Four Go Painting in Provence

You are invited to visit a new blog - Four Go Painting in Provence.  

This is the natural extension to group blogging about art.  Four female group bloggers go on holiday to sketch and paint together - and then blog about it!

In June this blog is going to be very quiet.  That's because, in the main, I'm going to be blogging on Travels with my Sketchbook and Four Go Painting in Provence

As some of you will recall (see My Postcard from Provence) that's because I'm going to be spending three weeks drawing, sketching and painting in Provence - plus another six days getting there and back. So that's very nearly four weeks in France.

I'm in Provence for the whole three weeks - but I'm not alone.  

• Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes / Watermarks ) is flying in from Cornwall for two weeks from the middle of June
• Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs, Will Travel / A Postcard from my Walk) is driving up from Italy for  two weeks at the beginning; and 
• Ronelle van Wyk (African Tapestry /  Watermarks / A Postcard from my Walk) is putting her renovation work at Coin Perdu on hold for a week to join us for the middle week

The aim of the blog is primarily for us to have a record of our holiday - and to have a place where we can post our daily paintings together - to see how four artists can see the same place through different eyes.

However it also struck us that a few people might like to come along for a virtual journey and enjoy the sights and the weather and maybe have a virtual smell of the cooking!  So if that's you - keep reading!

We're getting very excited about the prospect - and today Sarah kicked off our new blog with its first post - about getting down to the packing - see First Things First.

Where we will be based

We're not in coastal Provence.  We're further up in the Vaucluse in "proper" Provence - away from the tourists.

For those of you who don't know already, we've rented "a ramshackle farmhouse in the wilds of Provence" aka the home of popular Postcard from Provence painter Julian Merrow Smith while his wife Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile) plays cello at the Garsington Festival.   

The house is silent apart from the sound of skops owl, woodpecker, golden orioles nesting in the plane tree and the odd wild boar scuffle. 

We're based near Crillon le Brave and Bedoin two small Provençal hill villages at the foot of Mont Ventoux.

From there we'll be travelling around to various places.  You can find some of the places we might get to in Places we Painted - which at present only contains links to and notes about the places we might well visit

The Big Question

At the moment we're trying to come up with "a big question" for each of us which we can then use as individual themes for the artwork we produce while in Provence.  I'm not sure whether it will work - but it's a good place to start.

Mine is probably going to be about learning to paint in oils!  It seems appropriate.  The first time I visited Provence - some 20+ years ago was the first time I got back to my art after something like a 15 year break.  So Provence for me is a place of new starts.

A Postcard from Our Walks

Julian's Cabanon (print available)

Fellow members of our Postcard from my Walk group stand a very good chance of being a recipient of postcards from Provence after our visit.

We'll be out and about walking near the house in the magical light of early morning and early evening  - and seeing how many Postcard from Provence motifs we can spot - such as the Cabanon (see right)!

I keep getting carried away thinking about the colours

• there's the lavender for those of who are there late in June.
• the creamy white of the limestone 
• the green leaves and brown/black trunks of the vineyards
• the orange red of the ochre hills and lots of the roof tiles
• not forgetting the blue of the sky and lots of the paintwork!

Plus there's opportunities to sketch and paint water in a number of different contexts for the Watermarks bloggers.  My favourites are the old fountains in every medieval town and village - my favourite is in Gordes.  However there's river running through L'Isle la Sorgues which always makes me think it's a bit like a mini Venice.  Then there's the highly recommended river in the Vallée du Toulourenc.

So - if you'd like to join us can I suggest you start packing your virtual bags too and then inspect the top of the right hand column of Four Go Painting in Provence so you can "get your ticket" for a virtual painting holiday by:

• either bookmarking the URL of the blog http://paintingprovence.blogspot.com in a feedreader
• or signing up for an email every day (we can but hope!) 

We'll be very happy to take you in our virtual suitcases - but don't forget your sketchbooks!

PS  I had "an Enid Blyton moment" coming up with the title (women of a certain age will know what I'm talking about!) - I guess that means there might be "jolly japes" as well.......

Links:

• MAKING A MARK: Fancy painting in Provence in May?
• MAKING A MARK: My Postcard from Provence