Pied a Terre : An Artist in France

Italy and living "la vita dolce."

2011-06-09T12:19:00.004+02:00

I'm back from teaching a workshop at the fabulous Tuscan Renaissance Center in San Fedele, Italy. My carefree life of eating incredible Italian meals nightly, drinking cheap but marvelous Italian wine and painting the sun kissed Tuscan hills is over. However, since I am a painter, my tour will live on through my paintings.....

Here are some highlights of the trip:
I saw Snooki and JWow, of the Jersey Shore, in Florence. The girls and their camera crew walked past my table (I was close enough to give them a good slap, which from Snooki's smirking face, appeared to be needed), giving us all a cheap (very cheap in person, I dare say) thrill.

We were waited on hand and foot during the workshop at the Tuscan Renaissance Center and treated to EXPERIENCES, not food, every night. We enjoyed wine and olive oil tastings and some excellent serenading by Linda and Michael, who perform as professional singers! Wow!

I now realize why there's not much gold left in the world: every bit of it is in the Catholic churches and museums in Italy, ensconced in the frescoes, artwork, altars and chalices.

It appears that being an artist during the Renaissance might have actually been profitable.

Venice is amazing and you cannot take a bad picture in the town or run into a bad shop.

Even the most meager outdoor market in Italy has better fashions than one can find in.....Virginia.

There is no bad food or bad wine in Italy. This thought leads me to another thought: I may not be able to drink Virginia wine again or eat American food. Ugh. Food in Italy is a three hour, five course experience, utilizing only the freshest ingredients while our food here...... oh, well.

The Best of.....

2007-07-29T10:18:00.000+02:00

As my travels in France come to a close, I'm compelled to examine just where I've been and where I'm going. I'd like to share some of my favorites.

I believe that the best lighting and the best scenery for the painter are in France. The people are very accepting of "une artiste" and seem flattered when I'm squatting in front of their home, or their historic building or taking photos of their spotted cows.

The best toilets and t-shirt slogans are far and above in Japan. I visited toilet facilities that featured singing commodes, appliances that masked one's personal hygiene with the sound of romantic waterfalls, heated seats and self cleaning wands. The t-shirts, with their imaginative non-sequiters, were amusing. Among my favorites were: "Happy Trendy, " and "My Flamingo Best Girl Friend," and "You Make Sexy."

The cheapest place to shop is Ukraine. Unfortunately, there's nothing to buy.......

The greenest fields are in Scotland. The most beautiful, and plentiful, thatched roof houses are in the Cotswolds in Great Britain. The best mussels, frites and beer are in Belgium. The best gelattos are in Italy, and what a thrill it is to stand in the very center of old Rome and walk the cobbles which are trenched with the marks of chariots from one thousand years ago and hold one's hand beneath the spring fed fountain which nourished the ancient ancestors.

I'm blessed to see, and experience and visually inhale the sights of other countries and cultures. Through my paintings, I wish to convey to YOU the feeling and delight of another place and time. Au revoir and "bonne chance."

Thanks to Les Amis de la Grande Vigne

2007-07-27T08:25:00.000+02:00

The committee visits last night at the atelier

I want to express my thanks to the Committee of Les Amis de la Grande Vigne for the opportunity to come to Dinan and spend the month painting.

The artist Yvonne Jean-Haffen started the program before her passing at the age of 98 in 1993, and she bequeathed her home as a museum and the artist's studio as a place for artists to come and paint the beauties of Brittany. The Committee selects one artist each month to come to Dinan, and I'm incredibly grateful for the honor and am proud to join the ranks of excellent artists who have benefited from this remarkable program.

The only problem is that there is such a remarkable variety of natural beauty, historic scenes, wonderful characters, and amazing landscapes that a month isn't time to paint it all. But I've also been taking photos--more than 1,000 of them--so I'll have material to work with for a long time to come.

Merci beaucoup, Les Amis de Grande Vigne! a' Bientot!

Dinan At Night

2007-07-24T11:23:00.001+02:00

Nighttime comes late here--the sun sets around 10 PM, so working late one night, I came up with this scene as dusk turned into dark.

27 out of 30 Days....

2007-07-24T11:07:00.000+02:00

In rain gear, and on the move

The opportunity of a lifetime! A month in France to paint in watercolor, but the entire 30 days is the rainiest July in recent memory. It has rained at least once all but 3 days so far since we arrived. What is the watercolorist to do? Other than curse, that is....

Work fast, find imaginative cover, and carry plastic bags, to start with.

I've found a number of other techniques that I'll share in classes and future articles when I return home and dry out.

More to come

2007-07-20T10:33:00.000+02:00

I know it's been a few days since we posted, but traveling and painting have superceded the Internet for the moment. I promise more very soon. Thanks to the many who have e-mailed and said they enjoyed the blog.

==John

Water, Water, Everywhere

2007-07-17T20:18:00.001+02:00

Low Tide at Cancale, France

The coast of Brittany and Normandy is full of little jewels for the artist. There are craggy mountains, cliffs of pink granite, hills covered in gorse and heather, and always there is the turquoise water. The range of the tides is enormous and we often pass boats that have been grounded by the low tide. In many locations, the tide will recede by one hundred feet or more, leaving the lonely little boats, rocks encrusted with mussels and scenic views.

A New Sport (for us)

2007-07-17T19:59:00.000+02:00

These guys are waiting for the next "Saturday Night Live" reunion show.

The meeting of the minds

A winner emerges

Having missed the whole NASCAR thing, I'm always on the lookout for a new sports sensation. Part of the holiday weekend festivities included an all-day nautical jousting tournament on the River Rance in front of the atelier.

A fund-raiser for the Kiwanis club charities, teams from the towns around here compete over and over against each other. The boat is like a big rowing scull with a tail on which the jouster stands. The boats go to opposite ends of the river, the rowers pick up speed, and, well, you get the idea from above. St. Juvat won this round, as the jouster avoided a dip in the drink. (Speaking of drink, there was a lot of it going on, and the competition got more, shall we say, animated as the day went on.

I can see Dale Junior and Jeff Gordon settling a score or two this way, but that may be just me.

--John

Hard at work

2007-07-14T20:21:00.000+02:00

Painting in the atelier

Dinan at Dusk

I have been in Dinan for two weeks now and have 13 paintings hanging on the wall, some large and some small. In this painting of Dinan at dusk, which does not occur until ten pm, I'm trying to capture the unusual rose and turquoise light which seems to effervesce the landscape, but I'm still not sure that I have found the correct colors to use. I only used three colors here: quinacridone gold, quinacridone rose and manganese blue. I'm still investigating a new way of defining and describing the colors that I see here on the Emerald Coast.

We've travelled all over Brittany and have seen one lovely sight after another. It rains every day, so all the colors are muted with a veil of grey. Lehon is a tiny jewel of flowers and medieval stone houses and an abbey; Cap Frehel is a jumble of dramatic pink granite cliffs and turquoise ocean; Dinard is a funky, French beach side city with a resort feel; Normandy is quieter with the same rocky cliffs; Giverny is a visual paradise of lily ponds, flowers and tiny stone homes; Cancale is another resort style town pounded by the surf. Every day is full of centuries old surprises.

Happy Bastille Day!

2007-07-14T20:17:00.000+02:00

Dinan's July 14th Fireworks Show was right outside my atelier at the port.

Bastille Day was celebrated with a great hurrah right outside of our little house along the River Rance. There was a spectacular fireworks show on the other side of the river. Since it doesn't get dark here until late, the celebration began at 11 p.m. The fireworks were accompanied by French narration and American pop music. Tres' bon! Since I specialize in painting night scenes in watercolors, perhaps there is a painting here...........
`

New Work

2007-07-11T15:22:00.000+02:00

The Rooftops of Dinan

Le Moulin de Moidrey

The Critique

I've been busy painting! More work is underway and will be posted soon.

At Monet's Gardens

2007-07-10T20:20:00.000+02:00

Coming out after painting in the garden, closed except to the workers and gardeners.

My painting of Monet's House

On Monday, I was honored to be able to paint in Monet's Gardens while the gardens were closed to the public. I was nearly shaking with excitement at the prospect. In the morning, I completed a painting of the famous lily pond and in the afternoon, I finished a piece focusing on the famous man's house. I have a huge number of photographs to bring back to the studio and many paintings to go.

France is very rainy and cold this July and the residents are complaining that they will miss the summer entirely. However, I was blessed with good weather in Monet's Gardens and have had enough sun to complete 7 paintings so far.

C'est la vie!

Catherine Hillis

A travel help

2007-07-07T21:26:00.001+02:00

Because of some changes in plans, we will have two rental cars in the course of the month here. The first one we got is much nicer and niftier than expected, with two great features: a good radio that picks up BBC from Jersey, 50 miles or so away, and a GPS navagation system.

If you are planning a trip somewhere you don't know directions and/or speak the language, as we do, the GPS is a great investment and in driving, I found it's a great help, as its map always knows where you are and what direction you're going, and the map can zoom in to help you get around town or zoom out when you're on the autoroute. The Michelin departmental map can't do that, and you don't have to fold up the GPS. It's a tool I will miss when we turn this vehicle in and get the one we will have for the rest of the trip.

The blog will now return to matters artistic, hopefully never to divert again.

--John

Weekend Update

2007-07-07T21:16:00.000+02:00

Mont St. Michel
More than 1,000 years old, it sits surrounded by the bay (not the car park as it appears).
The engineer in me is amazed that they had figured out how to place stones in such remarkable form so many centuries agom much less getting them hundreds of feet up to the top of the rock!

A restored Moulin Vert on the way to the Mont.
Moulins can also be water mills, so you have to be specific about the destination.
This beauty was restored to working condition in 2003, and actually turns in the wind and makes flour.

We've been traveling to places other than the internet cafe, so our blogging has been poor. For this, we are sorry. I hope our connection issues will become less and we'll post more frequently, for now, though it's only every few days that we can put stuff up.

These are fascinating sights, and you can expect to see paintings posted soon of these and more.

--John

First day out

2007-07-05T17:00:00.000+02:00

My painting of the Port of Dinan

The artist at work

Our little house

A beautiful clear day today so I'm out at 8:30 am painting on site.
Dinan's medieval walls, castle, stone buildings and shingled roofs make me feel like I'm in Cindarella's palace!

Almost Live from the Internet Cafe

2007-07-03T16:37:00.000+02:00

Well, we've made it, and so did the art supplies.

Dinan is a remarkable old medieval (guess that qualifies as old, eh) walled city built uphill from the River Rance, on whose banks my studio and lodgings are. No pictures today, but we'll try to get some on soon. We are alive and well and eating everything in sight.

More soon, even if not as frequently as we like at 1 euro per 15 minutes.

One Week to Go

2007-06-24T04:09:00.000+02:00

It's difficult to pack up everything an artist needs - particularly because of the restrictions of carrying on liquids. Folding chairs, easels, palettes, an umbrella for sun protection - all destined for the baggage hold, along with clothes, linens, and all sorts of whatnot.

What if Air France loses all the art supplies? Trying to cover every eventuality is impossible, but we're trying.

Welcome

2007-06-20T03:24:00.000+02:00

To the blog. I'm writing for Cathy tonight. It's about 10 days before we depart for a month in Brittany-her as artist-in-residence, me as cook and dishwasher, getaway car driver and freelance scrivner. As soon as we land and get set up with Internet, I hope we'll be posting our observations, photos, and her artwork, which will be available for purchase on her return to the States around August 1.

This post is testing the system and my ability to make it work on this side of the ocean, so check back starting in July and see and hear our adventures and misadventures en France.

John