Friday, December 12, 2008

Metroheads: The Special Guest and The Musician

Métro Parisien - 11 décembre 2008

The ginger cat - When I get into the metro-car, I immediately spot the ginger cat sleeping on one of the seats on the left side of the metro-car. Vis-à-vis sits the cat's "human", a man who's face I cannot see cause he has put the hood of his jacket (protectively) over his head and looks out of the window.
I sit down on his side, so that I can draw the cat. I pull the inkpen, my glasses and the moleskine notebook out of my bag and then I smell the cat. A short look at the clothes of the man tell me that this is probably a homeless man, in his 40ies, I'd say.

I draw the kitty and have just finished it's leash when the fellow takes out a candy bar, unwrappes the paper and suddenly, while the metro comes to a stop at the station, violently flings the whole thing on the ground (candy bar exploses) grabs the cat, puts it under his arm, while furiously grumbling. Off he goes, barely making it out of the car before the door closes.

click on the images to enlarge


When I recover from the unexpectedness of this encounter, I look for another model. Another haul.


Here he is, a beautiful young man - with black curly hair, a greyblue knit cap and a musical instrument (a guitare?) in it's case. He sees me, looks over from time to time, doesn't seem to be intrigued, just a bit curious, and wondering...


Copyright ©estandrea - All rights reserved

MISS DOODLE: "Who gives credit to the poor?"

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andrea I just posted a sleeping cat, then went to your site where I found another beautiful sleeping cat! I like the musician too.

Unknown said...

Mike, that is so funny:) Why is it that we love them so much?:)

Andrea and Kim said...

Andrea, you are amazing to find these lovely creatures on the Metro. Paris is really wonderful to allow these special passengers on the train. Only service (helping) animals are allowed on the Washington Metro. The drawing/painting of the kitty is really wonderful...what a soft lovely color and it looks so cozy there on the seat. The young man with the guitar case really shows the curiosity you describe. I really love the detail and again the softness of this drawing. It appears he gave you some time to make this wonderful work.

You either have a long commute or you can recuperate well from the explosion of the kitty's owner. I think that would have thrown me out of my element for a little while. On the other hand, I feel so very sorry for the man to have that volatility right under his skin...that has to be hard. Poor guy.

Once again, Andra, you have shared these lovely people you come in contact with each day. Beautiful, beautiful work in so many ways. You touch so many lives.

Love,

Kim

Unknown said...

Kim thanks so much for your comment. The cat looks so cozy there on the seat indeed, that I was sorry for it to be snatched away so quickly. And this incident really threw my out of my element too and the only way to not being stuck in this moment was to concentrate on another individual to draw!

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Oh these are lovely lovely drawings. I love them both. you are growing by leaps and bounds doing these studies.
Daisy just got up on my lap to see the sleeping cat. :) Kind of hard to type here. LOL
She thinks its a pretty cool painting of the cat too. :)

Unknown said...

Cris, thank you for your nice comment and say hello to Daisy from Oscar, (both VSC's = Very Spoiled Cats, at least that what it looks like to me, in comparison with the little ginger cat here
love
Andrea

Genie said...

Hi Andrea,
love the cat sketch and story.
happy Xmas wishes from Devon

Anonymous said...

ohhh andrea....
i like the drwaing of the cat very much:-))
he looks like my red rufus,
i think you must be in heaven sitting and drwaing...
what a great gift it is...
my compliments andrea, you've made my day :-)

xxx
klaproos

Andrea and Kim said...

Andrea, I had to come back to see this second Metrohead. I couldn't get him out of my head.

You found a lovely second subject to be sure! I love the wash you have used on him and the details are so nice.

What size is your Metrohead Moleskine? The smaller or the larger size? Either way, these are fabulous!

Love,

Kim

Unknown said...

Genie, Happy Advent Time for you too:)

Unknown said...

Klaproos, thanks so much, so you have a red Rufus, it's a sweet name for a Tomcat. I had once a ginger cat, my beloved Suaheli, long time ago, snif...
Now it's Oscar, the tiger:)
love

Unknown said...

Kim thanks for coming back, in fact it's the bigger-sized moleskin notebook, the little one is too little for my purposes,
take care
A

Anonymous said...

What made the man so angry? Do you know? Was it you drawing or wandered some louse over his liver? I love your drawings Andrea!!!!!!!!!!

Dianne said...

Amazing to find a cat on the metro, on a leash as well! I don't know any cats around here that will go on a leash! Do you write about your encounters on the side of your drawings? A collection of these drawings would make a wonderful book, have you had them published?

Anonymous said...

Well, well, well, the story of the three wells. there is life in the metro! And it seems to happen there.

Anonymous said...

je suis toujours étonné pas les chats insouciants dans des conditions où on est habitué à les voir plus farouches.

Andrea and Kim said...

Thanks Andrea, I just ordered one of those a few days ago. I have used the small ones for a long time, but thought I would give this larger size a try.

Thanks for your help.

ArtistUnplugged said...

Love the cat painting, very nice. The musician is wonderful also, love the line styles on him.

Yvette said...

so fragile, the outburst of this man and the cat, a story that feels not good. Yesterday your pencilstrikes shows love, today it shows the not predictable things( I hope I express my feelings well)

sukipoet said...

After our electricity outage and ice storm I am just catching up on reading blogs. I love the kitty, and what a surprise to find him on the Metro. Love the blues you have used in both these paintings. By large sized notebook do you mean approx 5 x 8 inches or is there a larger one than that?

Wurzerl said...

Liebe Andrea, da gab es jetzt eine Menge zu sehen! Ich kommentiere heute nicht, da wäre so vieles, wo ich meinen Senf dazugeben könnte, aber das Bett schreit heute laut nach mir, also einfach ein lieber Gruß von hier zu Dir!
Ich wünsche Dir eine gute Woche!
Wurzerl

Lynn Cohen said...

My heart ached for that poor guy...he must be mentally disturbed...sad...kitty looked healthy enough? Gave him some warmth and pleasure I hope.
Great drawings both!!!

patti said...

That's all my cat does! LOL

Andrea, these are beautiful - I love your cat and your young man. Where would we be without your metroheads!?

Unknown said...

Martine: I think a louse went over the man's liver, or his vision of a life in general which does not meet reality? I don't know...

Unknown said...

Dianne, in general I don't write on the side of the metrohead in my notebook, only inspirational words etc. I write the mini-stories once I post the drawings/paintings on my blog. And I'm preparing a sort of book which I then will be able to show to an editor or edit myself, lots and lots of work so this is a very slow project:)
thanks so much for your insightful comment!

Unknown said...

Wim, it seems to me, that the people with whom I travel have the impression that while metroing, their life is "on hold" or so, if they don't read or listen to music or speak on the phone. For me it would be the same, if I hadn't my notebook!

Unknown said...

Choule: oui moi aussi, cela m'étonne de voir un chat dans le métro, mais ces petits être ont la même capacité d'adaptation que nous, probablement meilleure...

Unknown said...

Kim , larger sized notebooks are bit more complicated to transport but they offer you more liberty:)

Unknown said...

Artist Unplugged: thanks so much for visiting and for your motivating comment, at the moment I'm not blogging or visiting as much as usual, (but then , what's usual you might say:) but I will be there soon:)

Unknown said...

Yvette: you express yourself very well! And oh yes, this is what we see every day, in between love there is misery and hatred. Although we live in a part of the world were we should so much relativize when talking about misery, there are these poor devils caught in a vicious circle...

Unknown said...

Suki, thanks so much for your comment, and yes, the larger size is approx. 5 x 8 inches, which is fine for travelling!

Unknown said...

Wurzerl:)danke für den Besuch und Du hast hoffentlich nun gut geschlafen:) Bis bald!

Unknown said...

Lynniskynni yes, this guy was upside down. Trouble is, they show so much agressivity that people shy away from them, I tried not to but then he took a flight and his movement were so violent. I'm glad he has the cat cause with cats you can be nice and sweet and they will not deceive you...

Unknown said...

Patti:) thanks for your nice comment and yes, that's what my cat does too! (a part from eating and playing with my wool while I want to knit a scarf:)

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