Night Light

(c) Maggie Siner, 2016

Lately my thoughts have been turning to my upcoming painting trip to France. Even though I don't depart for over a month, there are a lot of preparations involved, so it's not too early to start planning. I don't want to travel halfway around the world, and then realize that I forgot to pack something that would have made my work easier!

Week #1 of my trip will be spent in a workshop under the fantastic instruction of Maggie Siner. We will be painting the landscape in Provence. Summer days are long in Provence,

Wait Until Dark

(c) Maggie Siner, 2015

During the recent workshop in France, our fearless leader, Maggie Siner, urged us on to work well into the nighttime. A full day of painting was not enough--the evening beckoned with nocturnes! Some of the most lovely and original work of the week came during these evening painting sessions. The top photo is one of Maggie's nocturnes, painted in the little hamlet where we stayed. Fantastic! Nobody does it like Maggie! Just below is Bob Dodson's beautiful painting--painted a few yards down the road. I love the surprising stripe of lavender in Bob's painting. And Bob says that somebody inside happened to turn on a lamp just as he was finishing his painting, so he grabbed that beautiful little bit of orange.

(c) Bob Dodson, 2015

Back home, I did a little research on the history of nocturnes. I read that James Abbott McNeill Whistler coined the term "nocturne" as it applies to paintings. Before Whistler,