Painting in France Encore - Day 1

I have just returned from two weeks of plein air painting with Arts in Provence in Les Bassacs in the south of France. Each morning we ventured forth into the surrounding countryside and small villages, painting until 12:30 and then after lunch, sometimes took a sieste, but more often than not continued painting around the the house or working in the studio.  While I am mostly a studio painter I have grown to love painting outside in front of the landscape subject. Some of the time I tried to paint what I saw 'accurately' and sometimes I found myself interpreting what I saw more freely and creatively. I found the experience artistically rejuvenating and feel that I have a better sense of the direction I want to take my work. 

So......on day 1 we painted just below the village of Roussillon, famous for the nearby ochre quarries which have given the village's buildings their reddish pink hue. It was a very warm day but I found some shade and started with a value drawing and then did two acrylic paintings, each about 16" x 12" on Canson Canva Paper.

  I kept my palette as close as possible to what I saw, but painted loosely and in broad strokes. 

I was happy with the results and felt primed and ready for the days to come. 

Below Roussillon #1

Below Roussillon #2

Painting an Old Ochre Quarry in the Luberon Valley, encore

Old Ochre Quarry in the Luberon
24"x 30" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

In May I painted in an old abandoned ochre quarry in the Luberon Valley. At the time it was a challenge to paint the cast (tree) shadows as the light and therefore their shapes, kept changing. I took lots of photos with the intention of  returning to this subject once home. Parts of this painting were easy and therefore fun to paint, other areas like the foreground were a challenge and I had to do a lot of 'landscape editing'. The colour ochre and yellow were the staring point colours for the palette, which then demanded the complementary shades of purple through red and pink, which then required green. Tried to keep blue out of this one, but some still sneaked in.  

Have a great weekend.