Ohhhh La Laduree!

For as long as we can remember,  we’ve been absolutely crazy for Laduree and their little oh-so-Parisian treats, the famous macaroon. (Or as it’s properly spelled and pronounced, the macaron.  Roll those r’s in the back of your throat…)

We’ve often thought the macaron reward totally justifies an Air France ticket – the pastel-hued delicate little orbs of delicious pastry sandwiched around a creamy, sweet filling are that darn addictive and delicious.

 

Utterly beautiful & delicious too...les macarons de Laduree...

No Paris trip is ever complete without a stop at our favorite Laduree shop (the one in the 6^th on rue Bonaparte) and an ecstatic exit clutching the trademark pistachio green and gold bag.

 

 We could spend hours at the Laduree counter in Paris if it weren't for the long line of French

 madames waiting behind us..

And boy, are we popular when we get back to the U.S. (even if macarons arrived slightly smooshed and a little worse for wear.)  We adamantly swear by the company’s elegant presentation, their gorgeous packaging and the very Frenchiness of them.

Our very favorite Laduree location in the Sixth Arrondisement.

 Only in Paris.. the chic-est food truck ever.

Flashback to January 2013 and we’re at Maison et Objet, the gigantic show in Paris we like to do twice a year.  We stop at a booth, our eyes taken by an unusual array of clever folding trays.  A nice little conversation ensues and then we happen to notice a glimpse of the unmistakable green and gold, this time in a very smart looking box.

“Bonjour.  What’s that?” we inquire.

“Oh, it’s Laduree…” answers the lovely vendor.

“Bien sur, we recognize the gorgeous packaging but it’s not the macarons. Is it a candle?” we guess.

“Mais oui…” answers our new best friend who goes on to explain that Laduree has a lovely line of candles and home fragrances as well as a beauty line that she herself sells in her home furnishings shop in a fancy suburb of Paris.  We begin to swoon just a little, already imagining how perfect Laduree would be at Huff Harrington Home.

We were already picturing ourselves selling Laduree at Huff Harrington Home...

Well, you can probably imagine where this conversation went. By the time we moved on, our new best friend had promised to put us in touch with Laduree.   But, she cautioned: don’t get your hopes up. Only a selected few retailers are approved to carry the famed Laduree line.  And, the macarons themselves only go to dedicated bakeries (now very slowly opening here in the U.S.)  However, there is a slight, very slight, chance you might be approved for the home and beauty line…

With fingers and toes crossed that the sun, stars and planets would align, we waited with bated breath for a phone call from Laduree.

And it came!  This time, the thought of macarons did  justify an Air France plane ticket and Ann was able to schedule a meeting with them.  And, in the most lovely and serendipitous way, we got the oui, oui, oui from Laduree.

 We were thrilled to get the "Oui!" from Laduree...

Fast forward again to April and a delivery from France: boxes filled to the brim with the most gorgeous and elegant merchandise we’ve feasted our eyes on.

We are so proud and feel so privileged to be one of very few U.S. retailers of Laduree’s beauty, home and fragrance line: silky smooth and luxurious body creams and lotions, heavenly bath salts; room fragrances and candles.  We’re having so much fun displaying them at Huff Harrington Home and we’re delighted to announce that they’re flying off the shelves.

But we’re not surprised. And please excuse us if we sound a little like an adoring parent. We just can’t help it.  The products are simply beautiful, elegant and so Laduree…and now, here are some of the beauties now available at Huff Harrington Home:

 Part of the collection: cheeky and adorable limited edition candles named after

Paris, London & New York. Here's Paris, $68.

 The Laduree Paeva candle, $64.

 

 The Laduree New York candle, $64.

 The unforgettable Laduree orange blossom candle, $64.

The line also include creams, lotions, perfume and room sprays:

 

 Mimosa room spray a la Laduree, $75. We're crazy about the atomizer.

 Laduree does lotion: heavenly body cream, $78.

 Ohhh la la... body powder & an irresistible pink puff. We want one.. $68.

 For the sweetest smelling bath: violet bath salts, $48.

So, just in time for Mother’s Day (or just about any special occasion you can think of), may we suggest the most perfect little gift? The recipient will thank you profusely for your excellent taste and your refined sense of French style.  And, while you’re at it, why not indulge yourself with a little soupcon of ohhh la Laduree?

Ta ta…

 

Franke in France

 

Franke in France- toujours happy!

I'm one of the lucky ones who got to visit Nancy while she was painting in Paris. Not that it took a lot of arm twisting.

We had received a couple of emails from her, with a few snippets of her life in Paris.  Photos of her painting shirt hanging to dry on the window.  Glimpses of the Eiffel tower that dominated the view from her garret.  Pictures of paintings hanging on stairs to dry.  Labels from wine bottles enjoyed the night before.  Paintings of elegant Parisiennes, strolling the streets.  And most of all, fresh flowers, everywhere.

Flowers on her table

Flowers in the window

And flowers on her easel

We always like to visit our artists’ studios (especially the ones in France!) and we always like to see what inspires them in their surroundings. And it’s especially important when an artist is preparing for an exhibit as Nancy has been for her upcoming show, Franke, Foltz & Friends – which opens this Thursday, at Huff Harrington Fine Art.   So visiting her in France was a pretty easy argument to make, given the prep work needed for a show  (and the fact that Nancy’s month long sojourn in Paris overlapped with the best antiques market in France!).

Nancy and Michael were lucky to be staying in what we Huffingtons call our favorite hood, just steps away from the famous Rue Cler, which is dotted with fabulous flower markets and loaded with charming little restaurants and purveyors of fine foods and chocolates.  So we knew that there was no shortage of inspiration, in both the floral and food categories.  But we really had to laugh when Nancy published an adorable blog about her love of butter, and how butter was infusing everything she did and thought about, including her painting style!  Doesn’t every discussion in France eventually turn to food?

The food, the wine bottles, the flowers, the view, the paintings stacked up on the floor (especially the one wedged between the stairs, which I was just dying to see in person),  combined with Nancy’s effervescent personality (and her adorable hubby’s too) were too much to resist … and  I couldn’t have been happier to come up with a slew of excuses to justify a visit.

Paintings drying everywhere in Nancy's studio

Of course, seeing Nancy in Paris is kind of like seeing Pavarotti at La Scala.  She just belongs and thrives there!  Surrounded by museums filled to the brim with favorite artists, and every site on every street corner oozing with inspiration, not to mention the daily interactions and politesses with all the local merchants in her almost fluent French and the long three hour dinners in divine restaurants and the six mile walks every day  –  what’s not to love, especially for an artist?  It was a double treat for me to be there, since I got to see Paris through her ever-enthusiastic, well curated lens.

 

Rue de Rivoli, through Nancy's lens

Le Pont Alexandre, that caught our eye drying on the stairs

Champ de Mars

And then of course, as the work started to pour in, some of it still dripping with paint and oozing with butter, we were all jumping up and down with excitement.  Nancy has a magical touch, which has gotten lighter and looser over the years, but still manages to evoke  the warmth and essence and emotion of every subject she paints.  Combine that with her warmly diffused palette, her perfectly balanced compositions captured in just the right light, and her experienced editing skill  which enables her to pull away from the painting at just the right moment, leaving you to complete the details in your head so that the  interpretation is that much more personal … And there you have it: The je ne sais quoi Nancy Franke magic, that has us all enthralled.

I think for Nancy, the Paris experience was the perfect icing on the cake, adding to her explosion of senses (not to mention food metaphors!).  And those of us who get to see the work she has prepared for her upcoming show will get to share in the experience, almost as she did.  Bravo, Mme!  Franke in France was a sweet success and we can’t wait for your show to open on Thursday … and to embrace the fruits of your labor.  With butter!

Ta ta,

HH

Nancy signed off on one of emails with this picture.. the perfect embodiment

of Franke in France!

Foltz on Foltz

We open a wonderful new show, Franke, Foltz & Friends on Thursday, April 25th for two of our extremely accomplished artists, Nancy Franke and Doug Foltz.  You’ve probably been reading a little bit about Nancy right here in this blog…and now it’s Doug’s turn in the spotlight. 

Doug. His eyes are always twinkling.

Doug’s one of those multi-faceted people who we’re pretty sure fires on both sides of his brain.  He’s got a very demanding professional life but his passion is painting — and he pretty much nails it.  We’re always begging him for more work (and politely nagging!) but when he shows up at the gallery with canvases in hand, our jaws usually drop.

His big and sweeping paintings are all about sky, sea and the space in between the two. They’re inspired by Doug’s childhood in Miami and the time he spent on the gorgeous water between South Florida and the Bahamas.  He’s got a special spot in his heart for the Abaco Islands – that string of out-islands in the middle of a turquoise sea.  Anyone who knows that part of the world can spot the cuts, passages and narrows that he loves to paint and we have fun confirming their hunch that yes, that’s near Pete’s Pub or Scotland Key.

It's all about the water, sky & that space in between.

"Cooler Than Planned" 40 x 40

And this water lover also adores the contrast that Maine offers. As a painter, Doug’s intrigued with those Northern beaches and that sky that changes every five minutes.

We love having an excuse to visit Doug in his studio, so we wasted no time setting up a meeting a couple weeks ago to discuss paintings for the show…and have a glass or two of the yummy red that Doug keeps on hand.  While we were there, we got into a little impromptu Q & A:

Doug's always got a little of this going on in the studio..

AH & MH (looking around at Doug’s chock-a-block studio located in an old warehouse space): Tell us about this place – and where else you like to paint. 

DF: I’ve got this primary studio here in Atlanta, and I also keep a smaller space in Blue Mountain Beach in Northwest Florida… but I’m lucky enough to paint regularly from a particular dock in Abaco; a good friend’s home on South Georgia’s Hird Island, and a stunningly beautiful cliff on the Central Maine coast.  The Atlanta studio seems to be shrinking!  It has great light, a lot of different areas for me to keep multiple paintings going at once, a nice work-island on an old oriental rug on the cold concrete… but… it’s filled (and getting more filled!) with tons of stuff that connect me to what I love in this world…  photos, magazine pages, half finished sketches…

Inspiration everywhere in Doug's studio.

AH & MH: Your paintings are pretty complex and we know you spend a lot of time thinking about composition.  Tell us more about the painting process.  How does a painting come to be?

DH: Some start with a live view, some with an emotion and some with a poem that drives an emotion.  They usually spend a long, long time in my head before they move to studies, sketches in pencil, watercolor or even pixels before they hit canvas (although not always.)  Composition is king and I try to paint more of the way a place made me feel than the way it looks.  Early on, I’m telling the paint what to do – I’ll push it around to make space or effect.  At some point,  the paint begins bringing its own energy to the effort and starts telling me what to do. If I recognize when that magic moment hits – when the paint itself takes over – that’s when things start to get good.

 

We love where Doug takes us in "Doublecheck" 48 x 36

AH & MH:  And how has your work evolved over the years?

DF: I’m getting better at recognizing that moment when the paint takes over.   And I’m painting bigger than ever.  I’m loving painting big.

(AH & MH: we love it when you paint big, too!)

 

Big sky, big water.. "Altering Course" 48 x 36

AH & MH: Let’s talk a little bit about those things in life that inspire you to put paint on canvas and create these magical and powerful masterpieces…

DF:  I like authenticity.  I’m inspired when anyone or anything is real, true and honest… and willing to put that out there at every turn.  I’m inspired by my wife, my dog and anyone who meets the “real, true and honest” bar.  And, I’m inspired by many, many artists, including a lot of kids I know.  They tend to care more about the act of painting than they do the painting itself.  I admire that.

Doug's tools of the trade.

AH & MH:  you know we love asking about favorites, so here come a couple: favorite subject matter?

DF: yeah, you girls with your “favorite” thing… I do paint other subjects, but very few views give me the rush, the sense of self and the settling that I find on the coast.  I’m a landscape painter.   And most of my landscapes are waterscapes or skyscapes, because I love the way water and sky make me feel. I also tend like storms because they make the calm calmer.  I like the cold because it makes the warm warmer and the dark because of the light it brings.  Those combinations give me peace and stimulation all at once.  Being out there – on the edge of land and water and sky, or the storm and the calm – makes me feel very small and very large all at the same time.  I love being caught in the middle.

Doug's studio is filled to the brim with cool stuff, like this set of bleached skulls.

AH & MH: wow.  Next favorite: music to paint by?

DF: this week it’s classic jazz, liquid soul, reggae, late 60′s rock, Tchaikovsky, and Mark Knopfler.

AH & MH: here’s another one.  Favorite vacation spot?

DF:  Anywhere that smells salty.  Or the Amalfi region in Tuscany or Provence.

AH & MH: we agree on all counts with that one.  Okay, one more “favorite” question:   Favorite restaurant in Atlanta?

DF:  Changing all the time.  We’ve been to the Optimist a lot lately and we’re looking forward to trying The Iberian Pig in Decatur.

AH & MH: yum.  Last one.  Tell us something we’d never guess about you.

DF: I like leaving a little mystery.  Really… that’s it.

AH & MH: awwww, c’mon Doug.  If you’re ending it on that elegant note, you better pour us another glass of this delish red you’ve got sitting here…

Stay tuned for our next little blog about Franke, Foltz and Friends which will focus on Franke in France. Got that?

 

Our studio sneak peek of works in progress..

Ta Ta.

Antiquing with our Parisienne

 

"Champs de Mars" oil on board by Nancy Franke

It was a freezing cold, drizzly Monday but that didn’t deter us.  Nancy Franke and I had one thing in mind, and that was the drippingly decadent sandwich au jambon that we knew was waiting for us at the Chatou Foire a  la Brocante et Jambon, my favorite antiques market in the world.  I had just flown in that morning and couldn’t wait to catch up with our dynamic, effervescent and energetic Nancy Franke, who was spending a month-long sejour in an adorable artist’s garret overlooking the roofs of Paris (and with a magical view of the Eiffel Tower),  getting inspired for her upcoming show at Huff Harrington Fine Art. 

The artist, in her Parisian pied-a-terre

Over the past month, we had been getting titillating tidbits of Nancy’s life a la Parisienne.   There were images of the view from the apartment, of Nancy with easel in hand, of paintings drying on the floor, of favorite bottles of wine, of Nancy’s husband, Michael, whom we lovingly call “Monsieur,” and peppered throughout,  little jewels painted by Nancy that had us oophing and aahing with every email.  How convenient that her sojourn overlapped with my favorite shopping excursion in Paris!

 The view from her window

At the Chatou fair, held twice a year on the outskirts of Paris, we were enchanted by every antique and objet, the funnier and most intriguing, the better, ever mindful of the upcoming container heading to Huff Harrington Home  later this month.  Of course, we can’t leak it all in advance but there were some finds we couldn’t resist:

Gorgeous sconces hanging on shutters

 

French Bistrot tables that we can't live without

 

A Louis XVI chest that smiled longingly at me

A little Louis XV with the greatest looking legs

 

A beautiful painting by an artist we've been coveting

 Don't tell Meg, but we thought there was an uncanny little resemblance here!

 

And a perfectly charming gentleman we were just dying to kidnap

 Not exactly a style icon...but happy as a clam

Nancy’s nickname at the gallery is “Sunshine” because of her naturally glowing aura – so we never let the gloomy, drizzly weather interfere with our fun.   And on this occasion in Chatou, after a fun day of dodging puddles and rain drops, the real sun shone on us for about five minutes for the piece de resistance: the most delicious ham sandwich in the world, loaded with veggies, dripping with taste, cut right of the bone and served with our favorite beverage, in little plastic cups.  It was heaven for a minute … and when it started raining again, it didn’t matter one bit.   I was with Nancy!

 

The 'Piece de Resistance'

Ta ta,
HH

PS: Stay tuned for more about “Franke in France” as we unveil some of the little treasures Nancy has painted during her inspiring trip.

Did we really eat all that?