Isle sur la Sorgue, France on market day

This is one of the most colorful villages in Provence and I love taking students to paint here. It sits on an island in the Sorgue river and has very colorful shops and restaurants. Each restaurant has its own color scheme, no two alike, really colorful.

We were here on market day. This market is one of the largest Provencal markets in all of Provence. We spent the morning shopping and taking photographs. Then while we enjoyed lunch in a restaurant the vendors packed up and left so afterward we could find a spot to paint. Great planning Jackie.

(In case you are wondering Jackie is the owner of French Escapade, the tour company that operates this wonderful trip. To learn about her trips click here http://www.frenchescapade.com/.)

There use to be waterwheels like this all over this area, now only about a dozen remain. Check out all the moss on this baby!

The pink restaurant

And the green one, like I said, a most colorful village!

Market color

more color

Linda finds one she likes.

more market color

happy dog, not sure about the Frenchman

This might become a painting.

nice reflections

I took this photo for my husband Burke. This guy was fly fishing right in the middle of town, not exactly the kind of peaceful mountain river kind of fly fishing scene that Burke likes. I did not see him catch a fish.

Linda C never missed a shot even if she had to use Jackie as her tripod!

And I loved her pink hat. I think workshop teachers should require all students to wear pink hats because I never once lost Linda, I just looked for the pink hat!

I photographed this lady sleeping on a cement bench in the park across the river from the colorful cafes. The bench she occupied would be the perfect spot to sit and do a watercolor sketch in our journal of the village. By the time we arrived after lunch, she had gone, the photo below was our view to paint.

Here is the scene we were capturing in our watercolor journals.

Jan’s tables and umbrellas

Jan’s work has a wonderful whimsical charm to it. She did many of these tiny sketches throughout the trip and all have her individual style.

Linda A did this one I think. She finished it after I took this photo, but since this is the only photo I can find, I am posting it. Again another artist captures the charm of Isle sur la Sorgue.

I think this is Margaret’s drawing. Barbara did a charming one too but it was in light pencil and I don’t think I was able to photograph it.

Everyone else left the cars out of their sketches, but I included them in my sketch because they gave me the opportunity to say “this is Europe”. The cars in Europe are smaller and different in shape than most of ours in the USA. I kind of liked this one as an ink sketch so I did not add color to it.

Gordes Village, France May 25 Watercolor and ink sketching

I have returned to California after three wonderful weeks traveling in Europe. My little netbook computer that I "blew up" with an electric serge during a thunderstorm, is waiting for a complete make over so it will work properly again. By the end of the trip it had become so cranky it would not connect to any website accept yahoo no matter what wi-fi connection I was using. So now that I have downloaded my photos into my desk top I can pick up the blog where I left off, in the middle of our "French Escapade" in Provence.

So, lets turn the "way back machine" to May 25, 2011 and the photo I took of the Abbey of Senanques.

Too bad the lavender was not in bloom, it looked spectacular on the postcards for sale in the gift shop.

We often had picnic lunches, more time for painting that way. Jackie did the grocery shopping and it was fun to learn what the French labels meant and explore new foods. I especially enjoyed the tuna with green olives in it, and the wonderful cheeses she purchased. And we all enjoyed the bread she would buy each morning at the Boulangerie.

These bottles were in the lovely shop at the olive growers farm where we had our picnic lunch.

This is Gordes Village as seen from a nearby hilltop. We decided to challenge ourselves and capture this view of the village in our watercolor journals instead of painted somewhere within the village. This is no easy task, so I demonstrated my process for breaking down the complicated scene by choosing one key point and working out from there. I chose the church on the top and then worked down the hill first on one side and then on the other comparing each building with the previous one. The idea is to capture the essence of the scene the tiny village cascading down the mountainside like a waterfall of stone buildings.

This is Linda A's lovely ink and watercolor sketch of Gordes.

And this one is Margaret's cute painting.

We were sitting on the edge of the road near a view point all working away on our paintings not noticing that we were the subject of many photos being taken by tourists. Jan was nearest the road and she said people kept asking if they could take our photos in French. Even Americans asked her in French! Maybe it was our hats that made the tourists think we were French painters.

After completing our watercolors we went into the village of Gordes to take photos and find ice cream. Love these old walls.

Close up of the same wall, yummy color and texture, this will be a painting.

I thought this graffiti was cool, have no idea what it means. Hope it is not nasty...

The church in Venasque at night...beautiful end to a beautiful day.