Hi Everbody

Readers of this blog will know how much we like to spend time  in Mandelieu, near Cannes on the Cote d’Azur

The past couple of weeks there have, as always, been great and warm enough to sit outside on our terrace and eat our breakfasts and lunches. How nice to do this in April!

Visits there always give me some time for painting watercolours, either on the spot,or from new photos from our daily jaunts or from reference photos from the past few years.

This holiday was no exception and so here are the paintings that I managed to do on this trip.

Nearby to us is the hill top town of Cagnes and close by is the former home of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir lived and worked there in the 19th and 20th centuries until his death in 1919.  It is lovely place to visit and there is real sense of his love of the house and it’s gardens and views. There are number of his paintings and sculptures on display and many photos too.

This painting is the view from the bedroom of Alice Renoir, his wife, looking across to Cagnes.

Cagnes from Renoir’s former Home

This watercolour is 14″ by 10″ on Arches rough paper. All these paintings are this size as I use an Arches glued edge pad when travelling mostly.

As we travel into the hills and mountains of Provence there are many rural scenes that I love to paint. Usually they are a mixture of reality and composites of several photos and these two watercolours fall into that category.

Spring in Provence

The Vineyard, Haut Provence

Really nearby us is the seaside town of Mandelieu – La Napoule. It has large marina with many yachts and boats moored there of all sizes. From the marina there is a good view of The Castle, which today is an art gallery and a nice place to visit.

The Castle at La Napoule

From nearby Theoule there are fine views across to Cannes and the Iles de Lerin. The second of these, St Honorat is seen in this painting , painted  from a zoomed photo of the island, taken from Theoule.

Ile St Honorat

Further East of Cannes is Antibes. I love to paint at Antibes and this particular painting is of the large Fortress which guards the harbour, Fort Carré,  with some of the many moored yachts in the harbour.

Fort Carre at Antibes

Its seems that we often take the ferry from St Maxime to St Tropez for lunch, and a  wander round the old part of the town. I love to paint the small unspoilt harbour at le Ponche, Port de Pêche, and our recent trip was no exception to this. So here is another view of Port de Pêche, just a few minutes walk from the bustling and glitzy harbour on the main front at St Tropez.

I hope you enjoy these paintings from the land of warm sun and beautiful scenery, it is such a nice place to be!

Happy travelling and Painting!

Brian