Olive Trees Near Saint-Remy

Olive Trees Near Saint-Remy

16" x 20" - acrylic on canvas
This is for sale - contact me for price if interested.

 This is the second painting featuring olive trees, based on a photo I took near Saint-Remy de Provence. 

At the end of May I spent a week based in the delightful city of Arles, famous for its Roman ruins and it's connection with Vincent Van Gogh. From there we did day trips to various places in the region, including to the Saint-Paul de Mausole, a hospital or asylum near Saint-Remy de Provence. It's most famous patient was Vincent who spent a year there (after cutting off his ear), from May 1889 to May 1890. During his stay he painted over 150 canvases - many his best known and loved works.

"Saint-Paul began as an Augustine monastery in the 12th century, and was converted into an asylum in the 19th century. It is located in an area of cornfields, vineyards and olive trees and at the time was run by a former naval doctor, Dr. Theophile Peyron. Vincent's brother Theo arranged for him to have two small rooms there —one a bedroom and the other a studio. Though he entered the asylum voluntarily, Vincent was initially confined to the immediate asylum grounds and painted (without the bars) the world he saw from his room, such as ivy covered trees, lilacs, and irises of the garden. Through the open bars he could also see an enclosed wheat field, the subject of many paintings at Saint-Rémy. As he ventured outside of the asylum walls, he painted the wheat fields, olive groves, and cypress trees of the surrounding countryside, which he saw as "characteristic of Provence."  The imposed regimen of asylum life gave Vincent a hard-won stability: I feel happier here with my work than I could be outside. By staying here a good long time, I shall have learned regular habits and in the long run the result will be more order in my life."

It was quite inspiring to be in a an area where he had painted, and see some of the views he may have seen!

Pear Break

Pear Break

8" x 8" - acrylic on canvas - $95

I am besotted with painting olive trees at the moment. The first one (last post) was so much fun, that I immediately started a second which is almost finished. I started a third one this morning and it is well underway....but I needed a break from all that loose painting, so turned to a little still life, a pear break!  The colour in the actual painting is a little deeper and richer.....which is so much better than the opposite, I think.
Now it's back to the olive trees.....

Olive Grove

Olive Grove

18" x 20" - acrylic on canvas with pastel markings 
This is for sale - contact me for price if interested.

I have been fascinated with olive trees for years. I love their gnarly trunks, and airy ethereal foliage of slim silvery leaves. It's the latter, however, that is a challenge to paint! I looked at Van Gogh's paintings of olive trees to understand how he resolved the problem - which of course he did through his wonderfully curving, broken, expressive brush strokes that are so distinctive and indicative of his style.

When unsure of 'next steps', but still willing to experiment with the composition and design, I often get out my soft pastels and draw on top of the painting surface, simplifying shapes, breaking up space, and adding surface markings. With the addition of these marks, I always feel less inhibited about moving away from the original image (this was based on a photo of olive trees) and feel free to add and change the elements to make a better painting. The addition of the pastel lines and the shapes they created suggested ways to simplify the foliage into abstract shapes. I brushed and scumbled on paint, and restricted my palette to a split complementary colour scheme. The process was highly intuitive and I stopped when it felt finished. As I took quite a few photos of olive trees in Provence - this may be the star of a new series!

A Trio of Still Life of Objects

Trio

12" x 10" -  acrylic on wood panel - $95

This was another demo I did in the Acrylic Techniques Workshop. I started with a cadmium red ground, and tried to restrict my palette to cool colours (blue, green, violet), but of course felt too restricted, and had to get out the yellow. I really like the composition and the way the object fill the space. I enjoy painting on wood panels from time to time. The way the wood surface accepts the paint is quite different than on canvas, and so my brushwork is quite different too.

Imagining Ventoux

Imagining Ventoux 

10" x 8"  - acrylic on wood panel - $95

I painted this as a demo in a recent day-long workshop I held in my studio, teaching Acrylic Techniques. I was quite pleased with the finished painting and added some pastel marks as a finishing touch. It reminds me of Mont Ventoux, the mountain in Provence with the distinctive white face - which is not snow, but white stone. 

Happy Canada Day!

I painted this work last year while at my cottage in the Haliburton Highlands - cottage country Ontario - a great place to celebrate summer and July 1st - Canada Day! Enjoy!

Redstone Lake Island
20" x 16" - acrylic on canvas 
This is for sale - contact me for price if interested.

Variations on a Theme: the Church at Joucas

In a recent post I talked about painting this scene in the Provencale village of Joucas. I really love the way the church appears 'up' and at the end of the narrow street, peeking out between buildings on either side, and the 'path' that leads up to the church door but is not a path but really sort of a ditch for the rain water to drain down hill. 

Last week I re-visited this image, and painted three more versions. 

Two are really just done with different palettes and the middle one is a little looser and more abstract. 

All are acrylic on acrylic paper, and approximately 24" x 18", and available ($95 each).

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Joucas 1

Joucas 2

Joucas 3