One of my absolute favorite places to paint on location (in the world!) is the
Saint Paul de Mausole Monastery. The grounds are full of gardens including a lovely lavender field and a few sundials. This was the home of
Vincent Van Gogh during his very troubled time of May 1889 to May 1890. Vincent’s small room had a window looking out over the gardens behind the buildings.
We use our library voices once we enter the grounds because we automatically experience a feeling of reverence and awe. We are literally walking on the same grounds where Vincent Van Gogh walked, stood and painted. He lived here for a year and produced almost 150 paintings!
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| Painting out back |
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| The lavender rows gave us great practice on perspective! |
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| Our lesson for the day was how to draw and paint arches. |
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| Suddenly a flock of French school children descend upon as and give us painting advice. |
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5 thoughts on “Following in the Footsteps of Van Gogh”
Oh my gosh, it is so wonderful to get to see this place through your photos and written commentary. Thank you so much!! I'd love to know your advice on how to paint arches – another teacher was recently talking about it and saying you really need to practice making them before you go to Italy – guess it's true of France too. I definitely want to follow your itinerary some day – hopefully on one of the trips you lead after I retire:-)
Sounds like you are having a marvelous time!
Great to follow you there in pictures – lovely post. Have you read The Yellow House by Martin Gayford? It's about VVG and Gauguin and "nine turbulent weeks in Arles".
Hi Deborah, thanks for the comment. I started The Yellow House just before I left for France but did not get very far into it.
Sydney, there are some helpful hints for painting arches but the best advice is to draw what you see and not what you think you see! Thanks Freebird 🙂
Looks so amazing. So fun! What an adventure!
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