Paintings of France, Italy and Beyond

Plein air in a French country garden

17 06 2008

Now that we’re really getting into the summer weather here, I’m starting to see my gardens taking shape. For the beds alongside my house, I’m slowly building an herb and butterfly garden. Budget restraints required that I experiment with starting from seed for a few things, but mostly I just started from very tiny plants and mixed in a few summer bulbs. Gardening is a pretty new pastime for me, so believe me, every new growth or flower is a triumph.

French country garden sketch In Virginia, if you dig deep enough, you will soon hit clay, which makes building any kind of new bed a bit of a chore, as you really have to work in a lot of good loose topsoil, soil conditioner, and fertilizer to make the plants take to it kindly. It kind of makes me shake my head a little when I visit places like the south of France. Roses practically grow out of the cracks of the sidewalks there! Okay, the gardeners there do have do deal with the rocks (and a lot of them) so I guess we all have our gardening challenges.

The old French country convent where I stayed had a labyrinth of beautiful gardens. I believe the current owners have had the place for a little over 10 years, and while they started with a property that had “good bones”, all of the gardens were as a result of their own sweat and muscle. The gardens were set out like little outdoor sanctuaries, and there was something to discover in every nook and cranny of the property.

To the painter’s eye, there were a thousand possibilities just within the confines of Le Vieux Couvent itself. But I was drawn particularly to the little goldfish pond out back.So apparently was one of the resident cats, “Portia”. With so much touring, I didn’t really have much time to paint on the grounds of the property, but I did do this little watercolor sketch of Portia by the pond one morning before we set off on another excursion:

french garden watercolor sketch by Jennifer Young

My layout was such that I couldn’t quite get in the pond itself. But I came back one morning after the group from the “artist retreat” left, and painted a more close-up view again in oils:

“Bassin à Poisson Rouge” (The Goldfish Pond)
Oil on Linen, 11×14″
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Date : 17 June 2008
Categories : Pen and Ink, Drawing & Sketching, The artist's life, Watercolor, Garden paintings, Plein Air Painting, French Landscapes, Art Travels

7 responses to “Plein air in a French country garden”

17 06 2008: Colleen Lambert (10:05:04) :

Simply delightful! Love the water lillies floating on the pond - nice touch! Your memories serve you well! Good luck with your garden, too Jennifer.
17 06 2008: jennifereyoung (13:40:10) :

Thank you Colleen. It helps to keep the memories alive by blogging about it The sketches, the watercolor and the oil were all done on location in France, so hopefully I’ll be able to rely on them as well as my memories if I want to paint other larger versions back home.
17 06 2008: Rick Nilson (15:12:18) :

Jennifer,
This reminds me of a painting that you did on some pigeon house. I didn’t see any pigeons, but I let it go. Now you say that there are goldfish here. I will just think about goldfish and let this go too. I agree with Colleen.
17 06 2008: jennifereyoung (15:21:03) :

Thanks Rick,
I understand your feelings exactly. I’m STILL trying to spot the cute puppies in your paintings. (At least in my sketch I”ve included a cat!)
17 06 2008: marilynmking (21:16:58) :

Great work! but I can’t talk- gotta paint!!!
17 06 2008: Amy (21:26:13) :

Jennifer,
Just Beautiful. I love both of them. Fish or no fish.
I see your little white kitty napping.
Maybe a little flicker of gold in the pond in the last one would please Rick. : )

I am sure your garden will grow. I moved back to Richmond 2 years ago. So, this garden is new. My last garden had 10 years of TLC and work.
I was just 50 miles north. I am still getting used to the bloom time here. Everything blooms about 2 weeks sooner here. And, I still have things to plant. Ah well… Amy
18 06 2008: jennifereyoung (11:00:42) :

Thanks y’all. Amy, your message is inspiring, given the pics I’ve seen on your blog! I see all of my garden adventures as “experiments”. Some things take off and grow far beyond their maximum height and width (according to the little cards in the pots) and others never amount to much.

I’m giving lavender another try this year, and I am hopeful that this time around it will eventually look as nice as yours. I had planted some before but they got smothered by the tomato plants. I made the mistake of thinking cherry tomatoes meant pint sized plants too. WRONG! So you can see how green my “green thumb” was, even just last year. Oh well, live and learn.