Rhone In Spring

This 24 x 36 inch oil painting shows the trees lining the Rhone River in southern France. They are just breaking into leaf.

The river is high and the water, fed by the recent rains, is rushing under a nearby bridge. Though cold, the sun is shining and a woman wheels her baby along the river bank, while enjoying the view and the lovely day.

This painting was developed form several photographs taken during our 2008 visit to that area.

"Woman Reading" oil painting.

Catching up, this is the first of a series of paintings I have recently completed, but failed to post to my blog.

"Woman Reading" is another of my series of oil paintings capturing memories from our 2008 trip to France.

The 30 x 24 inches canvas depicts a sunny spring day. A young woman is sitting on the wall along the bank of the river Rhone. She is deep into reading a book, oblivious to us walking by. Her bicycle leans nearby against the wall.

She did not notice us as we strolled along the broad pathway, enjoying the view. I sneaked some photographs, from which this painting was developed.

At long last - another blog entry!

It is hard to believe, but it has been six months since I last wrote to my blog! As one getts older, time seems to go past so quickly.

But I have been busy: painting most mornings, preparing for exhibits, visiting grandchildren - all the important things of life. Plus a few medical problems - relating to my prostate cancer returning after many years of dormancy.

One major task that has occupied a lot of time, is the complete revamp of my website. A critique by Sylvia White of my work and direction, suggested that my website was to complex and technical. she recommended the style of several other artists, which I used as my guide.

In addition, Adobe has discontinued support of their GoLive web design software, encouraging my moving to their Dreamweaver application. So I took the plunge, purchased the new software, and have revamped the whole thing. The rework is largely completed, though I will make some more changes in the near future. Please take a look at my website and let me know your comments and suggestions.

Another big event is that for the month of May 2009, I had a major solo exhibit "Memories of France and Mexico: Recent Paintings by Peter Worsley." It took place in the western side gallery of the large Faulkner Gallery of the downtown Santa Barbara Main Library. It consisted of 18 paintings from my 2006 and 2008 trips to Mexico and France respectively.

Unfortunately, the opening coincided with the begining of a devastating brush fire on the northwestern edge of Santa Barbara. A large section of the community (including ourselves) were forced to evacuate. And the opening reception was canceled. These events, plus the depressed economy, have resulted in no new sales. But I had many exhibit visitors, gathered a few more people for my email mailing list, and obtained some very good publicity.

Coming up I have several more events: in July 2009, I am the "Artist Of The Month" at Gallery 113, in downtown Santa Barbara. And, at the end of August I am participating once again in the Santa Barbara Studio Tour event.

New Group Painting - Encounter/Yellow Umbrella

A couple meet on a cold rainy day to talk briefly under a yellow umbrella. From the bright colored bag dangling from her hand, it appears she has been shopping in a nearby store. He carries a portfolio and a small bag over his shoulder. Perhaps he is on his way to a business meeting.

This painting is loosely based upon various photographs I took in Paris, France, last Spring (2008). I wanted the image to induce the feeling of a connection between the two figures. Yet it is only a brief encounter, since each has their own agenda. The yellow umbrella links the two together for these few moments.

I am trying to play down the individuality of the figures. I want the viewer to identify the people from their own imagination. The male figure's face is hidden. The female's face is only sketchy - enough to see she is please with the chance encounter.

The composition has been chosen to use a wide range of values, from the dark coats of the figures to the white of the distant light on this rainy day.

30 x 24 inches. Oil on canvas. Unframed with painted edges.

Pretty Baby, Another Painting Completed.

"Pretty Baby" is latest of my new group portraits in the soft story telling style of my recent work.

A young mother, while out walking, is showing off her baby to her girlfriend. The friend looks at the hidden baby with an expression of awe and perhaps mixed with other feelings.

While traveling in France during early 2008, I saw these young women near an open air café. I took several photographs from which this painting was derived.

For a while I thought the woman in green was the mother and the woman in black was the friend - and then I saw the wedding ring on the hand of the figure in black.

The most difficult task was to handle the details of the under side of the baby carriage. There was a lot of detail in the original photographs. It was necessary to simplify yet maintain a structural integrity so that it felt sturdy.

In the end, I used the long supporting posts as visual lines to draw the viewer into picture.

The baby is very present in the thoughts of the viewer, but not seen. The mother's face is hidden, but also is present in the tensions of the picture. Only the girlfriend's face is seen in detail and provides the source of energy to the viewer.

Morning News - Another Painting Finished!

My latest painting "Morning News" (24 x 30 inches) has been finished and scanned. There seems to have been a host of events that have delayed its completion.

Among many things, we have had some work done in and around the house which has needed my attention away from painting. Also, I twice took the partially finished painting to my critique group who each time gave me good advice in steering the painting along more interesting lines of composition.

It is based upon some photographs I took along the streets of France, last spring. The three men are fairly close to the original situation, but the background, the wall and window signs, and the newspapers all came from imagination or other places.

I am happy with the outcome.

A new crowd painting - from France

Last Spring we touring France, arriving in Avignon on a Saturday morning. The central square was full of young people sitting, drinking, talking, visiting with friends, or just viewing the activity at the many small tables spread outside the surrounding cafés.

The spring sunshine was warm and encouraging the Plain trees around the square to bud out to make a green and yellow arbor over the scene.

There are over a hundred people shown in the painting – most of them enjoying themselves.

As we joined the crowd, we sipped our own drinks and took photographs to record the event for this new painting: "Saturday Morning In Avignon," 24 x 48 inches, Oil on canvas. Unframed with painted edges.

Visit to France March 2008

I have not been Blogging for a while, because we took a vacation trip to France. Our first leg was to fly to Paris for three nights.

While in Paris we were able to visit the Louvre, d'Orsay, and the Rodin Museums. Our visit to the Louvre was assisted by a lovely young personal guide, made available to just us through the generosity of our daughter and son-in law.

We spent over 4-1/2 hours in the Louvre with her exploring the Flemish and French painting collections. We were particularly lucky that she has specialized in this area of art history. She told us she was training at the Louvre's own school to become a curator.

It was wonderful to see so many famous paintings "in-the-flesh" as it were. I was astonished by the Louvre's size. Also, of the great condition of the paintings and the care in their presentation. The galleries (which seem to go on for ever) are so bright and airy. It was a memorable visit.

Both the d'Orsay and the Rodin museums were very enjoyable. The d'Orsay is within a renovated railway terminal. But here I was surprised by the poor condition of so many of the well known impressionist paintings. Many I had seen as slides where apparently the colors had been enhanced. In the original the colors of the paintings were often dull.

The Rodin is an old house set in a sizable garden. Sculptures are scattered though the building and garden. It gives one a feeling of the productivity his workshop and school. My wife (who sculpts herself) was particularly enthralled. Unfortunately the garden was closed due to the bad weather.

The second part of our trip began by being bussed to Chalon-sur-Saone in central France (with a few hours stop and tour at Dijon) to meet a river boat – our home for the next week.

The plan was to cruise down the Saone to join the Rhone river at Lyon and then on to Provence. On the way we would pass through the Burgundy and Beaujolais regions, finally stopping at Arles and then back-trackeing to Avignon.

Once on board the boat, we were given many side trips to places of interest along the way. One trouble that we soon uncovered was that the various local guides tended to offer a lot of discussion about the various Roman ruins and other "old" structures.

With both my wife and I growing up in Great Britain, ancient ruins are very common. All around where we lived there were many examples of such remains, often a lot older than the Roman period. But of course, the many other American tourists travelling with us found them all of great interest. We solved the problem by wandering off from the crowd, and looking at what we found interesting - often the local scene and particularly the people.

But on these trips we saw several great museums. At Beaune we visited Hotel Dieu, a former hospice dating from the 15th. century. Apart from the building itself which is beautiful and well preserved, it contains some very nice paintings. The facility was set up centuries ago with vineyards, salt mines, and productive land that still today provides a considerable private endowment.

In Lyon there were some interesting buildings with trompe l'oeil mural paintings of balconies, shop fronts, and people, both famous and unknown. Here, as in many towns across France, were numerous public art sculptures.

Arles is famous for the time spent there by painter Vincent Van Gogh. Apart from walking past (and photographing) some of the landmarks memorialized in his paintings, there is a small museum of the Vincent Van Gogh D'Arles Foundation. Here many contemporary artists such as: Arman, Bacon, Rotero, César, Combas, Debré, Fromaner, Rauschenberg, Lichstein, Saura, and many more, have provided paintings, sculpture, music, photography, and writings to express how Van Gogh has influenced their personal development as an artist. It is small, but very interesting.

At Avignon there is the magnificent Papal Palace. This enormous building with its many rooms, is adorned with frescos, murals, sculptures, tapestries, and paintings, developed and collected over many years. The artwork is astounding and from many periods.

We left our boat at Avignon, and were bussed to Marseille airport, to catch a series of planes back to Los Angeles, and on to home. The westward journey was long – over 30 hours. It took us over a week to recover from the jet lag and to resume normal life.

The weather, starting in Paris, was terrible with rain, sleet, snow, and driving wind. Living for so long in Southern California, I and forgotten how cold it can get. But we had anticipated the bad weather and had all the right clothes. Inside the Museums we were well protected. By the time we reach the south of France, the weather improved with occasional periods of sunshine, and even warmth.

I took over 1,500 digital photographs, mostly of people, store fronts, window shutters, and narrow passage ways. People walking, sitting, battling the rain, and occasionally sitting outside cafes enjoying a glass of wine or a beer during a break in the weather. I have enough source material to last me over several years.

A wonderful productive trip.