What Do You Think About Painting English Cottages?

About 5 years ago I was fortunate to travel to England for a week. My lifelong dream was to go out to the countryside and see the Cotswold villages. So my husband, daughter (who was around 8 or 9), got on a huge tour bus and went to the countryside. We had 45 minutes each in 3 villages. Just enough time to snap some pictures and know I wanted to come back and paint there one day.

So, I ran into a wonderful woman in France who is a specialist in English cottages. She has agreed to work with me on a painting workshop scheduled for Sept.26-Oct.3rd, 2010! What do you think about that? Details to come.............

What If You Were Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner and Had Your Food in These Cannisters, But You Didn't Read French?

I just finished this painting. I used a photo I took of cannisters on a shelf in a 600 year old home in France. I love these old cannisters and would love to have a set of them. However, whenever, I do see a set it is usually out of my price range. Then I got to thinking, since my high school French vocabulary is not what it needs to be for my next trip to France, I probably need to get out my French dictionary and find out what is supposed to be stored in these containers. Then it came to me, that if you actually had to use the products that were in these cannisters and you did not understand French, you could possibly turn out a less then perfect Thanksgiving meal......what a great excuse. I will allow you to use it tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving to All.

Villa Velleron Patio

This is the view looking out from the dining area of the Villa Velleron Hotel in Provence, France. I was fortunate to stay at this lovely place for a few days in September. Every morning I sat down at a table set for breakfast and my cloth napkin was tied with a ribbon that had my name printed on it! The coffee was served in the French country fashion in large bowls without handles. Now that I am back home in Northern California and I stumble into the kitchen every morning and drink my Costco coffee out of a cup with handles and wipe my hands on a paper napkin, I think back to the memories I have of breakfasts on this patio.

French Chairs are Cute

These chairs were lined up in the hallway in Gwen Gibson's home, La Cascade. They were a still life ready to be painted. I took a photo of them my last day in of teaching the workshop in Durfort and couldn't wait to get home to paint them. So here they are...............

Finally Painting Big

Here is a painting of the inn, the Moulin du Chapitre in Soreze, France. I just finished it. It is the biggest watercolor I have ever done. It is 20" by 28". It was time to work big. I really wanted to make paintings that could hang on walls and be seen from a distance. So, I bought some stretcher bars and soaked my paper then stapled it to the stretcher bars. When I finished the painting, I varnished it with a brush and some special varnish for watercolors. It isn't perfect but I learned a lot and want to continue to make some more big paintings. What do you think?