Journal

Thursday 15. 04. 10 Yesterday I went with Gisèle to what I thought was a gourmet wine tasting but turned out to be a high class tupper ware party. We went to the Domaine de la Tour which is a rather grand looking house on a hill overlooking Nebian. Instead of standing around sampling wine we were subjected to a spiel about high end German cookware and cutlery. Good for the French but for me ultimately deadly boring. However after a couple of hours we come away with a bottle of wine and a jar of paté each. Today instead of staying in at the Accueil we had a field trip. We drove out to St Jean de la Blaquière, parked and then had a walk down to the river which is known locally as a miniature version of the Colorado. As we walked Alain pointed  out the various wild flowers, aromatic herbs  and edible plants found there, some of which we sampled. It was the perfect Spring day, sunny but not too hot. After lunch I decided that it was such a lovely day that I drove out to St Jean de Fos and Aniane and shot lots of photos of various white vans. In the evening instead of going to my life drawing class I went up to George and Laurene’s for aperos and caught up on their recent trip to Italy.

Tuesday 30. 03. 10 I have finally finished the first two of my white van series. Currently working on a third in this new series.

Thursday 25. 03. 10 I am pleased to announce that George aux bois Wymondley has been bought by Lawrence and Diane and will be receiving guests in the new extension of their home in Stevenage.

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.

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.

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.

Wednesday 03. 02. 10 Today is market day and bunches of mimosa’s are on sale so I assume that Spring is here. It is sunny and there is just a hint of warmth in the air. Currently working on a couple of large landscapes. One of Lawrence’s lurcher George, in the woods near his home and the other a winter landscape near Plaissan. Both 100 x 80 cm. Have also been reading Sarah Bakewell’s biography of Montaigne – the world’s first blogger in 1572! A great read.

Sunday 17. 01. 10 Today I went with Claire to lunch with Clemence’s family. Clemence is Daisy’s French pen friend who lives in Baillargues which is just on the edge of Montpellier. We had a very relaxed and tasty meal starting with Gamba shrimps, followed by pasta with mushrooms and then cake for dessert. I had brought some Canadian ice wine so we had this after the meal. They moved into their new house in September and are still settling in and finishing various projects. It is a great house and Jean-Luc and Isabelle have their bedroom on the ground floor and the girls have the second floor. The grey rabbit lives in the living room.

Sunday 10. 01. 10 Today was the final family meal before I return to France. We all had a great meal at Carole’s and then Alisa took the official portrait above.

Friday 01. 01. 10 Have had a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Christmas was the usual family extravaganza with lots of presents and good food, unfortunately marred this year by some sickness. Carole and Daisy were not in good shape on Christmas day but Carole still managed to cook the dinner altho she didn’t eat it. Julia was sick between Christmas and New Year, Poppy and Jason were sick before Christmas and I have had a cold since New Year. However despite all this we all managed to have a good time. New Year was quiet this year but that was OK too.