You can't come to France as a painter, and not paint a château. A pair of Dutch friends have rented a home right next door to a wonderful castle, and have secured permission for our artists to come and paint it, so today we went to see them, stay for lunch, and take a look at the château. Magnificent. I can only show you a small sample of the photos I took, but I'm sure it will make a wonderful subject.
The house that our friends have rented is the mill that is attached to the castle; it's lovely. Here's a couple of pictures to give you a taste.
Just for a moment I thought they had come to paint the castle, as in window frames, doors, interior walls etc, and was thinking you may have them for some considerable time. Incidentally, is there a linguistic difference in French between painting as a tradesman and painting as an artist?
ReplyDeleteGood question, and one I had not thought of. Reading up on my trusty translation website, I think the French use the same word, "peintre" for both: "Un artiste qui utilise des couleurs à l'eau et à l'huile est un peintre" and you would use the same word for a person who paints walls and buildings.
ReplyDeleteI've seen 'artiste peintre' on a sign put up by a chap who does portraiture in a village close by.
ReplyDeleteYour artists are going to love that castle..how kind of your friends to get permission for them.
Two years ago, the next village had a sort of 'artists meet', with the object of painting anything that took their fancy in the bonds of the commune...I had several on the doorstep, but, unfortunately, the house is just over the boundary in the next commune to that organising the event, so I wasn't able to see what artists would make of this place.
There's an art school - a summer school - not far away, and the chap running it has the same sort of ideas...he only sets subjects in the immediate vicinity of his establishment.
Such a pity as this valley is beautiful.