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Recent Painting Sessions 2006
(Plein air and Study Work)

Without wishing to make this a specific art gallery, we'd like to express thanks to all those who have visited
"Les Lavandes" so far this year (remember - we are open ALL year - Christmas and New Year, too) -
and who have worked hard to create many fine pieces of work, usually in all too brief a time scale.
Here, we'd like to display some examples of their works alongside Colin's!
People . . . a week is just too short to do justice to 'les beaux arts' . . . I did tell you . . .
but we've had fun doing what we've done, have we not ?!?

Yes! MORE pictures by YOU** and ME*
of Plein-air and study works made so far, this year (2006). Enjoy!

As with the 'Plinth' and 'Interpretive' work examples, these are observations resulting
from sitting together, talking about what media to use, to produce a satisfying result
in respect of what the artist has tried to convey about what he or she sees.
As most client-guests will tell you, no matter how I talk about a given subject,
there's only one way to get to grips with the processes of art production . . . .
and that is . . . . TO DO IT - AND KEEP DOING IT!

As I said, so far this year, we've used;
- watercolour,
- acrylic,
- colour chalk
- coloured 'indian' inks
And worked with;
- brush and palette knives and hands (chalking)-
- finger painters welcome, too !



"Plein-Air . . ."

One of the things I like about going 'plein-air' painting is to see how different people react to
looking at expanses of shape, form and colour.

This Summer we took another look at Lac Vouglans. It's irresistable.

I think our client-guest JH (who claimed not to have been able to draw or paint) made a really
good fist of this rendition of a subject matter that, in terms of light alone,
was altering by the minute - sun in - sun out etc..

And - she also captured that water colour perfectly (how did she do that??!! I think it's
really hard - others seem to manage perfectly!). That mass of woodland on the left really
creeps round the corner and certainly the other hills are definitely disappearing
(to the other 33kms of the lake!).

I'm still waiting for the paddle steamer to come round that corner!

It's quite hard sometimes, to know how to treat a subject such as the lakes.
On the face of it the venue features little or no detail.

This is the exact reverse of the hanging basket situation -
(see 'Plinth' and 'Interpretive') where one is tempted
(and I try to put a brake on that!) to try to detail each and every flower.

After years of creating painstakingly accurate, almost photographic
quality artwork (please see "A Bit About Me"), my stance with this is that you
will either drive yourself mad trying (unless you are a botanical illustrator) or
begin looking . . . as with the example at the lakes and backdrops . . .
in terms of non-detail; searching for forms and shapes which can be more
easily and satisfyingly expressed in bolder, general terms.

Visiting as a man and wife team, JH's Husband, RH, stuck to his guns and worked
with watercolours - and made a fine job of it, too.

Note the way the hills 'disappear' - purely created by the hues and tones RH duly
noted and used.

Now, it's no secret to anyone who has visited "Les Lavandes", that it's
my firm belief plein-air painting with watercolours is not easily picked up in the
space of a week's visit - for a number of reasons - not least it demands
repeat visits to the same locations - to spend time 'looking'
(by which I mean really seeing), contemplating, absorbing . . . and only then
beginning to make the marks necessary to bring a watercolour to life -
and the mark-making process - how the media works on any given surface,
is as important as the looking and understanding of both those facets!

With watercolour, it's TIME as much as the FREQUENT 'DOING' that I referred to on the
"Recent Painting Sessions 2006" page, which can bring about improved results.
Given that statement, I think RH's work was superb. His gift is concentration and
observation combined with an understanding of colour and tone, donates form
and depth to his paintings. At the end of theweek, he was working around our
Millstones and the attention to detail was bringing book illustration quality to the work.
The lichens were so real I expected insects to be housed in them!

Millstones at "Les Lavandes".

Colin's chalk tonal value study of millstones and objects. July 2006.

Left: MR's palette knife acrylic painting of the millstones and shrubs. July 2006.

Study of texture is another vital ingredient of painting at "Les Lavandes".

If you choose to stay still long enough to really look, then it is fascinating the way light and texture creates so many wonderful surfaces.

For the tree trunk study I made recently from the garden at "Les Lavandes" (left), I used (oil) pastels.

I considered pastels suitable, as the treebark in question is 'riven' - that is to say the bark is channelled and the subtle choice of colours and ease of application on paper meant I could achieve what I needed to show.

Not too much detail as pastels are not known for their 'point', but enough to convey the surface texture and the way in which the light wrapped round the trunks.

Left: Study of Tree Trunk Texture at "Les Lavandes" by Colin Winn. Oil pastels on paper. July 2006