After an Autumn break, I am back with fresh new original paintings at the English Book Centre in Valbonne village. The paintings feature the shop and its beloved mascot Maggie the dog as well as Valbonne and its surroundings.
Tag Côte d’Azur
Two blackbirds above cars in Valbonne.
If they are not having a bath like in my previous post I was inspired this time by 2 blackbirds up in the sky, perched on the winter trees in Valbonne. I liked the row of trees and cars for the perspective effect and as usual I took artistic licence to create a new brand of car , increased the size of the birds and put some colours to brightened up the scene.
Santa’s Grotto ?
This grotto is situated at 15 km West of Grasse the perfume capital of France and outside the village of Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne. It can be visited but who knows if this is the secret place for Santa…. I used lots of layers of bright watercolours to render the light coming from above and put some black ink for more darker contrast.
Valbonne autumnal light.
The trees have lost their leaves and give a lovely calligraphic quality to a painting. I chose to paint the access to Valbonne village framed in the foreground by winter branches inviting the eyes to follow the entrance to a narrow street. In spite of approaching Xmas, the light is still very strong and and gives a warm feeling to everything it touches.
Cros de Cagnes,catamaran launching
Cycling along the coastal path, we stopped at Cros de Cagnes for a coffee just next to the sailing club. I love the small port there with its very friendly atmosphere. Sipping my cup of coffee and enjoying the warm autumnal sun rays… I watched two men launching their catamaran in the water. They both were wearing a bulky yellow life jacket and I was particularly attracted by the bright sunshine going through the sails making the overall scene vibrant with colours.
Mandelieu castle on the French Riviera
Can you see the wee man ?
I was walking along the beach in Mandelieu last week and the weather was amazingly bright. The Castle lies next to the water and there is a beautiful walk to do just underneath it.When the sea is rough you are most likely to be wet but last week was a perfect day. I saw a wee man sitting on the rocks listening to his mobile phone. I thought he was the perfect character to lead the eyes towards the middle and background. The rocks wind your gaze towards this point of focus.
Featured as a Guest Artist in doodlewash.com #WorldWatercolorGroup
Hello dear Artists Friends and Kindred Spirits, I have been invited as a guest artist to be featured in the blog DOODLEWASH.com which is part of the global movement created by Charlie O’Shields #WorldWatercolorGroup
Find the article here : https://doodlewash.com/2016/11/11/guest-doodlewash-hobby-sketcher/
It is all about community and connecting artists. There are over 20000 members sharing their passion of watercolour on line. What a great honour and opportunity to be part of such fantastic group you created Charlie…many thanks
Cannes “a two horse town”
I was in Cannes yesterday waiting for a train and had half an hour to kill. So I went to a square next to the Palais des festivals where the stars come for the film festival. This time the stars were 2 beautiful horses mounted by policemen having a drink in the local fountain square.I noticed that each horse was wearing at its rear a bag to prevent the manure to fall down on the pavement : I had never seen a horse”nappy” before!
Market day in Valbonne today
While waiting to meet my friends at the market this morning, I drew this scene from the benches next to the café in Valbonne square. I completed the drawings with colours at home as I did not have enough time to finish it off.The 4 standing characters where looking intensively at something I could not see from where I was sitting; and the mother at the table came around and sat next to me to use the bench as a changing table for her baby ! Not the scene I wished to paint…
Sketchbook in Cap d’Antibes
We had a lovely morning on the Cap d’Antibes yesterday.The weather was hot and sunny. I took this time a parasol to cover my sketchbook page not to be blinded by the white of the paper plus a sun hat and no sunglasses so I could see the real colours.
Hobby Sketcher 