Surdoux
22 cm x 27 cm
Oil on canvas board

Well, here you go.  Here's my latest painting.  It was a beautiful (scorching hot) summer day above the village of Surdoux.  You know it's hot when you're in the shade and your oil paints begin to liquify more than normal.  As I'm becoming more proficient in my handling of my medium (oil paints) I'm always trying to simplify things so that I can concentrate on what is important to me:  the essence of a location, colour and texture!

     I'm pretty happy with this one, but I feel as though I was a little too relaxed and that I went a little too far with the simplification.  It is a really difficult balance between capturing the important details and simplifying the details that aren't important.  Details such as the ants crawling on the grass in the foreground can be ignored for example.

    I could have spent a little more time on certain parts of this one, but what the hell maybe not - it's pretty damn good.  In all fairness to myself, my nicely shaded painting position was quickly becoming under assault from the advancing sun:  I had no choice, but to paint quickly...and paint quickly I did!

Wall of Trees
Oil on Canvas Board
27cm x 22cm

I did this painting on the last day of Spring too...it was a good day: 2 paintings that I feel happy with in a single day. This one is of a village partially hidden by a wall of trees. It is a view from the «Forêt de la Bête ». Maybe the first painting warmed me up because the paint flowed easily. However, I was really surprised; usually after one painting I don't have the energy to do a second one...what's going on? Is my endurance increasing or did I just get lucky?

Mont Ceix
Oil on Canvas Board
22cm x 27cm

What can I say...I like this painting. It was the last day of Spring and I was painting well. I had been wanting to paint this scene for a long time. It is from a nice trail which travels around the edges of the village of Chamberet. There are a lot of nice things to paint on this trail. I feel like everything went right in this painting.   

« Le Canard » in Spring

Oil on canvas board

22cm x 27cm

Well, I decided that it was time to do a painting again. The weather is improving and I have somewhat resolved some personal issues – I'm ready to move forward again.

Here is a nice painting of the house called « Le Canard » (the duck). I'm happy to say that despite my lack of painting activity this winter I was able to kick off the 2016 painting year with a little success.

For this painting, I tried to find a secluded place (once again); so, if the painting turned out to be a disaster there would be no witnesses. It was pretty challenging to paint all of the trees – so much potential detail had to be simplified somehow.

Anyway, I feel like I'm still rapidly advancing in my techniques of handling oil paints. So, I'm excited to continue painting and to see what I can accomplish this year.

The Cows of Mont Gargan, France.

Cows of Mont Gargan

Well, I've managed to do a little art again.  This time I have done a drawing in preparation for a painting and maybe a pen and ink drawing too.  Here we have some good examples of Limousin Cows grazing near the top of Mont Gargan with a beautiful panoramic view behind them.  I think the painting (if I manage to find the time to do it) will be very good.  The colours will be very nice.  In this drawing however, I have tried to experiment with the tonal values and use of line.

Art Show and Sale

Come to Saint Gilles Les Forêts and see my favourite paintings from the last 10 years.

Bonneval
22cm x 27cm Oil on canvas

This painting was done from in front of the vacation house where my parents were staying when they visited me in France. A beautiful location on a beautiful day. It was so nice and quiet there. I think that my technique may changing a little. Before, I really wanted to focus on the colours but now I'm starting to ask myself will the painting be interesting to draw too? Will the contours be interesting?