Tag Archives: France

Provence – Roussillon

We continued our day with Marlene from Experience Provence in Roussillon. It’s listed as one of the most beautiful villages of France, and is located in a large ochre deposit. This palette of rich earthy colors make for gorgeous street and cliff scenes, which contrast the deep green pines and the blue skies.

My first sketch attempted to capture the view of the village rooflines. It was done quickly, omitting most of the details.

View of Roussillon

Another view of the landscape includes Mt. Ventoux, over 40 miles away. You can get a little idea of the rich ochre earth between the deep green pines.

Mt. Ventoux – viewed from Roussillon

A house in Roussillon

I wasn’t about to leave without a souvenir of these wonderful earth colors, so I bought some pigments, and will play with them later!

Pigments from Roussillon

Provence – Les Baux and the site of Glanum

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Had a wonderful sunny day in October exploring Provence with Marlene from ExperienceProvence. My top choices to visit, which I had visited years ago were the ancient village of Les Baux, and Saint Rémy de Provence. Marlene was very accommodating, stopping often for us to take photos or sit and sketch.

Views of Les Baux, sketched on site.

View of Les Baux 1

View of Les Baux 2

The ancient site of Glanum, these were also sketched on site, with color added at home.

Glanum 1

Glanum 2

Visiting Arles

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Here are a few sketches from a trip to the south of France last October. This was a one day excursion to Arles, where we were lucky to enjoy decent fall weather!

Les Portes de la Cavalerie (Cavalry gates)

Roman amphitheater from first century, had room for 26,000 spectators!

Lady in the window – near Café Van Gogh, I was snapping away, and didn’t notice this lady until later, looking at my photos!

At Jardin d’Eté, here is a statue of Niobe, from Greek mythology, she is weeping for her children.

Catching up!

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First, a quick reminder – if you’re looking for gift ideas, please consider a calendar or children’s book – details here. You can also shop on my Etsy page here.

I had a marvelous trip to the south of France! It was basically two parts – first, a stay in Avignon, with a few side trips, then on to Sisteron, where I stayed at Mas du Figuier with 7 other artist hikers.

The second week I took part in a Trek & Sketch, where we were tutored in sketching by Vincent Desplanche and led on our hikes by François Levrault.

So first, I will share my progression of quick people sketches, Vincent is very good at capturing people, even as they run by in the rain! I’m not sure there was any improvement in my work over the two weeks, but it sure was fun trying!