A Painting Trip to Southern France !!!

Domaine Haut Baran

Our Quarters for Ten Glorious Days

Lavendar and Poppies

Location: Southern France

Oh My Goodness !!! I almost forgot to post this great upcoming event here!! I am soooo excited to be taking a group of 15 painters (and non painters) to this great location near Toulouse, France that my head has been in the clouds over it !!!

June 28 to July 8, 2012, we will be smack in the rural countryside of the Perigord region of France, which will be saturated with blooming Lavender fields and blooming sunflower fields! Yikes! The color!! The aromas!! The rolling countryside in this region is simply, to put it mildly, beautiful! And the foods . . . . . !!! OMG !! Can you imagine fresh, warm Croissants with your morning coffee every morning? Can you picture you and your friends at a long dinner table being served the finest French cuisines by your hosts . . . .and . . . . .the laughter and chatter about the day's adventures? Can you? And what about (perhaps) standing up to your hips in wild flowers painting the fields and and local chateaus? Sound romantic ?

We will also have a studio in which to paint and a fine villa in which to stay (see photo above) while being hosted by a charming couple. The lodgings are tip top quality and quite reflective of the surrounding region's culture and heritage. There will be side trips during the ten days to ancient villages where you can shop, sight see and snack / dine on the local fare. Wines? Of course! Fromages? Bien Sur!!

My fantastic wife, Diana, and I have taken groups to Europe four times before this. We are most excited to be able to host both painters and non painters at this fabulous place. If you have never met Diana, you are in for a treat! She is lively and full of mischief and fun. She'll keep us giggling for much of the trip, I promise!

Interested? Know someone who might be interested ? Check more out at Domaine Haut Baran. There are lots of pictures and loads of information there to drink in and arouse your senses. If you are interested in learning more you can email me at mebaileyart@comcast.net. I will answer all your questions, including the most important one of price, and be able to put you in touch with our hosts so you can explore the possibilities directly with them.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Mike

A Breakthrough

"Straddling the Mean"

Watercolor, 22 x 30 inches

This last week was a big week in my class, entitled "Watercolor Beyond the Obvious." It is a ten week long course with multiple goals: to paint a series of paintings around the same subject, to learn about and apply the elements and principles of design and to get past mental barriers preventing success. The class is lively with lots of lecture and examples presented, while the participants paint two 22" x 30" paintings each week and bring them for critique. Each class session features over 40 paintings for the class to see critiqued.

The above painting was a preparation for class to illustrate the design principle of Harmony. It also was used to introduce the idea of the Golden Mean and how it might be applied in composing a painting.

Using M. Graham's richly pigmented watercolor paints, this painting was developed using the red and blue green complimentary colors . . . . .opposites on the color wheel and showing a possible way of relating the opposing / contrasting colors and values via the small colored lines across the picture plane. On the red side, the blue green, blues, and greens were employed in the little line strips to relate to the other side of the painting where the same colors appeared in the rectangular shape. And, conversely, the strips within that shape were colored in the colors that appear in the big square shape on the left. The objective was to relate the two sides.

George Post, a famous California Regionalist painter from the past taught his classes to "paint relationships." That is bucket full of words which sailed right over my head the first time I heard them. But now, after many years of painting, I could not agree more! Relating dissimilar things by emphasizing their similarities, or imposing similarities, as I did in the above painting, is what Post meant. It helps bring a unity to the painting and offers the artist seven different avenues to approach imposing some sort of relationship . . . . .through the use of line, size, shape, direction, color, value or texture. As you can see, line and color were used to impose something of a relationship between the contrasting spaces in the above painting.

It was a big lesson for everyone, including me! It took me many years of painting to come to this understanding so I could express it in words and show it visually, too. A breakthrough!