The good weather returned on Friday and we spent the morning in the village of Joucas painting. I found a spot just below the walls and streets, beside the winding road that leads up to the village. From that vantage point I had a choice of three interesting views, and the challenge became one of how to choose. After far too long thinking about this, I finally decided on the one that put my back to the sun.
All week I have been trying to see, mix and paint the actual colours in the Provence landscape - something I rarely do because I don't do a lot of plein air work, and I quite like a more expressive palette. As I worked out my composition for this painting however, I decided to simplify the tree and building shapes, and try to make it all more abstract, and play with colour.
I was able to complete most of the painting in two hours and then another hour in the studio to tidy it up. Not much like my earlier work this week, but perhaps more like me.
