They are finished – the ‘Three Holy Birds’ of French Cuisine

Some time ago I read about the ‘three holy birds’ of French cuisine, so named by  Kate Hill, Kitchen in Camont, in Gascony, France. They are pheasant, duck and guinea fowl, which she also endearingly calls, the ‘three graces. Kate’s ‘angels’, have hung in her kitchen and watched over her cooking in her famous kitchen at Camont for more than 30 years.

My curiosity was aroused, I had never heard of these birds being called so before.  How lovely and so very French! I asked my Kureelpa French friends, Yvonne and Daniel, what they knew of these ‘holy birds’. It turned out they have never heard of them either! These beautiful, majestic, colourful birds are significant birds to the French, especially for their cooking.

How marvellous it would be to have these birds decorating my kitchen wall and watching over us, while we cooked. So, I asked my dear French friend and artist, Yvonne Delval, to paint them for me. After quite some time and considerable thought she agreed. When I approached her about this project, I had no idea what a huge task I was asking of her.  I should have realised the enormity of the task I had asked, as Yvonne is a very experienced, technically perfect, and professional artist and above all a perfectionist.

She spent some weeks researching the birds, gathering illustrations, and photographs, and studying their habitats. They are now almost complete and so we were granted a viewing of how she was progressing.  They are absolutely beautiful and I am so thrilled, beyond my wildest expectations.

Yvonne is a very talented painter and has painted since she was a young girl in Belgium.  She undertook her early scientific illustrations at various universities in Belgium, where she was required to illustrate the cells of plants and animals, exactly what she saw under the microscope, for publication in academic textbooks. She continued with this after her arrival in Australia at the Zoology Department in the University of Sydney.  Before she left there the Zoology Department commissioned her to paint a very large scene of all the wild African animals in the jungles and savannahs, and it still sits above the entrance to the Zoology department.

She paints in oils and watercolours; she draws, does linocuts and printing, plus stained glass. She has painted a wide variety of subjects, including many birds, her beautiful garden, the countryside, the valley below her property and the surrounding mountains and hills; her works include abstracts and portraits. Her home is beautifully decorated in an artistic and professional manner with her eclectic collection of beautiful works; it is like walking into an art gallery. Because of her deteriorating eyesight, which causes her significant discomfort, she very occasionally takes on commissions.  So, I am very grateful and thrilled she took on my project, thank you, Yvonne.

These works are now finished and are at the picture framers, so they will soon be watching over us cooking at Cooking on the Bay and in the kitchen at On The Ridge.