Nicole Monteran is a French artist who I met through Joseph and Mary when we went on the Fat Tire Bike Tour of Berlin. She has lived in Berlin for over thirty years, yet remains very French in her comme il faut elegance. Her apartment in Charlottenburg is full of space, light, everything white, and objets d'art placed just so. The white painted floors set off the pieces of decorated furniture and collected paintings. Her own work is figurative and very assured of Berliners interacting, done in that almost caricature way like a combination of Chagall, Matisse and Georges Groz. Another strand of Berlin life revealed. Back I went to much more messy Bohemian Mitte and again spent many hours agonising over colour values. How to achieve exactly what I envisage remains elusive. I am going to have to achieve the effect I want by not using the colour I wish I could get but using another with the final effect being still what I wanted. Or at least try.
