Paint That!

Abandoned ochre quarry near Roussillon
(Photo: Lesley Powell)

One morning during the recent workshop, we were taken to an abandoned ochre quarry near the village of Roussillon. Roussillon is famous for the wide varieties of ochres in its soil. Ochres are naturally occurring earth pigments, which have been used since prehistoric days to make dyes and paints. Depending on the amount of iron oxide and manganese contained, these ochres may tend toward yellow, brown, red or even purple. Ochres have been used to make such artists' paints as burnt sienna, yellow ochre, raw umber, and burnt umber. Nowadays these paint colors are formulated artificially, and the quarry we visited is abandoned. A scattering of pine trees has sprung up among the mounds of colored earth. Truly, it is an other-worldly terrain.

Fellow workshoppers scouting for places to paint in the quarry

I was feeling brave, and clambered up the rocks with my gear, eager to tackle this strange vista. Good thing we had been honing our color skills, because this was a subject guaranteed to throw a monkey wrench into any preconceived notions about landscape painting!  Here is my setup, followed by close ups of my paintings of the morning. I spent most of my time working on the first painting. When I realized that I had just a short time left before the van picked us up, I decided to try a quick abstraction of the subject for my second painting.

My set-up in the quarry

"Ochre Woods"
13 x 7

"Ochre Woods, Abstracted"
8.5 x 5

While on the topic of quarries in Provence, I cannot fail to mention the great artist Paul Cezanne, and his marvelous paintings of the Bibemus quarry (located about an hour south of where our workshop group was painting).  Bibemus was not an ochre quarry, but rather a quarry known for its red sandstone. It was abandoned at the time Cezanne painted it, and the resemblances to our Roussillon quarry are remarkable. I have included images of two of Cezanne's Bibemus paintings below. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more posts about the workshop!

"The Bibemus Quarry
Paul Cezanne, c. 1895

"The Bibemus Quarry"
Paul Cezanne, c. 1896-1897