Painting in France. June 9-20. Post #3, the Paintings.

My Painting rig.  The tripod stand is borrowed, since Joel's luggage (carrying my tripod) was temporarily lost by the airline. But, it all arrived neatly at the local post office on the following Tuesday.  

I'm in France!  Funny, it smells just like Idaho.

A view of our Monastery near Saint-Hilaire de Villefranche.  Le Vieux Monestere.

Sunday. Spence, Painting from our Backyard.

I started out drawing.  Derwent Dark Wash sketch pencil, 8b on water color paper. 10"x7"

Derwent Dark Wash sketch pencil, 8b on water color paper. 10"x7"

Derwent Dark Wash sketch pencil, 8b on water color paper. 10"x7"

Oil on Water Color paper. 7"x10".  I use Arches Hot Press water color blocks.

Oil on Linen, 15"x8". I prepared myself a bunch of Linen boards glued to Foam core.  They worked out great, light and easily clamped to my homemade Pochade box.

10"x7" Watercolor.  I loved these rolling hills. This was our second day of painting.

10"x7" Watercolor. Same day as the previous painting.

8"x8" Oil on Linen.  This was later in the day, from our back yard, looking far East.

Our 3rd day of Painting.  10"x7" Watercolor.

10"x7" Watercolor. the first of two of this scene.  It was a neat little this strip of wheat cutting through the forest.

10"x7" Watercolor. the second of two of this scene.

On Wednesday we drove into LaRochelle to work with our model, Lucie.  We worked outside, in our host's Mother-In Law's private yard.  This was such a luxury! 

After returning to our Monastery we were too pumped up to sleep and took on the challenge of Night Painting!

Early Thursday morning. 9"x12" Oil on Watercolor Paper.  The day before we had all been discussing all the interesting contrails in the sky.

Thursday, 15"x8".  Oil on Linen.  Hay rolls!  I had been anticipating painting these hay rolls  in oil and had a ball with this one.

Spence painting the Hayrolls and using another for cover!

8"x8" oil on Linen. Painting on the island of  Île de Ré. 

Joel, Painting on the Île de Ré.

8"x8" Oil on Linen.  The Church right next to our Monastery.   

Sunday. Our last full day in Saint-Hilaire de Villefranche.  12"x9" Watercolor.
I got up to paint the sunrise, or at least to try too.  I painted too fast, but even then, was too slow!
Within 20 minutes the Sun moved behind the clouds.

...and then it looked like this! 10"x7" Watercolor.

...and then this! 10"x7" Watercolor.  

Looking Northwards from the same location. 10"x7" Watercolor.

That same day, in the Afternoon, I went out into the Sunflower fields to try this closed Sunflower.  They were pretty stunted by lack of rain earlier in the season and were not open yet.  Still interesting though.
8"x8" Oil on Linen.

8"x8" Oil on Linen.  My last painting of the trip.  Hay roll heaven!

Drawing in France: Jun 9-20. Post #2 Enjoying the Sites and towns.

Dan Egan, our cyclist, posed for us one day.  20 minutes. Dan would be up at 6am and take off biking for the day while we painted.  He usually went 40-80 miles a day, depending on the weather and the map planned out for the day.

Sketching Wednesday evenings partial eclipse, a little Fucia flower and a quickie of an old bunker turned public bathroom  on Il De Re.

The Ruins of an old 7th century Abby!  I should have done more drawing here, it was really interesting.

A Donkey found in a small field and a whale Vertebrae seen in an artists window.     

On the island of Il De Re they used to harvest sea salt with the help of Donkeys.  These Donkeys, specialized to this Island, are very Hairy, growing shaggy and long haired much like some dogs.  It's not the same as sheep or Llamas, but close.  Very interesting to see.  They no longer use them for salt gathering but many still exist on the Island.

More of the Donkeys.  they were cute.

We settled into Paint for a while in the afternoon and I did this drawing while figuring out what to paint.

I just liked this cool digging machine. They were either quarrying up some gravel or reinforcing the sea wall with these.

A quick sketch of my Sun flower painting.

Lone Sunflower, against a building, in Il De Re.

Drawing in France! June 9-20. Post #1. Getting started.

This June I attended a painting retreat to France!  I joined my friends Joel Yau and Spencer Snyder on this trip, hosted and organized by Dan Cooney. (http://dcooneypaints.jimdo.com/news/) There were 5 of us artists and one cyclist.  We began our trip in Paris, took the train to La Rochelle for another night, then drove out to our final destination, Le Vieux Monestare, in St. Hilare de Ville Franche. (http://www.levieuxmonastere.com/) There we painted the French farmlands and visited nearby cities of Congac, Saintes, La Rochelle and the island of lle de Re.

Waiting for our flight to Paris, June 9th. Spence and I were on the same flight.  Everyone it seemed, was having troubles getting to France. Joel missed one of his connections and had to get a different flight in order to make it there on Saturday.  

More waiting...our flight was delayed about 5 hours by a sea bird that was  sucked into an engine when our plane landed from it's previous flight from Paris.

Finally!  On the plane and headed for Paris.  In flight I watched a couple of films, my favorite was a murder mystery called "Poupoupidou".

Once in Paris Spence and I found our Hotel, with Joel waiting.  After settling in we sent out for dinner at a place called "Cafe Rendezvous". Friday, June 10.

Saturday, June11. La Rochelle.  We joined out host at this Mother in-laws house in La Rochelle, for our send off dinner!  

Sunday, June 12.  On our way to the Vieux Monestare!  Tierry, Dan's brother in law, helped drive us in a second car.  

My first drawing from the Monestary. This view is looking directly West.

My second Drawing.  This view looks directly South.  We had a large deck with  a grand, full view of the southern vista!
Drawn with my Niki fountain pen and Noodler's Polar Brown ink.  

A drawing of one corner of the Monestary's building.  Spence and I both thought  that there were many interesting com-positional opportunities in the compound.  This was looking at the roof of the gaming shed, seen from the pool deck.
Pelican fountain pen and Noodler's Black.  

Pencil sketch of the view West.  

A quickie sketch of our living area at the Monestare.  We stayed in their "Renoir" suit.  It's the largest unit in their compound, with bedrooms on the second floor and a large lining room and kitchen on the ground floor.  We had plenty of room to spread out our work for viewing and critiques.

The Church that resides right next to the Monestary.  This is a private, family owned Church, that despite it's  intimate location to the Monestary, had no relation to it.  

Sketches in Congac.

My last sketch near the Monestary, done before attempting my last watercolor paintings.  I wanted to catch the Sunrise, but it dissappeared into these clouds!