Perched Village, Part I: Murs

Murs, France (c) Lesley Powell 2014

I wrote earlier about painting inside one of the perched villages of Provence. Now it's time for an even bigger challenge--painting the village itself, from below. Our intrepid instructor, Maggie Siner, would say that there is danger in these villages. Inside, there lurks the danger of succumbing to the charm of the subject and making a cutesy, corny painting. Outside, from afar,

there is the danger of painting "a bunch of little monopoly houses".  The challenge is to see the village as a whole, in shapes of light a dark. NOT separate buildings!

Our approach was to paint the color of light and shadow on the village. Then, joining our darks and lights, to make a believable painting from shapes of color. This is a great approach that helps in many situations, especially in painting outdoors when the light and shadow shapes are constantly changing. It helps you nail down the right shapes at the beginning, and stick to them. Here is a glimpse of Maggie's demonstration on how to get started:

I found a nice, cool, shady spot to stand (a key consideration!). I was at almost the same vantage point from which the top photo was taken. Here is my finished painting:

"Walled Village"
12 x 17, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2014

One of my favorites of the day was Sue Scoggins' painting (below), painted from a lower, closer vantage point. Loved her colors and loose approach.

Painting by Sue Scoggins

And while we are in Cezanne country--here's one of his paintings of Gardanne, another perched village in Provence. A fellow painter saw my painting in our local frame shop last week, and remarked that it was "very Cezanne-like". I hadn't thought of it that way, but now that he mentions it, I can see what he means. I suppose it goes to show that we are all influenced by our predecessors.

"Gardanne"
Paul Cezanne, 1885-86