Exhibition of Recent Paintings & Drawings in Sarlat

Adam Cope

Solo Exhibition of Recent Paintings & Drawings

La Maison de La Boétie
SARLAT
DORDOGNE
FRANCE

29 JUNE to 12 JULY
from 10,30 am till late.

The artist will be present everyday, so do come along & enjoy!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sarlat is just incredible. It's a jewel of architecture & beauty & culture. Has to be seen to be believed (if you're not in France, then you can catch some of it as it was used as the backdrop for the recent film of 'Les Miserables').

It's also a tourist hot-spot with many crowds. Lots to see & do. The street shows & buskers, great! Such ambiance.

There's something of an art market, with galleries & artists' ateliers. So worth the visit if you like painting.

I showed there three years ago & did some sketching. hope to do so again. It's such a contrast for a quiet country bumpkin as myself, who likes the peace & quiet of deep rural life to be dropped into the bussel of 'Europe on Holiday'. Still if you go along with the flow, it can stimulating with lots of interesting meetings & exchanges.

So... see you there? The gallery isn't difficult to find as it's right at the epicentre. I'm the guy with the paint brush & pencil ;-)

Painting Holidays at Chateau de Beduer

'The Painting Tutor's Lunch Break'
Chris Sharland
watercolour

Chris loves what he calls 'informal painting', which includes lampooning the teacher ;-)

I'm back from a two week teaching stint of one my Chateau Painting Holidays, France.

BUT ... I'm straight out again for a major solo exhibition in Sarlat! Busy times... I write in haste.... read more about the show in tomorrow's post.

Everything went every well on the painting holidays. The students were great :-) They brought loads of enthusasism & real curiousity/desire to learn & to paint, lots of laughter & appreciation of the many great painting opportunities at Chateau de Beduer. The food was delicious, the wine select, the company fun; The weather was clement & not too hot.

The 'teaching' was 'educative' for me... you know, re-presenting a subject is akin to re-learning it. I'm still amazed by painting & drawing, have the feeling that I've only just scraped the surface of a very deep well. A good learning enviroment should include the teacher, I believe. My 'how to paint' book is very much eveloving out of my teaching practise as much as my painting practise.

All really magical & beautiful.

Here's some photos to enjoy :-)

Learning to Paint? In Theory & in Practice

'Tailles 16 à 21'
Oil on masonite
20 x 50cm
© adam cope
NFS

detail

This wise little saying makes me laugh & makes me think:

'I used to have six different theories on how to raise children but now I have six children, I have no theories'

(don't worry!! I dont have six kids!!!)

It relates well to learning to paint as too many 'theories' & 'tips' & 'learning goals' can blind one to being sensitive to how the painting is unfolding beneath one's hand.... the brush is moving but the brain is stuck in a pitter-pattter of theories... Theory is fine in it's correct place, as a support for practise.... But too much theory poorly integrated into practise can give 'creative indigestion'... Learning to listen, learning to look & learning to respond to the painting in process, slowly integrating the newly aquired skills & understanding into one's natural, relaxed way of painting - that's the thing!

Watercolour Portraits Using the Direct & Indirect Methods

'M'
watercolour
Quarter Imperial Sheet
© adam cope

Painting into the dusk. Fading light. Blur & indefinition. When the self feels its way into the soul of the world. The feelings that pass between artist & model.

A strictly limited palette. Three colours only. Winsor & Newton. Artists Viridian, Indian Red, Permanent Magenta.

The tonality is pretty good in 'M'.

Two wet-on-wet 'selves' from 2007. Eyes. Passing expressions, ripples in 'The Creating Water'.

Two colours only. Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna.

'Self 3' - Detail . 24 x 32cm. 2007.


'Self 6' - Detail . 24 x 32cm. 2007.

An indirect way of working with watercolour. An indirect route. Letting the face emerge out from the wet on the paper. Sometimes lifting off. Sometimes adding on. Sometimes subtracting. Taking away. Moving the pigment around on the page. Backwards & forwrads, feeling the painting unfolding. Nudging it about till the desired expression is staring back out. Look! There's the face I was looking for & hey.... it's looking back out at me!

Compare the indirect way with the direct way of watercolouring, where the right wash, the right concentration & value, the right stroke is laid down directly in one go. One pass, then stop. No correcting allowed. No repenting. No recanting. No substracting, only adding. No backwards, only forwards. If it's right or if it's wrong... it must be as right as one can make it the first time! Knife edge stuff. Bang on! Raise to the occassion. Meet the challenge. The important thing in the Direct Method is that the power of the brushmark & beauty of dilution isn't worried or 'broken' by nervous timidity.

'Self 1'

Quiet Times in Truffle Woods

'Le Truffier 2' (Truffle Woods 2)
medium size oil on canvas
65 x 54 cm (25,5 x 21,3 inches approx)
© adam cope

A milky light breaking through the cloud cover softening the hard landscape. High May grass, deceptively soft, hiding stones & spikey semi-desert plants. Bluey green greys, mauve hay seed-heads, bright photosynthesising May yellow-greens.

The oak in this painting is an example of what is known in gardening as 'specimen planting' : where one species is palnted like an island alone in the sea, a solitary specimen in 360 degrees of surrounding emptiness. Except for in this case, here in this truffle wood, it wasn't done for reasons of asethetic design but by the hand of the farmer, Monsueir Vincent, who is patiently restoring the oaks. Actually, there's rows of young saplings hidden in the high grass but you couldn't see them for 'La Mouliné', which is up to a metre high.

Lawns in gardens are the empty spaces that act as a foil to show off the specimen & beds. In terms of making a painting, it was a real effort to leave such a large 'empty space' with not much going on, not many brushmarks... only the odd wild flower floating... the occassional slash suggesting the long grass....surprising how much restraint & pictorial discipline empty spaces takes.

In this painting, I wanted a calm feeling. Meditative. Not a frenzy of brushmarks. The quiet I find in the deep countryside. Did I achieve it?

Painting of Truffle Woods in Quercy

'Le Truffier 1' (Truffle Woods)'
medium size oil on canvas
36x 48cm (approx 15 x 14 inches).
© The Artist.

Light & shade in this old truffle wood in the Lot. 'Chene de Causse', the semi-desert oaks of Quercy. Orchids, wild fowers & seed heads. The high grass which 'paysans' used to mill, 'La Mouliné', indicating the presence of water somewhere below, well-hidden in the micro-fissures in the karst limestone. It turns a beautiful silver yellow, retaining all winter long a bleached reminder of summer heat. The apparent softness of early summer grass only superficially hides the underlying toughness of the landscape. Monsueir Vincent (Pere), whom I've known for over twenty five years, has been trying to regenerate this ancient truffle wood, along with honey, peaches & saffon crocus elsewhere in these woods. Not an easy task as truffles retain something of their elusive sylvan mystery.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_(fungi)

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffe_(champignon)

# En 2002, le prix moyen était de 390 €/kg.
# En 2003, le prix moyen était de 1 200 €/kg.
# En 2004, le prix moyen était de 900 €/kg.
# Le mardi 23 décembre 2008, 150 kilos de truffes ont été vendus à des prix oscillant entre 250 et 900 euros le kilo, lors du quatrième marché officiel de Lalbenque (Lot), au cœur du Quercy

Of lawns & high grass

'Le Village'

Watercolour
Quarter Imperial sheet 28 x 38 cm
150 € ex P & P
© adam cope

May is the time of tending lawns. I like the huge expanse of green in the above painting, a calm foil for the details & foliage clustered around the focal point. A perfectly manicured lawn in an impeccable village. Reassuring. Calm. I choose to animate it with the odd blob, stain & puddle (opaque cadmiums) so as not to be inflexibly empty in relationship with the buildings & gardens.

I also like it when the grass is high, before the first cut of hay. Seed heads gently blowing in the wind. Another contrast of 'wild' nature vs.tended, husbanded nature? How "long do you wear" your lawn? The end of our garden is currently white with michelmas daisies & alight in the night-time with glow worms & nighting gales.

'Chene, Chemin & Herbe Haute' 2007
OIl on Masonite
41 x 33 cm
© adam cope
300 €