Am I a painter because I paint?

Or do I paint because I'm a painter? This little conundrum was spinning around in my head today.

This am it was fresh and cool, I drove a short way to the town of Bou, on the Loire and painted this painting.

In the pm I drove back to St Jean de Bray and there I had a long debate with my self: will I or won't I paint. And in the end, after a lot of agonizing, I decided to settle down and give it a shot. Well. I opened up my box o brushes, and lo, I had forgotten to put my washed brushes back in my kit. That left me with no sables, a few large bristle brushes that I'm not using much, and one "black sable", a large round with a decent point that's a little coarse, but softer than bristle. Was this setback going to tip the scales, even after I had fought hard and won the interim battle? No, I took it as a challenge, and here it is. I'm happy with my effort.

By now I should know the only painting session I've ever regretted is the one I never sat down to do.

First light, last light

Determined to beat the heat, I was out the door this am at 6:30. By 7:00 I had to drag my feet a little until the sun was up, but at least I was on site and ready.

I painted this view, looking the opposite way down the canal:

As forecasted, the day was hot but windy, boding change. I spent the mid-day hours perfecting my advanced Sudoku skills and hanging around with friends and family. In the evening I went back to Combleux and did a really fast painting in the dying light.

Here is what the sky looked like when I was done:

BEAUTY!!

Canals

If last year's painting trip was about silos, this year it's the canal d'Orleans that's capturing my attention. The canal runs along a section of the Loire river and what I saw today was more than just picturesque, it's a world class feat of 19th century engineering. The "Pont-Canal" in the town of Briere.

These pictures don't do it justice, but picture this: a LONG bridge that spans the Loire and its canal below, and on top of the bridge, instead of a paved surface, it is a canal, yes, full of water, over the water, it's just a wonder to behold.

And here it is from canal level:

It was sweltering hot today, and I finally settled down to do this quick effort at around 6:30 pm.

That was after a long hot day touring around in my car to scout out other sites. Here are some views from the canal at St. Jean de Bray which I hope to get to tomorrow, in the cool of the evening, preferably.

The (angst-ridden) picturesque

The shaded canal, the antique barge moored alongside, pretty little bridge with a lock just beyond...and waterlillies in the foreground for good measure. What's a painter to do with this over abundance of the picturesque? Run screaming in the opposite direction, turn my back to it all? but I've been spinning around all morning, the sun is getting high in the sky...and here is a shady, quiet corner, it's just so....so...taboo. What a weird dilemma. Yes, it is cliche piled on cliche, but I've been known to paint a light house or two. And in the end, it's all about the sincerity of the moment, and who says painting reflections in the water, not to mention those waterlillies, is easy? So I sit down to the challenge, and spent couple of hours completely engrossed in this scene. The result? Well, I don't sit in judgement. I just do the best I can do at the moment: sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not; sometimes it flows off the brush, sometimes it's kicking and screaming all the way. Here it is:

and an earlier incarnation:

Here's the view from the opposite end. It really was a beautiful spot. Why does painting sometimes have to be so complicated and angst-ridden, when there is simple beauty in the world, just waiting there for my pleasure to behold, if only my chattering mind would let me. Like I said, kicking and screaming.

Combleux

Seeing as we are stuck in a very warm weather trend, I decided to get up EXTRA early today, and I was on site painting at 8:00 am this morning, fresh and cool. The next town over is Combleux, and it has some beautiful canals with locks, and a great open view of the Loire river.

The air was still cool, so I strolled around and settled down in another spot nearby to paint this view:

Then, feeling ever so pleased with myself, I treated me to a nice lunch, here is the view from my table, notice the beautiful pale blush of the Loire Valley Rose. Yummy!

"J'ai la flemme"

"La flemme", that's what I had yesterday. Kids use this phrase a lot, it describes a feeling of apathy, laziness, of just plain old phlegmatism. It's been getting hotter and hotter, and I just couldn't rouse myself to paint until around 5:30, when it had finally cooled off a bit. And in grand phlegmatic style I moseyed back to the church view I've been fixated on, but managed to find a slightly different angle on it.

I shook off the "flemme" and had a pretty nice time out there in the warm, still evening air.

Mon cherie is here

Mon Cherie arrived this morning, and tomorrow is dedicated to food and family. Here's a picture I painted this am, above, and views from the next town over, Combleux. I'll be painting there next, maybe Sunday, after Jean is gone away for a week with his kids "en vacance". May post some food pics tomorrow!

Checy, again

This morning, well more like 11:00 am, I went back to the Checy view and had at it again in the overcast morning light. Of course as soon as I was well into it the sun comes out a-blazing. I have learned to mix in a good dose of "retarder" to each pool of color when I'm stuck in full sun..still if feels awkward, and well, yeah...retarded. But it helps a bit. I have to scrape down the clotted bits from my palette very frequently to avoid a brush full of "bestioles" (I made that up, but I think it works) and recharge the colors when it's so hot and dry. But besides those technical difficulties it was kind of fun. Wish I had gotten started earlier before the sun, Oh well.

Then it was family time, and I spent the better part of the afternoon thinking about and preparing food. Made a beautiful dish of linguine with eggplant, tomatoes and crispy bread crumbs. Searched "Eggplant, pasta" in the NYT Bitten blog and bingo. Big hit with la famille. Jean arrives tomorrow pm with all 3 kids in tow. Will be a dose of family time until Sunday, most likely, but I hope to post some pics of the Claude's birthday bash on Saturday. Stay tuned, will involve lots of good food and wine!

The Good Life

Today was such a good day, I went with Claude to one of his favorite fishing spots on the Loire, Chateau de Sully, and I brought along my kit. Claude packed a picnic, and he's a serious eater so I knew it was going to be good: Small yellow melon, perfectly ripe, bread, of course, pate du lapin, mousse de canard, two nice slices of roast porc and of course some loire valley red wine. It was perfection, and this is where we sat, no joke, it's real: Cinderella's castle.

I had a good start on this before being called away to the picnic, but was able to finish after lunch, a glass of wine in my belly. It was definitely a departure from my usual day out with barely a crust of bread to gnaw on...hmmm...I may need to rethink that routine...

Later in the day I painted this view in Checy

I feel oddly satisfied with this effort, and in general I feel this was a very good day, and am finally beginning to paint with a little more...je ne sais quoi...happiness!!! I'm excited to go back to this same spot and paint several more. I love the jumble of buildings, my drawing was off by quite a bit here, but doesn't bother me much. Just leaves a feeling that there's much more to do right here in Checy, no need to wander far. The colors were a struggle to get "just so", and again, having not quite hit the mark, am ready to go again.

West of highway A10

I just had to know...what's the landscape like on the Other side. On the other side of the Highway that goes South from Paris, the A10. So, equipped with my GPS I felt ready to scout out some undiscovered territory. Chartres is over there, but I wasn't committed to driving that far. I would be content to see it rising up on the horizon like a solitary mountain. That's how Jaques Brel describes a similar view in Holland, Le Plat Pays.

Well, you'll have to take my word for it, but there it sits, not exactly a mountain on the horizon, but it is there. ( I know, I know, an Iphone isn't a camera)

But before I got there, first I stopped here to do a painting. A beautiful farm, alot like the many beautiful farms I have seen on MY side of the highway.

Thereatened rain the whole time, but my car strategically placed provided a decent wind break. In general the weather has been quite nice, and I love these immense and moody skies.

I found some of these lovely farmers' lakes, for lack of a real name.

It was a pretty relaxing day, not pushing too hard with the painting, and really enjoying the solitude and the open spaces.

After driving past several groups of modern-day gleaners, I plucked up my courage to stop and ask if I, too, could pick up some potatoes...which ten minutes later resulted in the loveliest bag of tiny new potatoes I ever did glean.

PS I cooked them up for la famille in upper New York State style: Salt Potatoes. Thank you Jennifer!!!! They were delicious.

Izy is..or Izy ain't

Logged a lot o kilometers today, tooling around the countryside. I found this place, Izy. Iz beautiful, no? I think when I'm ready to shift gears from the long views, I'll head back here to this very quiet place. I only saw one person, from a distance in a courtyard, for the whole long while I was wandering there.

This reservoir is a characteristic feature of the Beauce villages, and reflects their long farming tradition. It has a specific name which I will have to remember. This one is particularly beautiful, surrounded by several intact farm complexes, all still working farms, and right in the middle of the small village.

I painted this nearby, then a second quick one a few KM down the road.

Here are a couple more views of the same region, the last is a bike in a race with a very large tractor. The bike won, by a long way.

The Dead Horse...

I was headed to Trinay, but instead ended up here. A breezy and overcast day, so I was pretty comfortable by the side of the road, at the top of the largest hill for miles around. Can't say it's been easy going so far. At the moment "good painting, bad painting" doesn't even enter into the discussion. I'm putting all my energies towards handling these so-called Open Acrylics and getting them to work for me in this environment. (Inside, at Disston, it wasn't even an issue.) Here I'm fighting constantly with my materials, and I need to keep an open mind, try different approaches, and remind myself that there are no rules to follow, just whatever works.

This is the first of two paintings I did today. I had fun with this, painting on Grey Roma paper, and treated the acrylics a lot like my gouaches. "Fun"...that should tell me something.

For the second painting of the day, I didn't wander far, just down the hill from Montigny. That's where the miracle of the Dead Horse comes in. Yes, I was flogging it, and flogging away, NOT having fun. But I was determined to make a dead horse move...and eventually, I think, it managed to stand up. So here it is, the painting that I didn't give up on...for better or worse.

Back in the saddle tomorrow...giddyup!