Painting the Quarry

As I wrote in my last post, I was recently part of a workshop group, painting in the Luberon area of Provence. Our group consisted of nine painters, under the instruction of the talented Maggie Siner. We started the week as strangers,
and ended it as friends--and as better painters to boot!

One of our more challenging motifs was an old ochre quarry. The landscape there is other-worldly, with soils and rock formations of all colors---yellow, brown, red, orange and even purple. Scattered among the wildly colored earth are random, scraggly pine trees that have been left to their own devices, since the quarry has been abandoned. 

Bee Givan, at work in the quarry

We all scrambled over the rocks to find spots to set up our easels. To complicate the situation, we had a partly cloudy day, and high winds. I could hardly mix the paints on my palette, because of the pine needles blowing onto it and gumming up the works. But we were not to be deterred! One of my favorite paintings of the day came from the brush of Tracy Burk. Here it is:

Painting by Tracy Burk, (c) 2014

It's always fun to see how different painters interpret the same subject matter. I thought these two paintings from Sue Scoggins were also lovely, and represented a different point of view:

Paintings by Sue Scoggins, (c) 2014

This was my painting---not my best work of the week, but c'est la vie. I toyed with it after I got home, and in hindsight, probably should have left it as it was in the field!

"Ochre Quarry"
oil on canvas, 14 x 7
(c) Lesley Powell 2014

So perhaps that gives you a tiny taste of how different painters from our group saw the quarry! For those of you who enjoy art history--you may be interested to know that we were painting in the footsteps of the "Greats". Paul Cezanne, called by some the "Father of Modern Painting", lived near the site of our workshop. The ochre quarries of Provence were among his favorite motifs. I'll leave you with one of his canvases. Stay tuned for more motifs tackled by our workshop group!

"Bibemus Quarry"
Paul Cezanne, c. 1895