What a joy it was to host my first art retreat of 2018, with four wonderful women. They were all more or less strangers to me, but after a week spent painting together, have ended up as my sisters-in-art.
We started on Sunday morning with elements and principles of art as I find one of the most difficult aspects of abstracted art is the composition of your painting. The first painting that we were planning was an abstracted flower. As all were new to painting with knives, we played a bit.....
On Monday afternoon the abstracted flower paintings were all done and as you can see, all beautiful and all were so different!
Tuesday we had a lovely outing to Tourtour, a lovely "village dans le ciel de Provence" as we were working on the land and seascape paintings. After taking loads of photo's and then sketching the beautiful landscape we realized that we were starving so we headed to La Farigoulette, our restaurant for lunch.
Wednesday, the land and seascapes were completed, and I was just blown away by my lovely participant's talent and creativity......
Thusrsday morning, Nicky picked us up earlier and braved the traffic and road works in Aix-en-Provence to get us to the Nicolas de Stael exhibition, which was a total highlight for me. The Hotel de Caumont is beautiful and the exhibition was exquisite. After feasting our eyes on all of De Stael's beautiful works of art, we had lunch with a glass of champagne in the gardens.
After lunch, we headed back to Bastide La Belle, as the final painting had to be completed for their group exhibition the following evening. The beautiful paintings were completed on Friday and then we were ready to welcome the local art lovers with a wine tasting and hors-d'œuvre.
And so a wonderful week came to an end. Looking back, I think our lunches together must be another of my highlights. We discussed everything, from our childhood to marriages to kids and grandkids. How we have all negotiated this rollercoaster of a life, with strength, dignity, wisdom, humour and the loving care of friends. I feel privileged and grateful to have been called the teacher of these talented sisters-in-art!
