Sarah Wimperis is Home

Crillion Le Brave Steps, watercolour



Pots on the Terasse, Gouche, small.




The Rode Home, Gouche, small



The Well, Gouache, small

Vine, Gouche, small

I am home, finally, back in Cornwall after two plane flights, a car journey, night at my mums, to collect the dog, and a long drive down to the heel of Cornwall.  My dear Big Dave has made a lovely meal and I have a large glass of wine.  I miss Provence already and am about to indulge myself with a viewing of Jean de Florette.  Can I be homesick for somewhere already?  On my last full day I got up at 5am and climbed part way up the magical mountain, Mont Ventoux, between ancient crags of white bleached limestone.  I placed my right hand on a rock face and rubbed some red sand around it, time travelled, and while I was travelling a bit of my heart became part of that mountain.
I will post more pictures tomorrow, in the meantime I hope you enjoy some small gouache paintings of a very special part of the world.

A thunderstorm in Provence..

My three artist buddies are stuck in the Vaucluse without phone, without internet, but hopefully with enough cherries to keep them going! They had a huge storm last night which struck out the phone and internet and fired right into the wall sockets.
This storm has been brooding since the day before I left and I sat on the side terrace the afternoon sketching the skies over Mont Ventoux. It was hot and "lourd" typical storm weather and that night we had but a few large drops.

...clouds over Mont Ventoux...
gouache on paper
(started out as a watercolor flop and then I painted over it with gouache...here in Correze!)

So I hope we'll see some still lifes from them while they are confined to the house and surroundings today. Julian and Ruth have magnificent pottery which just beg to be painted. I got so enthusiastic about pottery when I was there that I am now looking out for some beautiful pieces of my own, even though I never though myself a pottery person!


I got to do only one still life of some of their pottery and if ever I would steal something from their lovely home....it would be this set of coffee pot and mugs and bowls...helas, my mom brought me up with a conscience, so it is still in the cupboard of Les Couguieux, but I at least have a sketch!!
Hang in there you three and do some still lifes in the meantime!!!

Still Life in Provence

Gouache on handmade rag paper - by Robyn Sinclair
22 x 30cm

I'd love to stay and chat but the Other Two Painters are off on an afternoon painting adventure and I'm supposed to be cooking dinner.

This was painted on a special piece of paper gifted to me by a dear Sketchercise friend. Thanks, Alison. I love it!

Painting vineyards and orchards in gouache

Morning painting in gouache; afternoon tweaks in coloured pencil, 
a photo by makingamark2 on Flickr.

Yesterday Robyn and Ronelle arrived - one after the other with a microsecond pause between them - as they had met up on the road, having come from two completely different directions.

Yesterday afternoon and evening was spent walking around exploring our immediate neighbourhood followed by show and tell sessions for all our various art materials and art books which we'd brought with us.

This morning we walked down a local road to paint a scene not far from the house.

I painted in gouache for the first time in decades!

I managed to restrain myself from getting the coloured pencils out until after we'd returned to the house and had lunch. I now have two photos of before and after coloured pencils.

This was the before and the after is at the top of this post.

Morning painting in gouache

I'm hoping Robyn and Ronelle will start posting their work soon as well.

No sooner said than done, Katherine!

Gouache on blue ground

This was an experiment on a thin blue craft paper. I'm still trying to sort my gouache palette for Provence. Not there yet by a long shot.