Mon Beau Village

My beautiful village is, of course, Lourmarin, where we lived the first three and a half years of our sojourn in France. It is, by all accounts, one of the most beautiful villages in Provence. Actually there are signs saying so as one enters the village from any direction. Backed by a field of olive trees and vineyards where many a tourist has stopped to capture Lourmarin at its best, I have led all the artists who have taken a workshop from me to this ideal spot to capture the rooftops of the village on canvas.

The sixteenth century-old stucco homes are all the same color as are their rooftops. But it is the configuration of the jumble of homes that is so enticing to any artist, squeezed and tumbling together on their hillside with the added beauty of the intense violet blue of the mountains beyond. What fodder for any painting. Because color is so expressive and so much fun, I use my artistic license to make a quilt of exquisiteness … pale orange next to a beautiful coral, deep carmine red next to a subtle violet grey. This is what creating is all about to me.