July 1st 2018

Canigou 1, oil on panel, 9x12", detail

Canigou 2, oil on panel, 9x12"

After a great trip, I am glad to be back with my husband and Gabriel. Misha and Kylie came to visit this weekend which was a treat!
I started a series of palette knife paintings from memory of Mount Canigou, the mountain, for us when we lived in the South of France.

Canigou 3, oil on canvas board, 10x14"

 My first attempts were to put as much information on the canvas as possible. I was filming the process, as the paintings 2 and 3 were pre-sold with their video. With Canigou 3, the computer ran out of charge and there was no way to continue filming, even after I plugged it in. My schedule was busy, I had just an hour or two to work, in order for the painting to be dry in time for my departure. I got frustrated and decided to sit back and see what this painting still needed. The more I looked, the more I became convinced that Canigou 3 was finished.

Canigou 6, oil on panel, 9x12", in progress

 Canigou 6 is a result of too much linseed oil and gamsol on the panel at the start. I had the intention of painting an image that captured just the essence, "a poem instead of a novel" as Jim McDonald calls it. I will just keep trying...

Walking in the forests around Nijmegen

 It was so relaxing to walk for hours in the forests we used to walk in with our parents, when we were little, my brother and I. My real brother was at work, but I had my "adopted brother and sister" and/or their dog with me.

Madame de Pompadour, by  M. Quentin de La Tour, pastel, detail

In the Louvre I saw an impressive pastel exhibit, it helped me realize that there are way more historic pastel portraits than I had any idea of. This beautiful, huge portrait, which I had always assumed was in oil, is one of them.