France

This is a painting/sketch from my France trip last year. My sister and I went for 2 weeks. One week was a watercolor art journaling workshop and the other week we were on our own.  This sketch is one of my favorite places in Provence. Its is in Vence, the old town. 

France art journal paintung

Roussillon, France

Watercolor journal 

9" x 12"

I visited Roussillon while in France this past May. It is an amazing place where natural ochre is mined. The colors of the mountains are bright yellow to dark rust. Simply beautiful. When the sun hits them, they absolutely glow! It is hard to sense how large this mountain really is. 

To France and back...

French Breakfast, watercolor in my art journal

I spent a lot of May in France painting. What a glorious time that was! This is my usual breakfast, cheese, bread and some jam. The bread is sooo delicious! The brie was fresh and smooth. The jams are all from France and yummy.

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!

one of my favorite paintings

I painted this a few years ago and it's one of my favorites. I may paint it again as I sold the original. It is small, 4x4 oil on panel. I took the picture in France in Nice at the flower market. It was a cloudy day and the sun was not out. I love the "French" box the garlic sits upon. I also love how each fruit has complementary colors in them. Nature is amazing like that.

happy painting!

Purple Garlic in France

Purple Garlic at the Nice flower market in France

oil on board

4" x 4"

SOLD

This is from a photo I took while at the flower market in Nice, France. It was an overcast day and rained at one point, so the light was not great, but hey, I was in France so I was taking pictures! I made the back ground much darker for effect as there wasn't much going on there. 

These are purple garlic bulbs. I loved how they all lay in the same direction and the blending of colors.  I also love the red tomatoes beside them. Basically, there are two sets of compliments going on- purple and yellow in the garlic and then red and green in the tomatoes. And the box- I love that it had the French colors,, like the flag...sort of set it all up for me as a great painting!

Not only are there beautiful flowers at this weekly market, but tables of local vegetables, cheeses, mushrooms and hand made soaps. 

Painting in Provence

Antibes

ATC size on Wallis paper

 

Back in May of this year I traveled to France for a painting workshop and vacation. It was a fantastic time! Gayle Fedigan was our teacher and we traveled around and painted the areas. This is Antibes, on the Mediterranean in the South of France. The water was really this color! I was so amazed at the color...it looked almost too blue to be real, but it was. There was a sail boat going by as I was painting so I added it into the painting.  This paining is framed and available for purchase. It is currently in an art show at the Desmond Campus of Mt. Saint Mary's College in Newburgh, NY. It will be on display in the gallery until September 21.