Home from France

I was away for 3 weeks. Part of my trip to France included a week of watercolor painting with Jacqueline Newbold.  What a wonderful trip!  I have to say- traveling and painting go together so well. The painting makes us SLOW DOWN and observe. We went to several very small villages to paint and it was amazing to sit down, observe and paint. The above is Roussillon, France. It is where th ochre is mined. Such colors! The mountains are all the colors from bright yellow to rusty red- brown. Spectacular!  This is looking from the mining area- a trail to the ochre mined area.  I was experimenting with the foreground of the trees.

This second picture is just because it was so pretty! I ordered some Violet ice cream at a shop we stopped at just after I took this picture. Talk about presentation! It came with sliced fruit that was fresh and amazing!  Delightful! I have learned that in France, when it comes to food, so much of it is in the presentation. They elevate a simple ice cream into an art form. How lovely to do that. I want to adopt that into my everyday.  Elevate the simple and the everyday.

Happy painting!