The Topiary Trees

Goult Topiary Trees

12" x 12" - acrylic on paper - $45

Goult is a small, charming village in the Luberon Valley in Provence. I have painted there several times over the years and each time have found a view in the local cemetery there where there are the most fabulous topiary trees. The shapes of these trees really lend themselves to abstraction and the simplification of form, so that's what I did. 

Painting in the Village of Murs

This is my painting from our excursion to Murs, looking away onto the surrounding farm fields from just outside the walls as you enter the village. As you can see in the photo it is not the most colourful or exciting landscape, however I enjoyed the challenge 'to do something' with what I saw, and the abstracted version above is the result. 

Painting in Joucas - Day 3

The challenge of returning to places where you have painted before is, of course, to find something new to paint or say about views previously painted. On day 3 we went to the village of Joucas, and it was the 3rd time I have painted there. Earlier works featured the 'village behind the vineyard', so this time I chose to look out  from the village ''towards the vineyard''.  As you can see it was a little overcast, but there were interesting elements in the scene that I thought I could focus on.  

This is stage 1 in which I  established the composition and the colour palette - using  brighter colours then seen that day. Below is the finished painting. I am quite happy with it, but have to say that I am still mulling over the use of magenta. It will stay for now, but I may return to this one later.

Joucas Vineyard
16" x 12"  acrylic on Canson Canva Paper

A New Painting and Spotlight Interview with Daily Paintworks

I spent a morning and an afternoon painting in an old abandoned ochre quarry near Les Bassacs (Provence) in May, and I knew that many of the photos I took would provide me with additional paintings ideas. One photo was of a pathway leading away from the ochre area, and that inspired this painting. 

Beyond the Ochre Quarry
24"x 24" - acrylic on canvas - $400

I hope that you are having a wonderful Friday afternoon wherever you are and looking forward to a 'long' weekend, at least in Canada (Monday is our Civic holiday). If you are looking for something to read or are just really really really bored, click this link and you can read my interview with Daily Paintworks, an online gallery where I have been posting my art for a few years now. Cheers!

                                           

Sunny Provence Painting, Soleil

Soleil

16" x 16"  acrylic on canvas  

This painting was inspired  by my recent experience plein air landscape painting experience in the south of France, and is based on a photo I took after painting at this spot one morning. My photo does not do the setting justice, but I hope that my colourful palette does!

Friday and Joucas

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.

                             

 

Provence, Day 2

 This morning we drove a short distance to the small village of Murs, and painted there for about 3 hours. There were lots of good views, but finding one that also provided some shade and even ground was a bit of a challenge. Over the three hours the light changed, of course, and so did my painting. It felt like all I was doing was mixing warm, then cool, then warm greens - until finally I just threw in some purple and turquoise, eliminated some of the troublesome buildings, and ended up with this.

After lunch I painted from the view from the studio window as it was hot and sunny and I had had enough of that in the morning. This is a view that I really like for it's abstract qualities, and strong colour. Voila the view and painting - a quick one!