France!!!

Just got back from teaching a 6-day workshop in Burgundy France. We had a small group of 8 students, all from the U.S. We stayed in Beaune and made 3 day trips to nearby towns for painting. We had unbelievably perfect weather. Grapes were harvested about 3 weeks prior to our arrival, but there was still plenty of wine left.

This was the demo I did on the first day, just a couple blocks from our hotel.

Day One 8x10"

We painted in a busy square with lots of tourists walking around, looking over our shoulders.

Cottage with Car 6x8"

While in the little town of Pommard, I found an old blue mini truck like thing that I was so excited to paint. 5 minutes after I sat down and started sketching it out, the owner got in and drove away. So the next day I tried again, getting this car near the church in Volnay.  I like the shape made by the rear window wiper. It seemed like 95% of all the cars on the road were little tiny fuel efficient cars. A nice change from the super-sized American cars.

Red Car  6x8" sold

I did this little painting of an alley on our second morning in Volnay.

6x6" sold

This was a demonstration painting I did in a beautiful small hilltop town (who's name I forget) The flowers were the challenge in this one, and getting the hill to go back. As the group was standing around watching, the guy who's front yard we were standing in, came out with a bottle of wine and glasses for everyone. I think it was about 10:30 in the morning -- a perfect time to start drinking again.

Yellow Flowers  9x12" 

This is the view from the main square in Volnay which many of the students painted. We liked it so much we came back to this town twice to paint. One of our students set up just past those 2 houses and painted the view of a beautiful old church nearby. At the end of the day some local guy came out with a very nice bottle of wine and glasses for us. (that's the beauty of hanging out in small towns!)

Vineyard View 9x12" sold

This was the last painting I did -- also in Volnay. I love the challenge of trying to get the distant blue hills. One of the students bought this painting, but hasn't picked it up yet. I'm thinking of filling in the gap in the big cast shadow, but I'll need to clear it with him first. It's kind of a weird shape and is distracting from the view. I think it would be simpler and stronger without it.

Red Sign 8x10" sold

This was one of my favorites from the week. The group was small enough that i was able to do a little bit of painting while everyone else was painting too, without neglecting them too much. I did this in a total of about 40 minutes, stopping twice to circulate around to everyone's easel. I like the overall simplicity and the negative space of the sky shape.

Volnay Chimney 6x8" NFS