I had another outing with my painting class

Monique (my oil painting instructor) came back from Italy with her usual enthusiasm and energy. I went to her class on Tuesday as agreed and I found her with 3 small children, several students and a line of people waiting to see some apartments she had for rent. The small children turned out to be her visiting grandchildren. The students were an international group, who were taking French classes in the mornings and painting classes with Monique 3 times a week. There were 2 women from Flemish Belgique, a Finish girl, a Japanese young man, a French older lady, an Austrian young woman and 2 French teen agers. Monique was smiling throughout- with no apparent rush or care in the world.

I decided to work on a painting of Cassis, I had started before the break. See seascape painting.

I have been working with oil painting and a knife instead of a brush. One of the reasons, I have been able to use oil paints is because, Monique has introduced be to a miracle soap that cleans oil paint as easily as if they were water based paints. The savon Marseille is made of olive oil and it is fantastic. I have never seen anything like it. This soap is now being "gentry-fied" and spas are selling it with pretty scents and attractive packages- but you can buy the original for very little money. I will be bringing some back to the US, but I wish I could bring more.

Thursday, Monique invited me to join her class to visit the lavender. When I asked her were we were going I was told simply: lavender. I told her in my bad French that was a flower not a place, as far as I knew and she clarified the issue by saying we were going: "on back." Not very precise but an answer. The group left in two cars and we were soon at a lavender farm were we set up to spend the afternoon painting. I was able to paint two lavender fields oil paintings. See pictures of my creations.