Plein air in a French country garden

Now that we're really getting into the summer weather here, I'm starting to see my gardens taking shape. For the beds alongside my house, I'm slowly building an herb and butterfly garden. Budget restraints required that I experiment with starting from seed for a few things, but mostly I just started from very tiny plants and mixed in a few summer bulbs. Gardening is a pretty new pastime for me, so  believe me, every new growth or flower is a triumph.

In Virginia, if you dig deep enough, you will soon hit clay, which makes building any kind of new bed a bit of a chore, as you really have to work in a lot of good loose topsoil, soil conditioner, and fertilizer to make the plants take to it kindly. It kind of makes me shake my head a little when I visit places like the south of France. Roses practically grow out of the cracks of the sidewalks there! Okay, the gardeners there do have to deal with the rocks (and a lot of them) so I guess we all have our gardening challenges.

The old French country convent where I stayed had a labyrinth of beautiful gardens. I believe the current owners have had the place for a little over 10 years, and while they started with a property that had "good bones", all of the gardens were as a result of their own sweat and muscle. The gardens were set out like little outdoor sanctuaries, and there was something to discover in every nook and cranny of the property.

To the painter's eye, there were a thousand possibilities just within the confines of Le Vieux Couvent itself. But I was drawn particularly to the little goldfish pond out back.So apparently was one of the resident cats, "Portia". With so much touring, I didn't really have much time to paint on the grounds of the property, but I did do this little watercolor sketch of Portia by the pond one morning before we set off on another excursion:

My layout was such that I couldn't quite get in the pond itself. But I came back one morning after the group from the "artist retreat" left, and painteda more close-up view again in oils:

"Bassin  Â Poisson Rouge" (The Goldfish Pond) Oil on Linen, 11x14" ©Jennifer Young

Oil painting substrates; Multimedia Artboard

The last few paintings I've featured from my recent France travels are done on Multimedia Artboard. I posted about this surface before when I was getting ready for my trip, and I thought I'd write a little more about it as a follow up. I really enjoyed this surface, especially for traveling and painting en plein air. For one thing, it is very thin, so you can pack a good number of these boards and not take up a ton of room in your suitcase. You can also cut the board to size very easily with either a guillotine-type paper cutter or an exacto knife.

In fact, it is so lightweight that when I first ordered this material I thought I had been sent the wrong product. I was expecting a board, and what I got was something that seemed more like a rigid watercolor paper. I even called the manufacturer to ask about it. I will say that the manufacturer was extremely helpful, and was almost at a point where he was willing to ship me some board from his own stock so that I'd have some for my trip, even though I hadn't originally purchased it from him. But he told me, "If it's my board it should be very rigid. In fact, it will shatter if you try to bend it." Sure enough, when I put it to the test, it did.

That's the one thing to be careful of with this product--but protect the corners in travel and don't drop it from a balcony, and you should be fine. It has a rough side and a smoother side to it, so you have a choice on which side to paint, depending on your needs. I also like that it accepts a variety of media--watercolor, acrylic AND oil. It can accept oils either as is, or primed, if you wish, with gesso. I double primed mine, but it was a little slick, so I think next go around I'll try it unprimed to see what that's like.

While the board is rigid, because it is thinner than a "board", I taped mine to a larger board (gatorboard or coroplast) to give me a stronger work surface.  For framing, I can simply pop it in a frame backed by a sturdier board and it's ready to go.

I am finding the Multimedia Artboard much easier to mount and frame after the fact than the other surface I took with me, a fine-weave primed linen. And while linen has luxurious qualities all its own, I can easily and happily see myself going back and forth between these two surfaces for my plein air painting travels.

Le Pigeonnier, en plein air!

In this area of southern France, we noticed small tower-like structures that sat alone, apart from the other buildings on the farmland. These were the "pigeonniers", or pigeon houses. Apparently the tower formation is a feudal symbol of nobility, and at one time, only the nobles could have pigeonniers on their land. It seemed a little odd to have such a beautifully made and permanent stone structure just to house some pigeons, but the birds were quite important in this society. Their eggs and young are prized for the meat, their droppings used for excellent fertilizer on the farm, and of course, they were used as messenger birds since antiquity, and even up until World War II. There are also tons of stones and rocks in the earth, so it makes sense to use themtowards these structures and clear the land for farming.

This pigeonnier was just down the street from Le Vieux Couvent, and I found it to be most beautiful in the early light of morning or in the golden light of dusk. I painted this one late in the afternoon just as the sky was starting to take on that warm glow:

"Le Pigeonnier" Oil on Multimedia Artboard, 6x12" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

Another plein air from France; Market Day in Cahors

It's hard to single out just one favorite day from this French plein air painting trip, but at the top of the list was a visit to the large open air market in the town of Cahors.

This town had a fabulous "true" market, not overrun with souvenir vendors hawking chatchkeys. There were linens and other household items (table cloths and such--I indulged in a couple of these!) But this market, while lively and bustling (and quite extensive) was largely there to service the residents of the city. The air was full of all kinds of armoas from the display carts of  meats, cheeses, fresh fruit, veggies oils, soaps and herbs. And oh the flowers!

Being a fool for color, I set up in front of a vibrant flower stand set against the backdrop of a lovely old church. We only had about an hour once we set up and started painting, so I just tried as best I could to put down notes of color and value patterns as I saw them. By the time we had to pack up to leave, I'd gotten much of the work done. Here it is, nearly finished, once I got back to the studio:

"The Flower Stand, Cahors Market, (France)" Oil on Multimedia ArtBoard (SOLD) ©jJennifer Young

I will work on this just a little more, perhaps to resolve the group of buildings to the right (perhaps!) Surprisingly the most difficult part of this painting for me was the little dog (lower right). I'm not sure why, but he kept turning out looking like a furry blonde pig, so I may try to adjust him somewhat as well. Meanwhile, contact me if you have an interest in knowing more about this piece.

Like the first painting I posted from this little travel log, this was another challenging scene to paint, not only because of the complicated and constantly moving subject matter, but because folks really wanted to chat. Again, we as a group attracted many onlookers and inquisitors. It's always hard to talk, focus, think and paint at the same time, but to do that while also struggling to communicate intelligently with my schoolgirl French doubled the challenge!

Any way, it was fun. And while I may not have been able to finish this painting on site, the experience of talking and laughing with these lovely people while they welcomed us graciously and appreciated our paintings more than made up for that. It was another wonderful memory that was well worth the trade-off.

Le Nocturne Francais

I have always loved nocturnes, so it was a real thrill to paint one under a full moon in a beautiful French country village. This little painting was done right in the neighborhood of our home base at Le Vieux Couvent:

"Le Nocturne Francais" Oil on Multimedia Artboard, 6x8" ©Jennifer Young

This painting came about one evening after a full day of touring and painting in the Dordogne countryside, AND after a huge and delicious five course dinner. We were all winding down for the night and Mary, our fearless leader, came in from an after dinner walk she had taken with her husband. They had gone out to find a lovely evening scene just up the street, lit by a street lamp and a full moon. She was going to go painting, she said, and anyone who wanted to join her was also welcome. Well, as tired as I was, I couldn't resist, and neither could most of the other painters. "We're in France! We can sleep later," became the mantra of our time together.

Knowing how quickly things change in the night sky, I took a small surface with me and set up under a nearby streetlamp. While the fog painting posted earlier was a high-key close value painting, this was a close value low-key one. We really couldn't see our colors at all, so it is indeed a good practice to place paint colors habitually in the same positions on the palette!

Gradually my eyes adjusted somewhat, so I just concentrated on shape and subtle differences. After I got the large dark shapes down, the night sky and the window light were the first things I addressed. It was a good thing, as not very long after, the clouds had drifted completely away, and the homeowner had called it a night and turned off the light.