't want to be pigeon holed. Unlike many of my musical friends, making the transition from performer to non performer was easy for me. I relegated performing to a youthful passion that had waned and took up painting for my creative expression. 

   But periodically in the years to follow, music would resurface in my life. I was hired as a lyricist for an MGM animated feature. Singers recorded my songs and most recently I was asked by Marc Myers from www.JazzWax.com to discuss my collaboration with the great jazz pianist and composer, Jimmy Rowles, on the song LOOKING BACK.  I wrote the lyrics for Jimmy's haunting melody when I was a teenager and Jimmy was somewhere on his way to sixty. Retelling the story of my long, albeit sporadic, relationship with Jimmy made me realize that making music was not something I could turn off and on like a spigot. The joy of it could lay dormant for years but spring to life again with a little encouragement. 

   I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason; there is no such thing as chance. I'm waiting to see where this new resurgence of music in my life will lead me. In the meantime I have a new idea for a painting.

   

MORE WORK BY DORIAN WELLS

In 2008 Dorian was commissioned to paint a race car for the San Francisco soapbox derby sponsored by Red Bull. This was the second Red Bull event Dorian was invited to participate in, the first being the group show at the Sugar Factory in Manhattan.