Video of plein air painting demo by Julian Merrow-Smith of Postcard from Provence

Julian Merrow Smith of Postcard from Provence has many fans - but few have met him and few have seen him paint - until now.

A student perspective of Julian Merrow-Smith doing a plein air painting demonstration

One of Julian's recent students, Timothy Joseph Allen, has now posted on YouTube a 20 minute video on YouTube of a painting demonstration done during Julian's last painting workshop of 2015 at La Madelene (October 10th to the 17th).
Videos are a really great way of seeing what's on offer when a painter is also a tutor and offers painting workshops.  This one is a snapshot of what you might experience in a plein air workshop with Julian - you're getting the student perspective!

It's also very clear to me from this video 'that Julian is a communicative tutor who provides his students with a constant commentary on what he's doing during a demo - plus he explains the reasons behind the points he think are important.

The video appears to have been shot on mobile phone as it's tall and thin - however that means you get an excellent view of the palette on the pochade box and what he's mixing as well as the painting.

On the left is a still of the view he is painting.

Do remember to click the HD (bottom right) to get the best picture

Postcard from Provence - Painting Workshops

This is the page on Julian's blog which provides more information about the painting workshops .

The dates for 2016 are already published (see the left hand column):

• May 15th-22nd
• July 20th-28th
• Oct 2nd-9th

Postcard from Provence
Painting Workshops - the website page

This is how Tim summed it up in his blog post Painting En Plein Air with Julian Merrow-Smith

I had the great pleasure to take part in Julian Merrow-Smith’s last plein air workshop of 2015 in Provence, France, from October 10th to the 17th.

The company was gracious, the lodgings impeccable, the cuisine exquisite and the landscapes a feast for the eyes: nothing more could have been better for what was, in essence, six days of plein air boot camp.

Julian’s method of teaching was direct and to the point; every morning and afternoon he did a demo. It was a very no nonsense approach of picking a good spot, getting comfortable, setting up the paints and then getting to work. His technical instruction was an excellent distillation of his experience, and was most helpful in dealing with very complex and fluid challenges like composition and color mixing.

Now that's what I call a satisfied customer!

Painting Workshops: two questions for students and tutors

1. If you are a student, do you like to see videos like these BEFORE you book a painting workshop?
2. If you are a tutor, do you provide videos of what you do - from the student perspective - on your website?

Dentelles de Montmirail - sunset

Dentelles de Montmirail - sunset, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

I started with a sunrise over Mont Ventoux - http://makingamark.blogspot.com/2011/06/sunrise-over-mont-ventoux.html - so I thought I'd make the photo posted on my last morning in Provence a sunset.

This is the sunset I enjoyed while sat eating my dinner at Le Mas de Vignes on Thursday night. The view is of the Dentelles de Montmirail. That's "Dentelles" as in lace not teeth!

You can find more images from Provence in two sets on Flickr of my photos uploaded to date - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/makingamark/sets/72157626821204323/ and my sketches - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/makingamark/sets/72157627095818732/ .

However there's a lot more to be uploaded when I get home!

Pantiles and roof stones in Provence

Pantiles and roof stones in Provence, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

In Provence you frequently see very large stones (small rocks) sitting on top of the clay pantiles.

These help to weight the roof down. You have to experience the very fierce winds which can blow here to know why this seems a very sensible idea.

These particular pantiles are the ones I see on a neighbouring roof when I open my window every morning

Van Gogh and St Paul de Mausole

The Monastery of St Paul de Mausole - Van Gogh's asylum, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

This is the monastery hospital where Vincent Van Gogh sought asylum after he became ill in Arles after he spent six weeks with Gauguin in the Yellow House.

At the rear is a garden where sunflowers and lavender are grown.

I only went to St Remy de Provence in the end. Last time I went to Arles and did not have enough time for St Remy. This time I drove across the Crau Plain and across the Alpilles - which made a lot more sense to me of the paintings he painted while in Provence.


Via Flickr:
ThIs is the rear of the monastery south of St Remy de Provence which gave asylum to Van Gogh after he became I'll in Arles. He stayed for a year and painted a number of famous paintings while he was here

Bedoin Market 27 June 2011

Bedoin Market 27 June 2011, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

Yesterday was my third Monday of visiting the weekly Market in Bedoin. Actually managed to find out what was at the other end of the street this week as the Market is huge and absolutely fantastic. I wish that markets in the UK were more like this. I'll be uploading a lot of photos of what it sells when I get. Home next week.

Tomorrow I'm taking Sarah Wimperis to Marseilles airport for her return flight and we're up early - hence no photo.

However I'm planning a return route which does a Van Gogh detour via Arles and St Remy de Provence.

Lunch at Bedoin Market

Lunch at Bedoin Market, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

I'm sat in Bedoin Market outside the hotel where we're getting our Internet access. the photo is of the paella which we bought for lunch last Monday from the man with the two huge paella pans about fifty feet from where I'm sitting. Very satisfying.

Today we're off to Gordes (previously featured as a photo) to try our hand at capturing a large hill top village.

Olives of Provence

Olives of Provence, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

When I first visited Provence, one of ly lasting memories was of the stunning olive stalls seen in the various markets.

Having returned to Provence I continue to be amazed by the sheer variety of the olives in any number of different marinades.

These olives were photographed in the Market in Bedoin last Monday morning.

A stairway in Crillon Le Brave

A stairway in Crillon Le Brave, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

Walking off lunch in the hill top village of Crillon Le Brave.

We sketched the view and visited a painting exhibition in the tiny town hall.

For more about sketching in France see http://paintingprovence.blogspot.com

Demoiselles des coiffees

demoiselles des coiffees, a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

I started a pastel of these very odd but interesting formations in the local ochre yesterday evening.

This was after a day of trying to communicate with Ruth and Julian in England about the impact of a massive thunderstorm in the middle of the night which has left us without internet access or house phone.

Progress is being made and hopefully I won't be posting from the hotel in town for the rest of our stay.

All I can say is thanks goodness for iPads and the kind services of the Relais hotel in Bedoin.

Lavender Field near Sault

Lavender field between Sault and Mont Ventoux

Today Sarah Wimperis and I travelled to Sault in the late afternoon to:

• check out the painting possibilities
• see if the lavender was coming into bloom
• drive over the top of Mont Ventoux

We scored two and a near miss.

Sault offers lots of painting possibilities and looks just the same as when I first visited some 20 years ago with a BBC film crew in tow (see The first time I went painting in Provence).  I christened my new A3 size Moleskine with a marge sketch.


The lavender is in bud but not yet in full bloom in most fields.  We stopped at two belvederes which gave us a great view of the lavender fields which surround this town.  On the way back we found this field which was beginning to bloom properly.  We decided this one was one we had to come back to:

This is a map of the lavender fields of Sault and Ventoux

From there we took the road up Mont Ventoux (height 1912 metres) safe in the knowledge that most sensible French people would be starting their evening meals and not driving on the mountain.  We got most of the way to the top seeing only a couple of cars but the drive was very demanding and I was very glad I was on the mountain side of the road every time I saw the view as we got nearer and nearer to the top.

We didn't quite get to the top but did reach the treeline.  Then we began the decent past all the messages painted on the road for all the riders in the Tour de France:            

Gordes - one of 'les plus beaux villages de France'

Gordes

I havn`t been to Gordes in nearly 20 years - but have a number of very clear memories of it.  It's a pretty special place even though it gets lots of visitors at times.  It`s also a village associated with artists and it rates as one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France"

The houses of Gordes cling to the side of the Vaucluse plateau, overlooking Cavaillon plain. They are arranged in tiers around the imposing Renaissance castle and church and narrow cobbled streets wind their way through them. Gordes is a village of artists and has been extolled by Marc Chagall, Victor Vasarely and Pol Mara ; it is a must on Provence’s cultural trail.

Les Plus Beaux Villages de France - Gordes

This photo was taken from the viewing point off the D15 (route to cavaillon) on the west of the village - marked on the linked map on Flickr where we stopped so that Robyn and Sarah could take a look at what it's like.

We're hoping to go back there later this week.

Don't forget you can also see what I've been sketching and painting on Travels with a Sketchbook and Four Go Painting in Provence

L'Isle sur la Sorgue markets

The Brocante market, Isle sur la Sorgue

Every Sunday L'Isle sur la Sorgue is host to a market and a brocante market - an antiques market.

It's not cheap but I learned from Ruth Phillip's new book Cherries from Chauvet's Orchard, that it is the source of some of the still life objects seen in Julian Merrow Smith's Postcards from Provence.

I'll be posting some more photos of the rest of the market at L'Isle sur la Sorgue later today (see below) - so come back later to see more.  Now I'm off to the Monday market in Bedoin to get my fish for tonight's supper!

You can see larger versions of these photos in the Provence set on my Flickr account

I first visited these markets some 20 years ago - and they seemed to me to be exactly the same as the last time - right down to the stalls in the same places as I remembered them.

You can find cheese from the moutains

and Gruyere from Switzerland (these are massive rounds of the cheese)

soap perfumed in a variety of different ways

local flowers

and various things you can do with lavender and bay leaves

Don't forget you can also see what I've been sketching and painting on Travels with a Sketchbook and Four Go Painting in Provence

Vineyard housekeeping

Spraying the vines - count the sprays!

We had to move very fast yesterday to move the cars so as to avoid them getting a good dose of whatever it is that the farmer sprays on his vines.

My latest posts and sketching and painting in Provence are:

• Sketching on the terrace at Couguieux
  
• The second oil painting was another story
• Dinner at Restaurant du Vieux Four, Crillon Le Brave

FIne dining at home in Provence

Fine dining at home in Provence, 

a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

We've been out for dinner once - on Ronelle's last night. However the night before we enjoyed fine dining in the house we're renting - courtesy of Ronelle van Wyk and Robyn Sinclair who made dinner.

For our main course we had pan fried duck breasts, served with a strawberry and raspberry coulis, plus asparagus with Parmesan and a salad of baby spinach leaves, endive, celery and baby tomatoes.

I couldn't resist a photograph.

PS  For those reading the comments the spelling mistake(!) has been corrected

After plein air painting

The end of the morning's plein air painting session, 

a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

The end of the morning's plein air painting session - the artist wends her way home for lunch after a morning painting in the vineyards

You can see My very first oil painting on Four Go Painting in Provence

Cherries from the orchards

After the bread and the wine come the cherries. This part of Provence - the Vaucluse - has a lot of cherry orchards - and, right now, an awful lot of cherries for sale. These are some that Ronelle bought yesterday.

At least we won't be stuck for a still life object should we need one......

That's if there are left uneaten......

Bread from the boulangerie

The bread in this photograph comes from the boulangerie in Bedoin, If I'd been into town early, as originally planned, I may well have never got to taste this bread which is made with chevre (goats cheese) and, at the bottom, citron (lemon)

However I learned that if you do not get to the boulangerie (below) early enough on Market day then the only baguettes left are those which have been reserved

Which is how I came to buy and eat this bread. Trying new things brings it's own delight.


(Note: I'm currently on holiday in France and this post forms part of a photo essay.)

The Vineyard

There's an awful lot of very famous wine areas in the Cote du Rhone wine region near where I'm staying - from Chateauneuf du Papes to Beaumes de Venise.

However there's also a lot of more ordinary vineyards with just a few rows of vines - and one of them is right across the road from where I'm sitting. This is what it looked like at 6.00pm yesterday

Vineyards are great subjects for paintings - I wonder how many paintings I'm going to see of this one?

Link: Rhone wines

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