From the window of my hotel room in St Malo, France, I was greeted each morning by this beautiful sight. Sunrise was most beautiful about 6:00am, so I was up very early taking photos and getting the colors down on canvas. I had to hurry before breakfast and the start of the tour for the day.
I found I had several other reasons to hurry. Not only the the light changed quickly; but, the tide was coming in and changing everything - the water, the land.
I had a visitor, too. A seagull landed on my balcony and watched as I painted
What a fun way to start the day. "Sunrise at St. Malo"
On the first day of the tour, we visited Chantilly, France just north of Paris.
"Oh this is a painting!" I said as I saw the Gatehouse at the Chateau de Chantilly in France.
Here's the reference photo.
With a busy tour schedule, I decided to wait until I got home to paint this lovely scene. I painted the basics of the painting in Acrylic, then added the finishing touches with oil. I find that the colors are much richer with the oils.
Chateau de Villandry is my favorite chateau in the north of France. Their gardens are truly great works of art. The rose bowers caught my eye. What lovely places to set and enjoy the beauty of the finely manacured vegetable gardens appointed with fabulous flowers.
Here's my quick painterly observation of the roses draping the bower.
This piece was painted while in France. I took pieces of canvas pretreated with color washes to speed the painting process. I really like using Acrylic when traveling. They dry so quickly and clean up is a breeze with soap and water, no smelly turps needed.
