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Tain l'Hermitage is a small town of about 6000 people, in southern France. One travel website said "the only reason to stay here is to drink wine and eat chocolate" (Obviously, the person who wrote that wasn't an artist.)
On this morning, 38 artists, from the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the USA, as well as France, were turned loose in the town, looking for painting sites. We each wore a nametag showing the flag of our country. It was Journees de Peinture 2008. Click this link if you are interested in the history of this group.
Knowing I wouldn't have much time until the light changed, I went toward the river, looking for a simple, uncluttered view that could be painted quickly. Across the river was Tournon-sur-Rhone, a town of almost medieval appearance. On the hill, behind the buildings, was a 16th century tower, and there were vineyards around it. I liked the checkerboard pattern of the buildings, and the lively colors. So, I set-up my easel on the riverbank, and went to work.
Back a few days ago, when I was packing, I thought I might have problems with the paint not being dry by the time I had to being the paintings home, so I packed alkyd based oils. Well, the temperature was in the 90's, and my paint was drying on the palette before I could get it onto the panel! Nonetheless, I did manage to complete this painting.

Tournon-sur-Rhone  8" x 10"  oil

Road to Hermitage

There was nothing scheduled today, so we could all rest and recover from jet lag somewhat. We decided to see the sights, starting with this view from the hills above Hermitage. These hills are planted in vineyards--the grape vines are trained straight up, on stakes. The Romans originally planted vineyards here, and the hills are too steep for machines, so the land must be cultivated by horses and mules, even today. In the distance is the Rhone River.

We then went to the town of Romans, famous as a place where shoes are made. http://www.ville-romans.com/ 

It was beautiful.


I love the narrow streets, and the light/shadow patterns they create.


They were having a farmers' market.


On the edge of town are fields of sunflowers.


Cathedral of St Barnard.


  I would return to Romans later to paint.

In the evening, we went out to see the views from the vineyards. As I said, this is an artists' paradise.
 
I'll try linking to Flickr for more photos

View from the plane window, as we approach Lyon

It's Saturday, June 28, and our plane arrives in Lyon. Tired, but excited, we 6 Americans spend some time looking, in the crowded airport, for the people who will pick us up, since we don't know who they are, or what they look like, and we speak no French. When we did finally did find each other, it turns out they speak no English. Using gestures to communicate, we walked about a mile to their two very small cars, and managed (by some miracle) to stuff in all the luggage and people.
The drive from the airport to Hermitage was enough to convince me I'd reached artists' heaven. The fields of dried grasses, which at home would be a tan color, looked like gold, just the way Van Gogh and Monet painted them! All the buildings were a creamy stucco with terra cotta tile roofs. No gaudy advertising! Orchards, with mountains beyond... Ah, paradise!

Finally, in Tain l'Hermitage, we each went to the homes of our respective host families. My French hosts were a couple, about my age, and to my amazement, and great relief, Jean Paul spoke fluent English!


Here are Raymonde and Jean Paul, with whom I stayed.

Next door, another couple, Annie and Bernard, were hosting Bob Sako, another American artist. We sometimes had meals together, and they shared driving. I should mention here that Jean Paul is a chef, who teaches in a culinary school, and Bernard has a hobby of baking bread in his outdoor oven (No, I didn't make this up!) So, the meals with these families were fantastic!


back row: Annie, Raymonde
front: Jean Paul, me, Bob Sako 


Bernard

This first night we had a pizza, baked in Bernard's oven, and lots of wine...

Friday, I'm leaving for a painting trip to France! I have been looking forward to this for months. There are seven artists going from the United States, and I don't know how many from the UK, Switzerland, Belgium and France. We will meet in Tournon, http://www.ville-tournon.com/  then each day paint in a different village in the area. We are staying with French host families. I speak no French, though I have been working with the instructional tapes. I just rented a French movie and couldn't understand more than a phrase here and there (how embarrassing.)
I don't expect to have internet access while there, but will keep a journal and take pictures, so I can post to the blog when I return. This is the website of the group http://www.jdep.org/ They take turns painting in each others' countries each year. Last year it was Switzerland. This is my first time painting with the group, so I'm really the rookie!

 I am getting ready for a painting trip to France, with an international group of artists that paint outdoors in plein air in each other’s countries. I was thrilled to be invited! We will be painting in and around Tournon, Tain l’Hermitage, Vion and Valence and exhibiting our work in several towns in that area.

 As I am considering which art supplies to take on the plane, I notice that my usual painting panels, made by RayMar and SourceTek, have a good bit of weight if you pack a lot of them, and also take up quite a bit of space. A stack of 8 SourceTek panels on 1/8” birch is 1 1/8” high, and RayMar panels are thicker and heavier than that. I love these panels normally, because they are oil-primed linen mounted on board. And for everyday use, the weight is not an issue.

 So, necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to make my own panels. I used Multimedia Artboard, which is an archival epoxy resin paper. It is about the thickness of a sheet of watercolor paper, but quite stiff and brittle (Don’t drop it! The corner might break off.) It is easy to frame with a foam board backing, and easy to cut with a craft knife.

 Since I prefer to paint on a less absorbent surface, I have coated the Artboard with Art Spectrum Oil Prime (one coat). This is a water-based oil primer that is very fast drying. I applied it with a large palette knife. For some fine texture, I smoothed it out with a paint roller from the hardware store. A stack of 8 of these panels is only ¼” thick. We’ll see how this roller texture works, since I haven’t tried it before.

 I have, at other times, applied the primer with a paint brush, which leaves some brush texture on the surface.

 This is a close-up of a painting on Artboard with the oil primer applied with a brush. A base of transparent red was applied to the primer, and is evident in the texture of the brush strokes.

 Another detail from the same painting. See how the opaque paint seems to float above the transparent? This is why I like oil primer, it lends itself to transparent effects so well.

I'll do a practice painting before leaving to see if I like the texture made by the paint roller. 

I love to paint outdoors, plein air, when I can, though sometimes I do paint from photographs in the studio. If I do use photographs, I like to also have a study, done on the spot, to use as well. 

This is a study from my latest outdoor painting session. It was evening. See how long the shadows are? The light was warm, and as I painted, I was mixing the colors I saw in the landscape very well. I could stand back from the painting, compare it with the actual scene, and the colors matched.



I did take some pictures of the scene as well. This is what the camera saw:

Where did all that blue come from? The white balance was on "auto." The "cloudy" setting might have been more accurate, but I like the color my eyes saw better. Incidentally, those marshmallow-looking things in the photograph are hay bales wrapped in plastic.

I recently had a photo session with parents who wanted an informal portrait of their one-year-old. This will be more of a sketch than a detailed portrait... while he still has his baby cuteness.

When doing a portrait from photos rather that life, the photographs have to be really good.

For you camera buffs out there--I used the same camera that I use for all my portraits: a digital Canon Rebel XT SLR. It allows me to shoot both RAW and JPEG files at the same time. I love RAW mode! It captures detail even if I mess up with the exposure settings or the lighting isn't right. I been able to recover what I thought were hopelessly underexposed images in RAW mode.

 

I shoot on low contrast because I don’t like the exaggerated contrast and saturation of commercial cameras. Even when I used film (remember those days?), I went to a lot of trouble to use professional quality portrait film. It just makes a better image to work with. I have to be able to see details in the shadows and in the light areas.

We had a lot of fun and got some great pictures!