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I am fortunate that the local Northern Arizona Watercolor Society, has paint-outs twice a month.  One of the quickest and best ways to improve one's painting is to paint from life.  This can include still lifes set up indoors, portraits with live models, or painting outdoors in nature.  This month's paint outs were in a beautiful park called the Crescent Moon Recreation Area on Oak Creek.  This water wheel was once used to generate electricity to the working ranch at the site.  

 

The trick with painting on site is to catch the shadows at the beginning, as they have usually changed by the time one is finishing the painting.  I usually forget and end up with some confusing shadows, but this time, I actually drew them in first and stayed true to them.

 

 

One of the best ways to improve one's paintings is to paint on site, or en plein air.  Once when I was out painting with friends, we ran into Tom Lynch who was also painting in the area.  He mentioned that one way to simplify the view before me was to paint without drawing first, and to use a 1" flat.  Since that meeting, I have done just that occasionally.  This is one such painting, done last Friday at Tlaquepaque in Sedona.  I did not use a 1" flat brush exclusively, but did use it for the majority of the painting.  The painting was done on a quarter sheet (11" x 15"), and was completed in less than two hours.

my goal was to do more painting than I have, but the weather had other ideas. After a promising week, the rains returned almost nonstop along with very cold weather. Since my painting area was freezing, and also was where the laundry was hanging for three days to dry, it was difficult to say the least. I wanted to paint in the house, bit there is very little light there. Imagine tiny fluorescent light bulbs, where it is even difficult to read, and one can see why I didn't paint indoors. We finally had almost a week of good weather, and I managed to paint this picture of the gîte we are renting. A gîte is a vacation rental in France. This one is rather rustic, but is comfortable enough. The lack of internet has been a problem, but not insurmountable.

I went on a picnic at Aix les Bains last week, and took a walk in the late afternoon. When I looked down from all the beautiful scenery, I realized that the light was perfect for shadows, so I took this photo, and painted a picture. I call it Stepping Out because I feel as though that is what I am doing now.

The French Alps are beautiful everywhere. Between the hiking and the exploring by car, it is hard to limit the photography. The weather has prevented plein air painting every day, but the house I am renting has a beautiful sun room with perfect lighting. I took the photo for this painting on the road between St. Pierre de Chartreuse and the museum of the Grande Chatruese. The day was actually drizzly and cloudy, but is managed to get a nice photo. I decided the day needed to be a little nicer in the painting.

After a long flight and drive, I arrived in the small village of St. Hilaire du Touvet, where I have rented a gîte, or house for the next 9 weeks. It is a wonderful, cool (after Sedona) location, with fantastic views and opportunities for hiking and painting. Of course it rained for the first five days, but since then it has been beautiful. Friday I went to the village of St. Pierre de Chartruese and found this cute bar to paint. Because I had been having problems with internet access, I spent quite a bit of time at the Tourism Office. After a wonderful hike Saturday, I spent Sunday painting in St. Hilaire. First I found this small chalet with an unusual shape. In the afternoon, I went to the local tourism office and painted this last scene. Earlier we could see Mont Blanc, but by the time I was painting, the cloud cover had started.

This is the first chance I've had to write something since Thursday, and I am now in Phoenix following my flight home today.  Friday I was invited to one of the local homes for lunch with several of the ladies in the village.  The owner and gourmet chef was a retired man, Jean-Charles, who is, aside from a marvelous cook, a very nice and entertaining man.  I had ample opportunities to practice my French, as there was only one other English speaker in the group.  The rest of Friday was spent saying good-bye to my many new friends, and driving around looking at homes. 

Saturday started wonderfully.  I had decided to spend the day on the back roads driving to Chartres to visit the cathedral, then to take the autoroute to the airport and the Hilton Hotel.  The day started fairly well, with a lovely drive to a small village near Loche, called Verneuil sure Indre where I met with a wonderful watercolor artist Nathalie Desperches-Boukhatem, and purchased one of her books.  She invited me to come paint with her next year, which of course I will do.  Then I continued on, stopping at Amboise for a short stroll through the city.  I made it to Chartres and had a very inspiring visit in the Cathedral, then drove toward Paris.  My first clue that the day would not be following my script was the stop and go traffic for about an hour, on the autoroute.  Suddenly I found myself on a detour as the A10, a major autoroute, was closed for construction.  Not having a GPS or a detailed map (as though I would have been able to even look at a map), I ended up in the center of Paris.  Not a good place to be when one is lost.  I kept rolling the window down and shouting "Charles de Gaulle", and people would point.  I eventually ended up on the interior peripherique, rather than the exterior, but finally saw a sign for the airport.  Instead of arriving at the hotel at 6 as planned, I arrived exhausted at 8.  Once I returned the rental car, I definitely was ready for a glass of wine or two.  So, you ask, what did I learn from this anxiety producing, exhausting day?  Next year, I'll have a GPS with European maps.  Or, I could take the TGV to Tours and rent a car there.

All I can say about this trip was that it was a wonderful experience.  At the start there was some anxiety as I had never traveled alone, other than some flights, but I enjoyed the entire trip.  All the people I met in the village of Barrou were friendly and tolerated my beginner French.  As an example of the people in the village, I accidentally left my camera in the boulangerie, and another customer came looking for me to tell me.  When I returned to the boulangerie, the owner had put the camera away for safe-keeping.  As I was the only stranger in town at the moment, they knew it was mine.  I ended up selling eight of my paintings, and left the rest there at the request of a few of the people.  Who knows, maybe the others will sell over the next few months.  I'm already looking forward to next year.

Appetizers fit for a king or queen	The Chateau near Loches	The Cathedral at Chartres

Today was another gray day, but I thought I could get a painting in before it started raining.  I had a commission to do another of the wonderful old farmhouses in the area, so I set up in the yard, and started drawing.  I lucked out and managed to get most of the painting finished before the rain started.  As it was a perfect stopping point for lunch, I packed up and went to the restaurant for another of their delicious, but gigantic lunches.  Today was chicken with French fries.  I understand that it was actually the Belgians who started French fries, but the name has stuck.  Anyhow, the meal was delicious as usual.  After my two hour lunch, I went back to the house and finished the painting from inside the barn.  I was lucky in that the paint had completely dried before the drops hit.  Otherwise, it would have been quite a textured painting, but not necessarily where I wanted the texture.  After matting the picture and delivering it, it was time to go to a friend's house for appertifs.  Another delightful evening was ahead of me.  This time, we spent the evening speaking French, because three of the guests spoke little or no English.  I occasionally had to ask for a translation, but overall was able to hold my own.  The question which I have had presented to me a number of times is whether I'm returning.  I have already decided that the answer is yes.  Now that I'm getting to know so many of the local inhabitants, how could I not?

La Ricendeliere	For all the cat lovers out there

What a difference over last year.  The weather was beautiful every day but one last year.  Of course I packed accordingly.  This year, it has mostly been cloudy with showers.  A few of the days were solid rain, and a few were beautiful.  Every day, I check the forecast and it changes from day to day.  It is absolutely beautiful here, with so many different shades of green.  The area I'm in is agricultural, and the fields of barley, wheat, and corn are spectacular.  There are a few dairy herds also, plus the sunflower fields.  I will miss seeing them bloom as the plants are only about two feet high right now.  It's too bad, as they were so beautiful and cheery last year.  Well, there is always next year.  This afternoon, after the showers stopped, I painted this beautiful farm house, just outside Barrou.  The owners have been restoring it, and still have the section on the right of the picture left to do.  The other picture was taken by one of my local friends in the restaurant.  As you can tell, I'm having a great time.  I've also attached a picture of one of the many cats in the town.  The French love their pets, and most of the dogs and cats are very well-fed.  I've had difficulty taking pictures of the cats, as they run away when they see strangers, but this cat was different.

Les Nocereaux	In the restaurant, sharing a laugh	un chat blanc

The weather continues to be up and down.  Friday, after a delightful day spent socializing, but not painting, I went to the restaurant where many of the local men were congregating for the European Soccer matches.  France was playing the Ukraine, and everyone was really getting into the spirit.  The first picture is of my English friend and myself, after we had had our faces painted in the colors for France.  The evening was quite fun, and fortunately France won the match.  The picture shows the difference in tolerating the temperatures here, between my friends from England with similar weather, and myself.  Coming from the heat of Arizona, I have been chilled quite a bit on this trip.  Next year, I'll bring warmer clothing.  Saturday was raining rather hard, so the day was spent sight-seeing and visiting the village of Le Grand Pressigny, and the other house owned by my Scottish hosts.  Following that was a birthday party for a local friend with a delicious cake from Chocquet's in La Roche Posay.  This morning we hanged the show of my work at the local restaurant.  It has been a success so far, with many people coming to see it.  The show will stay up until Friday afternoon, when I will need to pack for my return home.  I have sold a few paintings, and have several commissions to paint homes here, which has been a rather pleasant result of the show.  Of course, all discussions are held over a glass of wine.  This afternoon, another beautiful, sunny one, was spent painting the restaurant.

Viva La France!!	gateau chocolat de Choquet It tasted as good as it looked.	Some of my paintings hanging in the restaurant.