DAY 22 Mindlessly painting within reach of Dupon. He
wandered over, had a sniff of my pastels and, quick as a
flash, a few disappeared into his mouth. Not your usual
plein air problem! He soon spat them out again. The sticks
were none the worse for wear, just a little damp.
DAY 32 Noticed beautiful early morning light on some farm
buildings. Part of a stone wall along the path had collapsed,
giving me a perfect view. I was painting away when along
came a tractor, forcing me to
quickly pack up and move. I had
just set up again when along came
a van with two farmers, planning
to rebuild the very wall that I was
looking over. Unbelievably, they
said they’d wait for me to finish.
I love being in a country where
everyone loves artists!
Great to see them rebuilding the wall rather than just
throwing up a fence. I’m in awe of the miles of dry stone
walls I see and wonder at how long it must have taken
people to build them.DAY 55 The colors were very gray today—both the stone and
the weather. One of the joys of plein air painting is having to
adjust to conditions and color variation on a daily basis.
A constant challenge.DAY 59 All of the moisture in the air today was messing
with my usual painting technique. Normally I do a pastel
underpainting, which I then wash with water. In these condi-
tions, the pastel behaves differently, and the wash is taking
too long to dry. I plan to try the next with no underpainting.DAY 67 I managed to get the start of my painting completely
wrong. First time I’ve had to abandon a board altogether andAfter an overnight stay at a
convent (opposite), I made
a painting of the building
and its ancient doors.
I worked around an
advancing tractor and
onlooking farmers to paint
this early morning scene
near a collapsed stone wall.
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