I’ve been thinking about how music is an anchor in my and many others’ lives…especially around year-end holidays.  It is part of our celebration of life.  Listening, repeating, attending, and perhaps even singing.  New York at year’s end is a continuous music festival. 

One finds anchor or records anchor moments throughout life. I’ve dropped some weighty anchors at various times in a charmed life. Sometimes, they were heavy to lift, and I’ve always worked hard. Take my husband Edward, for example, a big anchor.  New York and the USA as our professional home is an anchor.  Paris, from my university days to today, is an anchor for me in my thoughts, moods, and realities. Then there’s Provence. After holidaying there for a few years, we resolved to spend part of each year under its sunny skies and amid its verdant landscape (hey, the Romans knew what they were doing…and the food isn’t bad, either) and have now done so for decades. Quite the adventure.  Sometimes, you just know and drop anchor.  Paris-New York-Provence … New York-Provence-Paris.  Sounds good …and is.  I never forget that or take it for granted. It’s been a privilege.

Anchors aren’t just about people and places. After sailing around for a while, I landed a career in the food-and-wine business, especially Champagne, and dropped anchor and enjoyed the party. Who doesn’t like food, wine, travel and Champagne? Like so many unexpected turns in life, I then wrote a book, which was wildly successful (who knew?), and I soon stepped away from my corporate career and dropped anchor as an author … and five books followed.  If you are reading this musing, you probably know all that.  But here’s what you don’t know.

I have always been a museum junkie. Back in the day, growing up in Eastern France, we didn’t have many extras in school, certainly no art training or exposure to world-class museums. My museum was a poster of one of Bonnard’s L’Amandier en fleurs paintings taped to my bedroom wall. However, I have made up for that with a lifetime of viewing around the world. How lucky I was, through my work, to experience the great art of the world in some remarkable settings. Quite an education! Plus, I’ve been fortunate to reside in New York and Paris, which has allowed me to feed my museum and gallery passion.

The things about painting that appeal most to me are colors and the evocation of emotions. Standing before a painting that speaks to me, I am stirred all over. Powerfully. Magically.

After completing my sixth book, I put another book or two on hold indefinitely to finally explore my attraction to painting, typically by being “all-in.”  No more painting just in my head. In Provence, with its startling light and painter culture, I acquired some training from various teachers who applauded my efforts.  I painted and painted and studied more in New York, but at that point, a host of professional painters encouraged me to just paint more and more every day as I was producing works they admired as “finished.”  My confidence grew. By the time Covid hit and we decided to isolate in Provence, I had quietly been a full-time painter for years. I have hundreds of completed canvases…and new ideas every day.  A trip to a museum—of which there continues to be many—is like a circus of ideas and emotions for me. And always music. I like the way painting makes me see and think and concentrate.

While some close friends knew about my painting anchor, and some of my paintings are in private collections in France and the US, I have exhibited modestly.  While offers of a major exhibition have been tempting, the time and effort involved and the need to mount something just did not resonate in me.  I don’t take myself too seriously, and to this day, I still don’t call myself a writer.  When pressed, I use the term author. Painter? Well, I paint… a lot. But now I’ve been persuaded by people I respect and will exhibit in Paris in June, with all the proceeds from sales going to my favorite charities. You never know.

I will let my paintings speak for themselves here, though I expect others to comment on their style and impact at the exhibition.  I hope these few tiny, representative reproductions of my works will speak to you and perhaps give you an excuse to come to see the real thing in Paris. Come say hello. The theme? You guessed it: Paris—Provence–New York.

Exposition du 19 juin au 28 juin 2025

GALERIE ETIENNE DE CAUSANS
25 rue de Seine – 75006 Paris
T 06 47 21 86 17  edecausans@orange.fr
Galerie ouverte du lundi au samedi de 14h30 à 19h