Visiting roman ruins, eating copious amounts of butter and croissants amandes, and buying old shoes at vides greniers is not the only thing I have been doing during this residency.  I have also been painting almost every day for the last four weeks! More than 200 people have visited the Exposition over the last two [...]

1. Wake up and immediately go back to sleep. 2. Wake up again. Get dressed and try to remember how to conjugate etre. 3. Go to the galleries. See that your paintings have fallen. Jerry-rig them again. 4. Monter le chemin for the chateau on the hill with Mme Picarda and watch some Breton dancing. 4a. [...]

This weekend the Abbaye of Lehon is hosting “Exposition des peintres americains de Maryland Institute College of Arts” in their galleries. We spent a couple of nights working really hard trying to get the pieces hung, title lists made, and French vocabulary learned (le cimaise: picture rod; l’ecorche (m): picture hook). This is typical bossy [...]

A few days ago, Amy, Jane Irish and I went to the chateau grounds just outside the city centre of Becherel to paint. We managed to get into the gardens through a small gate lying east of the chateau’s formal grounds and through the woods you come to an allee of trees and then slowly [...]

Last night, Christopher, Jane S, Jane Irish, Rosie, Amy and I visited a Fest Noz in a town about 20 minutes away.  A Fest Noz in the Breton language means “Night Party”, and we did some drinking of cidre and beer and danced in circles to Breton bands playing flutes, fiddles and accordions. We had [...]

Unfortunately, today marks the halfway point of the residency.  There is only one week until the opening of our show in the Abbaye, so in that respect, we only have one more week of painting.  Everyone is working their derrieres off, and I got up this morning early and was in the attic working until [...]

Here’s what I finished this morning. I made the sky a little bluer because today was a perfectly cloudless day. Some tourists have come by to let me know that in Brittany, the sky always has to have clouds and I should add them. May be I will. I bought these tomatoes on the vine [...]

Today was another perfect day here in Brittany.  I woke up at my regular hour of 8ish and exercised with my roommates Catherine and Pahl: we lifted bottles of water and did sun salutations. It was awesome. I went to the cloister this morning to finish the painting that I’m doing there, but wasn’t able [...]

Amy Metier and I went to Rennes today, the big city in Brittany, which is only about 40 minutes away.  We spent the Saturday at the large market, which included a closed area where there were butchers and cheese-makers.  She and I saw these sinks and completely freaked out.