Weekends at Les Bassacs are changeover and market days. On Saturday morning we have the option of visiting the wonderful market in nearby Apt, and on Sunday morning the market at Isle sur la Sorgue. Both sell essentially the same thing: mostly food (glorious food), but also linen clothing, straw hats, beautiful table linens, pottery and crafts, flowers, baskets, shawls and so on. They provide a pleasant diversion and break from painting.
However, Sunday afternoon we were out once again, back to St. Saturnin les Apt, this time painting just outside the village centre, above which rose the medieval church and ruins of the chateau.
I chose to paint this view, liking the various tree shapes, diagonal road, and building.
It was another overcast day as you can see in the photograph, there weren't a lot of shadows, and all the actual colours were quite muted, so I decided to stick with what I saw, for a change.
Stage one
This was my start; happy with the subtle palette, and simple shapes.
Stage Two
More colour has been added. This is actually my favourite stage in retrospect - I liked the graphic quality of the lines and the unfinished nature of parts of the painting.
Stage Three
In spite of liking the 'unfinished' big tree, I filled it in, and then of course, did not like it. Time to re-draw, looking once again at the branches and sky holes. More painting and it was finished. I really like this painting - for its muted palette, the loose brush strokes and subtle charcoal markings. A good start to the week.
St. Sat Village View
12" x 15"- acrylic on Canson Canva Paper
