Pretty, dreamy Marie (Laurencin)

It's been some time since I have written about great women artists and it is time. Most have not heard of Marie Laurencin, but she sure had some famous friends. Like Mademoiselle Chanel.

Marie Laurencin - Portrait of Mademoiselle Chanel, 1923 Source

Marie was born in Paris and studied porcelain painting before falling in with hip cats of the day: Braque, Picasso, Gris, Apollinaire. Were these artists aware that they were to become something significant? Did they instinctively seek each other out? Were any perfectly ordinary friends among them now lost to history?

Marie Laurencin, Group of Artists (1908). Image via Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Marie was there when crazy notion of cubism cane about. A few of her pieces have a whisper of cubist lines and sober colors. But mostly Maurie Laurencin stuck with what she did best, lovely, effervescent, with the same cast of languid girls. 

Marie Laurencin - Les jeunes filles - Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Why isn't Marie Laurencin's name known worldwide like the names of her posse? Was she too much of a one-note?  Is her art just too pretty, lightweight, lacking the grit that would make it important? Perhaps it is all those things, pleasant and superficial. 

Excellent GF Pumpkin Bread

After a year and a half of intensive gluten-free baking one can adapt "regular" wheat-reliant recipes with a degree of competence. This one is adapted from this Bon Appetit version. My version, obviously, uses a different flour mix and also cuts down, way down, on sugar.

Don't even think about cutting the recipe in half to make one loaf. These will be gone fast.

INGREDIENTS (Makes 2 loaves!)

• 2 cups of white rice or sorghum flour
• 1 cup of tapioca flour or potato starch (or do half and half)
• 3/4 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ground nutmeg, cloves. I also like a bit of cardamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of veggie oil (we used olive oil, which worked very well)
• 3 eggs
• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)

Mix the first seven ingredients together. In your trusty KitchenAid, beat sugar and oil, then mix in eggs and pumpkin. Stir in the dry ingredients mix. Pour equal amounts into two loaf pans (I line mine with parchment but you can probably spray and flour them too.

Bake your loaves for about 1 hour 10 minutes until ready, let the loaves cool and enjoy with a cup of tea. I am thinking a smear of apple butter would not hurt things either.

Perhaps I better go test out this recipe another time, just to be sure.

Here is my Gluten Free 101 guide and Ginger-Apricot scones if you are on a GF baking spree.