Paintings of France, Italy and Beyond

Poppies en plein air- “Dusk in the Lot Valley”

24 06 2008

I’ve been taking some time off to deal with matters at home these last few, but I still have a few paintings to share from my France trip. If you’ve spent any time on my website, you might have noticed that this little plein air is a subject that is a familiar to me–poppies! In they south of France they are seen profusely in springtime. But, as with sunflowers and lavender, there is no precise way of knowing just when they will be in bloom. Sometimes the sunflowers come “early”, or the lavender “late”. Or sometimes any one of these flowers can be plowed over (in the case of poppies) or harvested by some farmer. (The nerve!)

Our group got lucky. It had been an unusually cold, wet spring up until just before we had arrived, and there were few to no poppy fields in sight. I was pretty okay with it, having painted them quite often (not to mention that we had no shortage of beautiful scenes to paint!) But most of the group seemed to have their heart set on it, and I was a little worried that they might be disappointed.

But we were lucky, not only because nature, at last, decided to cooperate, but also because the folks at Le Vieux Couvent remained on the lookout for our perfect field of poppies. And boy, did they find it–complete with two charming little cabins (cabineaux) set against a mountain backdrop. It may have been one of the prettiest poppy fields I’ve seen to date….or maybe the thrill of the others was just very catching. Here’s my little plein air from that afternoon, painted around 5 PM or so.

“Dusk in the Lot Valley”
Oil on Multimedia ArtBoard, 6×12″
Click here for more info.

And a couple of gratuitous shots of us in the poppy fields:

Jennifer Young France painting

Jennifer Young plein air France

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Date : 24 June 2008
Categories : The artist's life, French Landscapes, Plein Air Painting, Art Travels

7 responses to “Poppies en plein air- “Dusk in the Lot Valley””

24 06 2008: marilynmking (17:48:34) :

What an amazing place! I don’t know which is prettier, the poppies or the woman in the sunglasses. LOL Someone sure took a great shot of the group in that lovely setting. Your painting does it justice - the colors recorded by the photo are matched by your painting exactly! Very nice work my dear. What a pro!!!!
24 06 2008: Molly Young (22:47:54) :

Yes! beautiful. I love the shape of the yellow tree in the center.
25 06 2008: Rick Nilson (06:19:25) :

I agree with MMK.This is amazing. I have never seen a painting of dust before. There sure was a lot of it in the Brazos River Valley. A lot of my paintings have dust, but it just collects on em. Would you call the building a chateau or a pigeon house? Maybe it isn’t dust at all. It could be smoke off the tobacco drying barn.
25 06 2008: jennifereyoung (10:03:00) :

Thanks MMK, MY, and RN :-). It really was a beautiful day and an incredibly beautiful scene. The light was incredible. To get both little cabineaux, we ended up painting on the downward slope of a ditch. The roadside was too narrow and with a blind curve it was pretty risky painting from the road–then WE might have been dust!
27 06 2008: Amy (08:57:46) :

WoW, I love, love poppy’s! Your painting is just beautiful.
Standing in the middle of that wonderful field must have been so energizing.
What a special life time experience. This picture of you should be framed & put somewhere very special. I want to stand in a field of poppy’s. amy
27 06 2008: Vickie (15:02:31) :

Jennifer - ran across your site and blog when searching for fellow plein air artists. I’m in Texas. It’s been hard to find fellow plein air artists online. love your paintings of France and Italy. I’ve not been fortunate enough yet to travel to Europe, but hope to in the near future. I love your loose style in your plein airs and just the right amount of polish in your large canvases. I’ll check back on you from time to time and see what you’re up to! Happy painting! Vickie
30 06 2008: jennifereyoung (13:49:14) :

Amy- Thanks so much. You can see by the photos of us in the field how tall those poppies really are. It was pretty amazing!

Hi Vickie - Thank you also for your very kind comments. I’m glad you found my little corner of the world. It’s always good to meet fellow plein air artists. If you do go to paint in France or Italy some day, I am sure you will love them both. They are a plein air painter’s dream!