Jacqueline and I took our rental car from the Basque country and made our way to
Sarlat-le-Caneda, a wonderful town in the Dordogne region of France. We stayed
in a hotel within the walled “old town” of Sarlat. The weather wasn’t great,
but we couldn’t have been happier painting, eating foie gras, shopping and
driving to the local sights (Lascaux caves, Castelnaud, Beynac, Roc le Gageac).
These sweet geese are getting stuffed so that they can
produce the
delicious goose liver pate (foie gras) that tourists enjoy. I must
admit that I love it, too. But I can’t bear to think of these poor creatures
being gorged.
We stopped at nearly every scenic spot to either paint or
snap a photo. I believe this was in Beynac, a village along the Dordogne River.
Jacqueline sketched this stone structure as we stopped to
picnic.
Then it was back to the
hotel to dive into our sketchbooks, watercolor postcards, fois gras and red
wine. Our hotel had a great inner courtyard where we could paint. We met many
of the hotel guests as they came and left, most were curious about what we were
doing.
The night sky in Sarlat was a beautiful color! A deep
blue/black. I enjoyed painting from these photos I took. This is a café on the central square in Sarlat.
This is an 8" x 8" watercolor of the above scene (cropped).
Here’s another night café
scene along the quaint streets of Sarlat.
And my 8” x 8” painting of same.
After five days in the Dordogne, we set off
for Lisbon, Portugal!
Several of these paintings and more will be at the holiday show at the Tumalo Art Company in Bend's Old Mill District starting in December.
Until next time....
Helen Brown
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