Oh, what to say?….
First of all, this is based on a photograph taken at her apartment in Arles by my friend, Heather Robinson (I will admit to omitting a lot of the details, which makes things rather easier on my side of the production line). Heather’s a wonderfully engaging, American travel-writer and photographer; her partner is the equally fine photographer, Remi Benali. They and their two dogs, Kipling and Ben, live in Arles….in deep Provence.
Herve and I finally got smart and gave each other three of Remi’s wonderful photographs for our Christmas-presents-to-each-other two years ago. There’s one of a joyous, very young boy in Mali that is probably one of the three things I’d be sure to grab if the house were on fire…..best recommendation ever, I suppose.
Heather’s lovely and always introspective/grab-you-by-the-collar blog (only phrase for it; it’s by no means the usual, silly expatriate-in-France blog), “Lost in Arles”, can be found at:
Remi’s work (which has been widely published, and the greater part of which is photography of the National Geographic, GEO magazine
sort) can be found at:
sort) can be found at:
As for my painting?….I started this twice this afternoon, and each time I realized that it was Screwed-Unto-The Very-Lord….just a matter of medium. So, I switched back to watercolor wash over an architectural pencil outline, added pastel pencil highlights….et voila. The whole business took only about 45 minutes on the third try.
And, oh yes….I had been looking pretty intently at Dali this morning……it shows……
“Love in the Afternoon” (Rue de Liberte; Arles, France)
12″ x 11″
watercolor, oil pencil, and pastel pencils
2013