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Yes, France is indeed Fabulous and the Dordogne (in my humble opinion) is the Tip of the Top! We flew into Bordeaux, a small Paris look-a-like, and spent time exploring the city. The food and wine of this region are a gourmand's Heaven and Bordeaux has many swell restaurants. After 2 days we were picked up by our driver and taken to the house about an hour outside the city. The owner and his wife, who are English, inherited the house from their family and now live in the Pigeonaire on the property. The photo below is of the Pigeonaire with the Chestnut tree shading the lawn. This Chestnut tree is huge and stands guard over the swimming pool with an outdoor dining area beyond. Our hostess, Marina, is an artist and a very skilled cook so most dinners were spent gazing at this majestic tree and vineyards beyond. Marina also arranged for us to see the lovely old towns of the area so we painted and had lunch at a different location every day. However; what makes any trip special are the people and our group of painters, our driver, Steve, and our hosts, Marina and Pierce made this trip the Best Ever!

Usually, I don't put people in my plein-air landscapes and I don't know why. Some artists say it is good for a sense of scale and it humanizes the landscape. Therefore, I am asking you, Dear Reader, to give me your opinion. In this composition there is an obvious location for a figure and maybe a dog, on the right side walking down the path. Would it add to the painting or just be unnecessary detail? YouTube has videos encouraging artists to sketch little people whenever they have a free moment. This sounds like a good idea so I am dusting off a small sketchpad to put in my purse. Now I am in Southwest France, on the last trip of this summer taking a group of artists painting in the Dordogne region. I hope to come back with some exciting paintings. Maybe French figures are in my future!

Au Revoir!

McNears Beach Park is just 5 minutes from my son's house and a great place to entertain my granddaughter, Maddie. Like her father, Maddie is a climber. I am used to getting looks of alarm from other parents when I let her go so high. What are you going to do? She's fearless! The last time I checked, that is a good thing! So, last week we spent 3 days at the climbing gym to reinforce the skills she needs to climb even higher.

While she climbed this tree, I set up my easel under it and painted this scene of the mansions on the hill above the bay. When faced with a wall of green trees, a good idea is to premix some warm and cool greens in 2 values. Add some red to the greens to warm some of them up. That way you vary your pallet which makes greens, and therefore your painting, more interesting.