Sunny Day in France-by North Carolina Painter Sue Scoggins

France on a Sunny Day

12x24 oil on gallery wrapped canvas

The sun is coming out and the days are getting longer.  I'm a creature of the sun and the sea.  There's just something about it.  As I have been contemplating what paintings are going in a show at Tidewater Gallery in June, I've been painting whatever comes to mind.  I've also been exploring some new techniques.  Scraping is such a good thing.  Scrape on.  Scrape off.  It takes away the attempt at perfectionism and lets the true colors come to light.  I just love that.

Here's my interpretation of the exhibit!

Ok....what's a girl to do?  I'm traveling solo.  I'm not a bar hopper.  I don't shop much.  I can't find a cycling group....so what am I to do?  PAINT!  DRAW!!  STUDY ART!

This morning, my paint brain was really cooking.  I don't know why...it just was.  Any of you artist folks, you know who you are, know what I'm talkin' about.  Something inside just starts revving up....until it just has to come out.  Look out...if I just had some big canvases.  ...but I don't.  Cherries were in my brain.  I'm not posting them yet.  They are not finished...but they are well on their way.

In the meantime, I walked to the art store and bought glue.  My sketchbook needed a bit of glue.  I needed to update my sketchbook page with the Klimt exhibit!

SOOOO, yesterday, I finally made it to Les Baux en Provence!  The reason I wanted to go there was to see the Gustav Klimt exhibit in the caves.  After a mile walk to the bus station, 3 bus changes, and a walk down into the cave, I MADE IT!!!!!  It was amazing!  I could have stayed for hours.  If you've never seen anything like this..which I hadn't...all of the artists works are projected onto these huge cave walls...simultaneously on walls, floors, all around the cave. ..to glorious symphonic, head tripping music! I would have been an embarrassment to every single one of my kids.  BUT, my grandkids would have been trippin' with me!   Everywhere you look were continuous images of his works.  And everywhere you walked, the view looked different.

If you don't know who Gustav Klimt is.....he's was a prominent Austrian painter who used a lot of gold and bold colors and was known for his eroticism in female subjects.

I would have walked for miles to see it.  Hmmm....come to think of it....I did!

Sketchbook Drawing - by Sue Scoggins, North Carolina Painter

la fontaine des 4 Dauphins
Aix en Provence

My oil painting has been a bit flat due to lots of reasons.
1.  My mind is filled with all these new sights that it just won't calm down.
2.  My apartment view is of walls.  Not that I am complaining, mind you.  But being an open skies kind of girl.....it takes a bit of adjusting being in between yellow ochre walls and covered with beautiful trees.  (I'm just sayin')
3.  I'm use to painting large.  Large is difficult to do when traveling.  6x6 squares are cramping my fingers.
4.  I'm using a completely different pallet which is frustrating me because it's not bright and happy.  It's warm.

ENOUGH!!!

Today, I decided to get out and take a drawing class.  Absolutely loved it and my teacher was the warmest, kindest person ever! We are new friends.  We sat on the square of Place des 4 Dolphins and sketched as people walked by, doggies splashed in the fountain, cars came in and went out.  She showed me how to look at detail.  AND, for those of you who don't know....I AM NOT A DETAIL PERSON!  So...Catereeeene, as they say it in French...has taught me to draw in detail.  Also...she has taught me that it doesn't HAVE to be right. On peut faire des errors!

C'est difficile!  Mais amusant!

Leeks Anyone? - by North Carolina Artist, Sue Scoggins

Leeks Anyone?
11x14 original oil

Lest you think I'm sitting around and drinking wine all day....think not.  There's painting to be done.

Farmhouse - by Sue Scoggins, North Carolina Painter

Luberon Valley Farmhouse
13x13 original oil

Spending another day in the field.  Just can't get away from the countryside.  It's so beautiful here.

LIVING A DREAM - a new venture by North Carolina Artist, Sue Scoggins

Where I will be staying
Les Basaccs (population 25)

Who would have thought, one year ago, that I would be boarding a plane for Provence, France! November, 2013, I signed up for a workshop with well known artist Maggie Siner.  A fabulous artist friend (she's a fabulous artist AND a fabulous friend) suggested if I ever got a chance..to take a workshop with Maggie about color theory.

Now, a lot of people go to France to paint.  I've read all about them.  But, here's what's different for me. After 14 years, on April 7, my dearest friend and husband, Jerry, lost his courageous struggle against Early Onset Alzheimer disease.  It's a bitter sweet season. But...

This is a new beginning.  I feel sort of like a little birdie perched on the edge of it's opened cage door. I've had a beautiful life with many, many blessings..and have been safe in my comfort zone.

Now, I am about to take flight.  ALL BY MYSELF!  Yikes!

Today, I am embarking on a new unencumbered experience and taking the friendly skies to Europe to paint for the summer.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would even be a painter.  Much less, a person who is headed off to France..to Provence..where the Masters Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh were inspired, to study art.  It's as if I'm about to live a novel or a romantic movie...a dream.

So, for the next couple of months, I'll be blogging a painter's journal.  I'll write once a week...maybe Sunday nights...when the week is over and the time is spent mentally recuperating from the weekend and preparing for the new week.

With a lot of excitement, a quest for new discoveries and continued learning....with a little bit of tearful salt in my coffee, I am off!  Onward and upward!