Three Windfalls

Three Windfalls. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here.

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Turn Left for Bonnefond

This painting shows a part of Grand Meynieux my next door village at about 7am. The day started like this, dull, misty low cloud, there was a constant drizzle which didn't let up all day. It had a kind of other-worldly feeling about it, very quiet, and you could almost here the mist and drizzle in the air. Someone was working in their vegetable plot, how he managed to light a fire I'll never know. A Summer's day that reminds me of other places!

Turn left for Bonnefond. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here
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The Luberon Hills

The Luberon Hills. Oil. £99. SOLD
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Looking across the sea of Lavender towards the Hills of the Luberon.

In the Shade of the Apple

While taking Jemima my dog for a long walk through the fields a few weeks ago I came across a graveyard of old cars, it was a bizzare sight, most were from the forties and fifties I think, all rusty and forgotten, just rotting away in an old orchard. Was it too expensive to have them removed? Somehow I'm glad they weren't, the romantic in me had me dancing amongst them with my camera snapping away as though I was trying to take them with me and making sure they would last forever, nuts I know.... I like sheds too!

In the shade of the Apple. Oi. £99. SOLD
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Towards Saint Martin de Castillon

Towards Saint Martin de Castillon. Oil.£99. Purchase details click here

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This painting looks towards the hilltop village Saint Martin de Castillon, a 'Village Perche' about 5kms East of Apt in Provence, a long winding road to get there and once there the view from it as you might expect is stunning, It was early when I drove up and managed to get a coffee and something to eat at a cafe with a balcony looking back the way I'd come... gorgeous!

Cafe de France

Cafe de France. Oil. £99. SOLD

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Another painting from Provence; I took a trip across to l'Isle sur la Sourge one day, the last time I was there was about ten years ago. A really hot day and my plan was to get Jemima to plunge into the river and cool off while I worked (sat and had a drink) they say never work with animals so the plan didn't work, and we both sat and enjoyed a drink here at the Cafe de France, a gorgeous old place - just missed out on lunch. But enjoyed a couple of hours just relaxing and enjoying being there under the Plane tree.

Red Rose

There is a Rose shrub on the front of my house which produces an abundance of red Rose clusters all through the Summer. Not sure what its name is but the scent is beautiful, I hacked it back and took off the dead blooms a month ago and it has returned with even more! The photo was taken during its first flowering this year.

Red Rose. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here
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Provencal Evening

A beautiful warm evening in Provence. I was camping at the farm in the right distance below the Luberon hills. The farm harvested grapes but not for wine, they were used for dried fruit, raisins I guess.  The farmer was up with the light and off in his tractor to spray the rows of vines and then back about 2hrs later for his breakfast, before I even knew about what day it was!  The track led to the vines and the road with the blue shadows led to the farm.

Provencal Evening. Oil.£99. Purchase details click here

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Petit Chemin de Monet

Petit Chemin de Monet. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here

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Adjacent to the Citroen van I painted the other day is the little lane above, which when I was painting was cast with a gorgeous blue yellow light. Highlighted by the redundant Allis Chalmers tractor.

Cafe Theresa

This is a painting of my favourite cafe in my local town Rochechouart. You wouldn't know it was a cafe without the sign outside, it doesn't look much at all in fact when I first saw it I thought it was just an old building that just happened to have an old cafe sign on it, much like the old Dubonnet signs you can still see around.  Inside the front door there is an ordinary old kitchen with cooker etc and a large table with half a dozen chairs around it, and off that there are a few dark rooms I havn't seen yet. Its wonderful!  If you want a coffee a sauspan is used and a beer comes out of the fridge. It's run by Theresa who's a really switched on 90 year old lady.  I hadn't been there for a while but I went last Friday and was greeted like an old friend, I was feeling a little low but imediately my spitits lifted and i spent a couple of happy hours sitting opposite painting. A short while later I was invited to join her and her daughter for a cup of tea at the table outside, there wasnt much conversation from me needless to say, but that didn't matter they knew I couldnt speak much French but I was made to feel very comfortable. They loved the painting and I came away feeling even more like I was becoming part of this place....

Cafe Theresa. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here.
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Pretty Cottage

Pretty Cottage. Oil.£99. SOLD

Sheep and Village Perché

Today is Bastile Day here in France, or called La Fete Nationale, The National Celebration, so much celebration and fireworks tonight!

Sheep and Village Perché. Oil. £99. SOLD

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Sunset over the Luberon

Fields beneath the Luberon Hills

Unusual for these English eyes to see such a patchwork of fields; vinyards, lavender, olives. About 2 miles west of Apt. 

The painting today is evening time sitting outside the tent.

Sunset over the Luberon. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here
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Old Citroen Van

Old Citroen van. Oil. £99. SOLD

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I found this lovely old van while out cycling the lanes around where I live, the farmer was quite happy for me to sit and sketch it, it combines the sheddy and the old car thing which for some reason I quite like.   I could imagine one similar parked up outside my house!  

For those who are interested...

The Citroën H-series van was introduced in 1947, replacing the TUB model which had been in production since 1939. The success of the new design revolved around several revolutionary ideas. The vehicle was designed around the concept of le cube utile (the useful cube), and the combination of traction avant (front wheel drive) and monocoque (chassis-less) construction enabled the provision of a remarkably low floor line, something not even bettered by the modern Ford Transit.

Once ubiquitous, the numbers to be found active are now dwindling.

Wheatfield and Lavender

As I sit at the computer and organise to post this painting Jemma is sitting in the window waiting patiently for the morning 'Rush Hour'  to begin. We have heard the farmer lady down the lane opening the barn doors and getting her cows ready to walk past out house on their way to the fields, so it will soon begin. They are beautiful beasts.  When Jemima first discovered that we had this event happening every morning and evening in front of her house she was abit freaked by it and made a lot of noise, but now she accepts it as part of life in this new place and carefully watches them as they wander past.

Today's painting made in Provence again:

Wheatfield and Lavender. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here

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Vines Beneath the Luberon

Vines Beneath the Luberon. Oil. £99. Purchase Details click here
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Just down from the campsite I spent a couple of hours reading and sketching amongst the vinyards.

Old Citroën and Renault

While driving to find a suitable place to paint last week I came across these two old cars, such a shame to see them rotting away in the farmers yard, but they had finished their working life and were obviously beyond repair. So now they provide a worthy subject for any passing artist who has a fondness for old motors.

Old Citroen and Renault. Oil. £99, SOLD
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Lavender Lane

Lavender Lane. Oil. £99. Purchase details click here
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Back to painting the small paintings every day now, today's, made in the studio, is a typical view amongst the fields in Provence, quite a windy day too, perhaps the Mistral?  Just when I finished this Jemima began to pester me, think she realised I had finished and reckoned it was about time I showed her some attention. So we are back now from a long bike ride, well I rode she ran and she must be content now as she has collapsed on the floor and hasn't stopped panting yet!  Back to work for me then...

Lavender in the Luberon hills

Lavender in the Luberon Hills, Oil. £99. SOLD

Back now in the Limousin and getting sorted and unpacked and back to serious work!  The ten days camping on a farm in Provence was really good and I managed to get a lot of work done, although at times working was only possible if I got two things right; first I had to find something I wanted to paint and second, but equally as important, it had to be somewhere that Jemima and I could be in the shade for at least few hours!  

A typical day was; breakfast and a walk for Jemima, which included a wander around the campsite and 'good morning and have you anything I can scrounge to eat, cuz 'he' doesn't feed me enough'. Then off in the car to search out a suitable place to paint/shelter. Have lunch, either a picnic or something in a cafe/bar, and afterwards repeat the mornings programme, which following the latter lunch option was perhaps not as serious as it might have been. At the end of the afternoon it was fairly important to find somewhere for Jemima to cool off, fortunately there was a stream near the campsite and we usually ended up there, under the bridge where there was a small pool....