Escape to Provence! A Step by Step Demo

Over Christmas break as everything was pretty brown and exceedingly soggy outside, I decided to mine my many photos of sunnier times from my trips abroad. I will never forget my trip to Lourmarin, painting and eating my way through this beautiful part of Provence. I still long to go back, and am determined to do so, hopefully this time sharing it’s magic with my daughter. In the meantime I can always revisit the experience through paintings. So let’s get started, shall we?

The Design

I draw out my design in a number of ways, usually with a warm tone like burnt sienna. I had been doing this with paint, but I’m enjoying these little oil sticks by Sennelier that I bought on a whim. I like them because they are quicker and can be thinned in the same manner as the paint for washes or adjustments. I also like them because they don’t seem to stain as much as the paint, which means after adjustments and corrections, the drawing and toning are easier to read.

The Shadows

Next I want to lay in the shadows, as this will give my painting the structure it needs. Most of the shadows are concentrated around the horizon where the building, (the area of interest) is.

Color all around

Here I am starting to flesh out the color in the fields and mountains, still leaving my lightest lights untouched.

Painting the sky

To work out the sky, I paint a blue sky color around the areas where I think the clouds are going to go, trying to keep the edges soft and feathery. Right now the white of the clouds is just the white of the canvas.

Head in the Clouds

As I decide on the cloud placement, I start to add pigment. This is a sunny breezy mid day scene so the clouds are pretty bright and high. Keeping the value light, I mix a tiny dab of Gamblin Cadmium Orange deep with a much larger ratio of Titanium White for the lighter side. The shadow areas are made up of Ultramarine Blue, Napthol Red, Titanium White, and maybe a teensy dab of Cadmium Orange. Working wet-into-wet allows me to tease out soft edges. Here I also lay in the color of the light side of my building and the dirt road. The building and the road leading to it have the greatest contrast to lead the eye.

Poppies!

I keep the poppies and other wildflowers to the last, laying them on pretty thick. I used to use Cadmium Red light for the poppy color but I have since replaced this on my palette with Napthol Red. It is a highly staining, cooler red than the Cadmium but can acheive cleaner pinks when desired so I find it both less expensive and more versatile. I mix the Napthol with Cadmium Orange to get that distinctive, sunny “poppy color” I’m after.

“Le Printemps, Temple de Lourmarin”, Oil on linen, 24x30” ©Jennifer E Young

Above is the completed work, photographed outside for correct color and no glare! This Protestant Church, Le Temple de Lourmarin, is simple and austere on the inside but it has a wonderful exterior and adds a sense of history and tradition as it sits like a sentry at the edge of town. Click through on the final image to read more or purchase this piece.

Come on Spring!

Okay, enough of winter already. I don't know about you but my winter was totally nuts. Not that spring will be less nuts but at least they will be warm ;-). Family matters have kept me from doing much painting, but here and there I have worked on this 14x18" piece, revisiting a familiar theme and experimenting with brushwork and soft edges:

"Papaveri, Val d'Orcia" Oil on linen, 14x18" © Jennifer E Young

Southern France W.I.P. resurrected

It has been 4 months since my last confession-er,  post. I realize my blogging has been extremely spotty over the past year or so, and I think it is time to 'fess up about the reason for my silence before getting to my work-in-progress. Longtime readers may recall my mention before of, in the midst of being a new mother, my struggle with some health issues. Well it got worse before it started getting better, and these two major life challenges has meant the painting has had to take a back seat. In a nutshell, I developed an autoimmune condition after the birth of my L.O., and one of the main (and most debilitating) symptoms has been chronic insomnia. Now you'd think that with insomnia I might as well get up and out to the studio and do some painting! But it hasn't worked out that way because along with the insomnia came some pretty significant muscle pain and (not surprisingly) extreme fatigue. Before motherhood, I was able to maintain a fairly steady process of work and productivity. Certainly some days were more productive than others, but overall I took my painting life seriously and showed up to work whether "the inspiration hit" or not. I still take my painting life seriously, but my recent life and health changes have thrown me for a loop. I have seen some improvement lately, so I remain optimistic that I can get this all sorted out. But it seems to be two steps forward and one step back.

Mundane tasks are manageable, but creative work simply does not happen for me on 3-4 hours (or less) of sleep for months on end; particularly when I am also taking care of a toddler. Contrary to what a lot of people think, painting is as much an intellectual process as it is an emotional one (perhaps even moreso) and it requires a lot of brain power, focus, and concentration. With plein air painting, where the concerted effort is even more heightened, there is the added need for a good deal of physical stamina as well. So if you happen to see me post a plein air painting here on the blog, you can assume that I must've been blessed with the miracle of a few good night's sleep beforehand! Okay, so enough of the old lady talk.

This painting, the very beginnings of which I wrote about in my prior post, in (ahem!) late December, is finished. Quite a bit different from the plein air study I based this on, but the study was still a good reference for the light, and helped bring back the experience of being there. Click on the image for more info:

"Path to St. Germain du Bel Air", oil on linen, 24x30" (SOLS) ©Jennifer Young