Provence, Distilled

"Road above Bonnieux"
6 x 8, Oil on Paper
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
$195

With this post, I am excited to unveil a new series of paintings! I have been working on these for a number of weeks, and want to tell you a little bit about them. Faithful readers know that I love strong, straightforward shapes. I am also drawn to the beauty of simplification.  But as one of my posts is titled, "Simple isn't Easy". That's an understatement, for sure! It has taken a great deal of study, thought and work at the easel to bring these concepts to fruition in the new paintings.

"Provence, Distilled: Amber Waves of Grain"
5 x 10, Oil on Paper
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
$225

My mantra for this series comes from Maurice Denis, a founder of the Nabis. Denis wrote, "Remember that a picture -- before being a battle horse, a female nude, an anecdote or whatnot -- is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order." In modern parlance, I would say "A painting is made of shapes of color". In the new series, I wanted to let the shapes speak out. I avoided too much modeling, or detailing of the objects.

"Provence, Distilled: Sunset Afterglow"
6 x 6, Oil on Paper
(c) Lesley Powell 2018
$150

The new series also springs from a concept that Felix Vallotton (another Nabi) used with great success. He called it the "paysage composé", or, loosely translated, the "put together landscape". Vallotton would make sketches of landscapes and take notes on location. Back home in the studio, he would put together paintings using various elements from different sketches.  He thus created landscapes that did not actually exist in nature, but represented something universal.  I have taken a page from Vallotton's book, freely moving trees or fields in some of my paintings in order to make a painting that hints at the universal aspects of the landscape. 

Paintings (c) Lesley Powell 2018

But my paintings are far from imaginary. They are all based on plein air paintings I have completed on location in Provence. I have used the colors seen with my own eyes on location, and put those colors into shapes that tell the gesture of the land. I have simplified a copse of trees into a simple dark block, a vineyard into a stripe of green. I call this "distilling" the elements of the landscape. Hence my title of the new series, "Provence, Distilled".  Despite the simplicity of these paintings--or maybe because of it--I hope that the viewer will feel a sense of distance and appreciate the sweeping character of the landscapes.

Paintings (c) Lesley Powell 2018

These are small paintings, on Arches oil paper--a beautiful, archival paper, specially made for oil paintings.  Most of them are priced between $150 and $195 (unframed). I think they make very handsome pairs or groupings, such as the ones above. I'm even including a photo (below) showing a frame treatment that would look fantastic. You can check out the full collection by clicking here--thanks for taking a look!   (PS: Flat rate shipping of $10 per painting).

Frame option (Artist Unknown)