This lovely scene over the rooftops and landmarks of central Paris was the view from Douglas MacDiarmid’s top floor studio in Rue St Martin for several years. He painted it day and night, in all its moods, and regularly mixed a bit of fine Fontainebleu sand (the purest silica sand used for glass making) to the paint at that time to add texture and interest.

The heritage apartment building was immediately across the street from the ancient Church of Saint-Merri and a demolition site that was to become the futuristic Georges Pompidou Centre, which houses the city’s substantial modern art collection.

Image : Paris cityscape (1972) by Douglas MacDiarmid (oil and sand on canvas, 850 x 1305cm). Collection of The Treasury, New Zealand Government, Wellington.