The Most Beautiful Village in Provence

Oops!  I forgot the picture when I first posted this!  Roussillon was one of the most beautiful villages in Provence. On our tour through Provence, our lovely guide, Virginia explained that there were quite a few villages boasting to be "The Most Beautiful Village in Provence". I, for one, could not choose. They are all beautiful in so many different ways. Roussillon is very unique with its ochre cliffs. I painted this scene before in pastels, and thought I would give it a shot in oils and with a palette knife. I'm pretty happy with this ... well ... except for that stupid shadow from my easel that I didn't edit out!  Doh!  

I titled this one Ochre Naturel (spelled the French way since this is from Provence)

Ochre Naturel
5x7
Oil on Board

Posted with Blogsy

Lavender of Gordes - Week Three - SOLD

I had a lot of "wipers" from my "dailies" this weekend that didn't come out the way I had hoped so I went back to something familiar.  I painted this in oils over Thanksgiving weekend, but took some liberties with both. In the pastel painting, I omitted the cypress trees.  In the oil painting, I kind of straitened out the curvature of the rows as shown in the original photo.

The photo, the oil and the pastel (in that order).  I'm sure this isn't the last you've seen of Lavender of Gordes!

Pink Callanques

I tried to paint this scene in oils not long after I returned from Marseille in July. I was a bit rusty as I had not painted for a while, wasn't happy and thus put it away. Here it is on my largest pastel to date: 8x10. 98% of the pastels I used were Terry Ludwig pastels with a sprinkling of some very soft Scminckes for some finishing touches in blue? I followed Karen Margulis' recommendation for doing an under painting with a dark blue hard pastel (Nupastel) and mineral spirits. The support is Ampersand Pastelboard. I'm happy with this one!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Provencal Colors

Painting from all of these photos makes me want to go paint in Provence immediately!  I am enjoying the combination of greens and purples.