Saturday 20. 03. 10 Just got back this afternoon from my trip to London. Very refreshing. Went to lots of expos. Really enjoyed the Paul Nash at Dulwich – an artist I have known about vaguely but not specifically – impressive stuff. The Van Gogh at the RA was very good too and his sketches within his letters are exquisite. A number of paintings there that I had not seen before. Only problem was that it was very, very crowded. The Moore at the Tate was OK – I found his drawings more interesting that his sculptures. As always when one is wandering around London there are always surprises. This time it was an exciting show of prints at the London Metropolitan University in Whitechapel. Went to see the Keith Grant show at Chris Beetles – looked pretty successful – I noted about half the 60 or so paintings had red dots. Besides the above managed to get to the White Cube, both Tates, the National, National Portrait and the Whitechapel Gallery and take a river trip to Greenwich. Now back to painting again.
A busy week
Sunday 14. 03. 10 After the snow on Monday the weather has steadily improved and today it is 16 degrees and sunny so drove down to Marseillan Plage and Sete to the flea market and for a walk along the beach. Thursday I went to my life drawing class in Octon and on Friday went to a vernissage in Bédarieux with George and Laurene and ran into Elisabeth and Erlend from St Mathieu. Good expo by 3 printmakers including Vincent from the maison de la Gravure in Montpellier.
White vans
Wednesday 10. 03. 10 Yesterday was a very productive day. I managed to do a small (8″ x 10″) painting of Winter Landscape and I started on the first of my white van series White van before the storm. I painted both using thin linseed glazes. The small one is finished but I’m waiting for the White van to dry before working on the plane trees and the vines.
Another Winter Landscape
Monday 08.03.10 I woke up this morning to snow! There had been a few flurries last night but I never expected it to come to anything, but this morning everything was covered by a 2 cm white blanket which lasted until about noon. This afternoon I was at my engraving class and started work on an aquatint of Clive Minto. It went well.
Winter Landscape
Monday 01. 03. 10 I have been back at the Winter Landscape again today and have also started working on a monoprint of a van in a vineyard. Perhaps the first in a series?
Nearly there
Saturday 27. 02. 10 I have been working on and off on George and Winter Landscape this week. It has been quite damp so everything seems to take so long to dry. I finally went into Dalbe today and have bought a drier to mix with the linseed oil which should speed things up in the future as I really like using linseed glazes. George is nearly finished but I still have some work to do on the other one. I’m hoping to start a new series next week based on the ubiquitous white vans which are so much a part of the landscape around here.
Vincent Bioulès
Wednesday 17. 02. 10 Another rainy day so went to the market this morning and then coffee with Laurene, George and Carol at Les Negociants. This afternoon went with a group from the Accueil to the Musée Fleury at Lodève to see an exhibition of the works of Vincent Bioulès a painter from Montpellier. Superb expo and very inspiring. I can’t wait to get back into the studio tomorrow afternoon.
Rainy Day
Tuesday 16. 02. 10 Today is a grey, rainy day here but it is a bit warmer than it has been. This seems to be the pattern for winter: either sunny and cool or warm and rainy. The forecast for this week is mostly rain so will be in the studio. Today have been working on George again and also on Winter Landscape. I have been working with oil pastels and glazes which give depth to the painting surface.
Georgev2
Wednesday 10. 02. 10 Yesterday had a great book club meeting with a lively discussion of Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, an excellent read. Also yesterday The Rider by Tim Krabbé arrived from Amazon which I read overnight – 150 pages about a bike race around Mont Aigoual just north of Montpellier. Great read. Today spent the morning at the market and had coffee with Laurene and George at Les Negociants. This afternoon have been back at George, the painting, adding more to the woods and starting on the foreground bed of leaves.
Sunday drive
Sunday 07. 02. 10 After lunch with Gisèle and Jonathan we drove up to the Buddhist temple on the Larzac plateau just above Lodève. It was a lovely sunny afternoon but windy and much cooler on the plateau. The temple is one of the largest in France and was opened in 1992. It is open for visitors only on Sunday afternoons and we were shown around by a woman originally from Montreal. It has extensive grounds with a lake and small cabins for monks or for people attending retreats. I found the temple decoration quite garish but was assured that they were authentic Tibetan. I was surprised how unspiritual the space seemed – I guess I was looking for an atmosphere often found in old churches or monasteries in the Christian tradition and I was quite disappointed in the lack of a sense of peace and tranquillity. Afterwards we went back to the real world and stopped in Caylar for a coffee where Jonathan managed to catch part of the France/Scotland rugby match.