dyarbrough@star-telegram - trishbiddle.com

Publisher Baker Haynes [email protected]

Marketing Features ManagerDebbie Yarbrough [email protected]

Managing EditorJulie Thibodeaux [email protected]

Fashion WriterSusan Huston

Contributing WritersRhonda Aghamalian, Celestina Blok,

Mark Fadden, Rick Kelsey, Patsy Miller,Cynthia Wahl

Copy Editor and Staff WriterKarla Uecker

Art DirectorMelissa Gwynn

Photo ManagerRandy Cohen

Staff PhotographerSteve Edmonds

Advertising Production DirectorJoan M. Nowell

DesignersPaul Barton, Karina Ceuterick,

Jennifer Harrison, Derek Lancaster, Rick Valentine

Office400 W. Seventh St.

Fort Worth, TX 76102

Mailing addressP.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101

To advertise, contactBaker Haynes [email protected]

Living With Panache is a monthlypublication of the Star-Telegramproduced by the advertising and

marketing departments. Visit panachemagazine.com andfacebook.com/panachemagazine.

Julie ThibodeauxLiving with Panache Editor

You’re holding a sweet issue.First, we have a delicious story about a beloved topic, especially in Febru-

ary: chocolate. Celestina Blok found where to get the cocoa bean locally – in all itsforms – in her feature story on all things chocolate.

Next Cynthia Wahl rounded up a guide to her favorite wine bars in North Texas andoffers tips on the best noshes and libations.

Meanwhile, Susan Huston gets readers ready for Valentine’s Day with tips for pick-ing out the perfect date-night attire.

Then in time for Super Bowl XLV, we have a story on decorating around your big-screen TV.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, our cover showcases our February Luminary, RosieMoncrief. A member of both the bid committee that cliched the deal to bring thegame to North Texas and the Host Committee involved with planning, she has workedaround the clock for months along with other team members to make sure Cowtownoffers the world a warm welcome come Feb. 6.

If you’re still caught up in sports when the big game is over, you may want to planyour next vacation around your favorite pasttime. Check out Celestina Blok’s travelstory for the sports fanatic.

Or if you just want an easy escape, for the armchair traveler, Rick Kelsey has a profileof Westlake artist Trish Biddle who paints beautiful people in beautiful places.

Finally, Karla Uecker shares with readers some novel ways to get a jump on ChineseNew Year in this Year of the Rabbit.

Courtesy of See’s Candies.

Editor’s noteBox of chocolates

6 PANACHE February www.panachemagazine.com


February

On the Cover

Our Februrary Luminary RosieMoncrief at the Cowboys Stadium inArlington. Photo by Steve Edmonds.

Features18 Sweets

CHOCOLATE BAR

Where to get your cocoa fix.

30 FashionDATE NIGHT

Fashion for a romanticevening out.

40 HomeTHE BIG SCREEN

Decorating around theblack box.

40

30

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February

Beautifully Handcrafted Iron Doors

Update your staircase with wrought iron!

Before

Specializing in New Builds & Remodels

Before After

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM BY APPOINTMENT

133 Sports Parkway, Keller817-745-0522

www.AdooringDesigns.com

Welcome theNew Year with aNew Entryway!

After

Next month’s issue willfeature a story on gardengadgets and tips forselecting a summer campfor your child.

Living Well12 SERENDIPITIES

Hop into ChineseNew Year.

14 HEALTH

Try the spin cycle.

16 FOOD

Times Ten Cellarsand more.

Event Spotlight

54MANSFIELD CARES

CHARITY BALL

Brazilian-themed ball tobenefit local charities.

Social Scene

56 CLICK/SAVE THE DATE

People and eventsaround town.

Culture

52 TRAVEL

Trips for sports andfitness buffs.

58 ARTS

Trish Biddle paints pretty women.

60 OUT AND ABOUT

People and eventsaround town.

62 LUMINARY

Rosie Moncrief is ready for the Super Bowl.

52

16

58

People sometimes askTrish Biddle if she

knows how to paint faces. That’s because many of her

paintings feature the backs ofpeople, or obscure their faces, asthey gaze at a Paris skyline, drive acar through Cannes or walkalong a New York City street.

Biddle laughs, answers affir-matively about painting faces andexplains that she intentionallyhides them in her current work.

“It’s so you can imagine your-self into the painting better. Thewhole idea of doing a painting,for me, is sort of an escape, put-ting myself into it,” she said.

Which Biddle does a lot. Shehas painted professionally or, asshe describes it, “doing what I

love to do and making money atthe same time,” for seven years.

But she didn’t start out as apainter. After graduating in 1987from the Dallas Institute of Art,she worked for seven years in thefashion industry illustrating fash-ion boards for buyers as well asdesigning textiles, which includ-ed both drawing and painting.But she enjoyed the paintingmost of all and decided to devotemore time to that.

Using old family photos thatshe found in her grandmother’sattic, Biddle began painting ruralscenes from the 1930s and1940s,

such as people farming or posingalongside old Model Ts and acrop duster plane.

As she kept painting, her hus-band, Bryan, tried to find her apublisher and sent images to a lotof companies. Then in 2002, Ca-nadian Art Prints contacted herfor landscapes. So the couplespent a month driving around inEurope and getting referencesand inspiration. Biddle painted alandscape series which did well.

One year later, she saw themovie Chicago, loved the fashionsand hair styles and incorporatedthat into her work.

“‘Nobody is doing this! You’refilling a niche!’ my publisher said.And the paintings did really well.They asked me if I would do atheme with women’s backs, like alady on a chaise lounge. And Ijust kept doing that,” Biddle said.

Called “Glamorous Women inFabulous Places,” the series fea-tures elegant and fashionablydressed women at the KentuckyDerby, Westminster Dog Show,Venice, the beach, in boats orother places and settings withtheir backs to you or their faceshidden by hats or something else.

The series has brought Biddle alot of attention and work like theofficial art and artist for the 2008Kentucky Derby, the 2009 DelMar Thoroughbred Racing Cluband the 2009 and 2010 West-minster Dog Show. DesperateHousewives star Eva Longoriaoutbid everyone for one paintingin a charity auction.

“My fashion background isnow in play with these paintings.I am putting textiles and patternsinto the dresses and things, likeoversized ball gowns or patterned

wallpaper in the background. It’sadded another dimension. I’vehad a good response to it,” shesaid.

Which is what Biddle hopesfor when she exhibits at a manu-facturer’s licensing show in thespring. During her fashion in-dustry career, it thrilled her tohave her pattern designs onclothing in stores. As a painter,she’s had her artwork licensed forgreeting cards, tapestries andplates, and then she saw her workfeatured on 2008 Kentucky Der-by souvenirs. So now she’d like tohave her paintings appear onmore products.

“Because of my background infashion and how I like design, Iwould like to see my images on aline of handbags or tote bags orother things. I think that wouldbe the next level.”

Westlake artist paints glamorous women in all the best places.

Trish Biddle in her home studio with her painting titled Freedom. Photos by Steve Edmonds.

By Rick Kelsey

Painted ladies

New York

For more information aboutTrish Biddle’s artwork andother products, visittrishbiddle.com andzazzle.com/trishbiddle.

Eiffel Tower



Maybe, just maybe Rosie Moncrief will

have a chance to catch her breath,relax and take a break on Feb. 7,the day after the Super Bowl.

Since the idea to get the cham-pionship game for the new Cow-boys Stadium in Arlington start-ed four years ago, Moncrief haswalked, talked and thought Su-per Bowl, Super Bowl and moreSuper Bowl.

“I have been working sevendays a week for as long as I can

remember,” Moncrief said with alaugh. “It’s a combination ofmeetings, it’s planning, it’s strate-gizing, it’s circling back to makesure every i is dotted and every t iscrossed.”

She has done that from the be-ginning as she worked on the bidcommittee to get the event forthe new stadium. And when itcame time to make the presenta-tion to the NFL owners in 2007,she was one of five people fromNorth Texas to attend that meet-ing.

“After I left Nashville and re-turned on that very happy flight,victorious and very excited abouta getting a Super Bowl, the grav-ity of all this started to sink in,”she recalled.

Moncrief realized that eventhough the game was more thanthree years away, planning need-ed to start immediately becausenot only do you need to prepare

for football but a lot of otherfunctions and activities as well.And since that time, she hashelped Fort Worth get ready formany different things.

Like the Taste of the NFL, afood and wine event on the eve ofthe game, which has restaurantstations featuring celebrity chefsand football players from eachNFL city, live entertainment andsilent auctions with proceedsbenefiting food banks.

Or the Super Sunday MorningHope Walk, in which walkersfrom across the nation will join

students from the Fort Worth In-dependent School District toraise funds for the school districtand Cook Children’s MedicalCenter.

And the ESPN coverage of theSuper Bowl which has TV, radio,Internet and other related cover-age, along with local stationsWFAA-TV and KTVT-TV,broadcasting live from SundanceSquare in downtown FortWorth.

Super Bowl XLV giving thearea a lot of national exposureand publicity and providing ma-ny entertainment venues for thelocal residents is one reason Mon-crief has worked so hard.

“There is lots to see and do, notjust the Super Bowl. So if youcan’t afford to get a ticket to thegame, go experience somethingelse,” she said, citing the Taste ofthe NFL and the Super SundayMorning Hope Walk as opportu-

nities to mingle with NFL greats. “Then walk over and watch

ESPN live and see all of these tal-ents that you see on TV everyday. It truly is an exciting time forall of North Texas,” Moncriefsaid.

And for that, she is so gratefulfor everyone involved and em-phasizes that she is one of manywho has done Super Bowl-relat-ed work.

“This has been a team effort allthe way,” she said, describing herhardworking colleagues as aDream Team that includes nu-merous Fort Worth notables aswell as local sports celebrities.

And the work will continue,even on Super Bowl Sunday.

Although Moncrief enjoysfootball, as she grew up watchingfour older brothers playing thesport and she has Super Bowltickets, she and her husband,Mayor Mike Moncrief, may notget much time for watching thegame.

“The entire week of the SuperBowl, Mike and I will makecountless stops to welcome peo-ple to our city and game day willbe no different. We will be down-town at 7 o’clock on Super Bowlmorning as we prepare for theSuper Sunday Hope Walk,” shesaid.

Hence, she’ll have to wait aftergame day to relax.

“Finally!” she said with a laugh.

For Rosie Moncrief, it’s been a great rideto Super Bowl.

By Rick Kelsey

Among the Super Bowl-related events, Rosie Moncrief is gearing up for theTaste of the NFL, which benefits the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Photo by SteveEdmonds.

“There is lots to see and do,not just the Super Bowl.”

Touchdown time

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dyarbrough@star-telegram - trishbiddle.com