Of course Thomas Couture, in whose studio Manet had previously studied for five or six years, was not a 'realist' - in fact he despised realism - also rejected Manet's depiction of the commonplace. Couture was quoted as saying, "There is only one absinthe drinker here - the painter who perpetuated this madness." As a result Manet's relationship with his former master became a rift which turned to hatred... and a complete change in his artistic style resulted.

However, Manet was a prolific recorder of detail and constantly made sketches of whatever nuance in his wanderings and surroundings caught his eye. That, it can at least be said, is advantageous when it comes to seeing or creating the bigger picture. Whether or not one achieves those grander designs and formats doesn't matter... whereas "doing the process" does.

My flirtations with the demon drink, "la fée verte" (the green fairy), are limited to the occasional glass of it's more modern equivalent, pastis, in the kitchen and before eating... I find it's cutting aroma and taste cleanses the head and palette for the nourishment to follow. In local bars I've seen it painstakingly dribbled onto and through a slowly dissolving sugar cube balanced on an ornately perforated silver spatula made for only that purpose - how many, or few, glasses would have to be consumed before that traditional process was abandoned through lack of co-ordination, huh? - and in the commonly accepted, but incorrect, method of pouring onto "les glacons" (ice cubes)... but my preference is for pastis one-to-five, liqueur with water, at room temperature - the least shock to the throat the better!

Pastis appears a curious drink... as soon as water is added the mixture turns cloudy... drink too much or too many and your mind and vision will be clouded also. The double image above was made with a clear head... and a Nikon D200 fitted with a 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 G Nikkor lens set at around 60mm and used hand-held at its closest focus position. I tried altering the tonal contrast in PhotoShop CS but decided to leave the image as I had seen it originally... slightly clouded in appearance. The only part of the image showing any clarity is the "Pastis 51" logo, helped by being the only apparent colour in the composition.

So much for having a bottle, glasses and a camera handy, in the kitchen, with the last rays of the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the window... a recipe for an interesting image. The leek and potato soup that followed was good too!