Patchwork Fields

I have just returned from several weeks of painting in France, so the next few posts will be inspired by that experience. My first week was spent in a workshop led by the gifted instructor Maggie Siner. Maggie lived in this area for years, and knows great spots to paint. One of my favorites was the village of Joucas, from which you could see the sweeping vista pictured above.

The patchwork pattern of the fields in this region is fascinating to me. Though the valley is vast, the scale of the individual fields, and the idiosyncratic way in which they are arranged, give the landscape a very human, approachable feeling. I have learned that

the Romans are to credit for this field configuration. The Romans surveyed this entire region and divided it into squares of land that they called "Centuries". This process created the grid pattern which persists to this very day. The grids were relatively small, because they were limited in dimension by law, and also because the Roman inheritance rules divided the land among sons (rather than giving the entire tract to the eldest). Thus the parcels were split over time into smaller and smaller segments.

I was not the only one who chose to paint the patterned fields. Just above you can see the very talented Richie Carter at work on his painting of the same motif. He was much more courageous than I was--look at the size of his canvas! And what a beautiful painting he made (below--sorry for poor photography, working under field conditions!).

Richie Carter, (c) 2015

We were hardly the first to paint these storied fields. Vincent van Gogh found a theme in  the Provencal fields over 125 years ago. Remarkably, the landscape looks quite similar today. Check it out in the Van Gogh painting below.

"Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background"
Oil on Canvas, 73 x 92 cm
Vincent van Gogh, 1888

I conclude with a painting by David Atkinson. David was our host at Les Bassacs for the workshop. The consummate host, and a wonderful painter as well. Here is David's painting of the valley vista near Sault. Enjoy! And stay tuned for more scoop from the workshop..

"Sault Landscape"
Oil on Board
(c) David Atkinson, 2014