My show, along with 3 Canadian artist residents in Vallauris was well attended, especially with local artists, and many were complimentary of my work. The setting was in the Cabanon, a small well lit gallery complete with red carpet at the entrance. Some individual pieces that were exhibited.. We were all pleased with what we had accomplished (as you can see in the photo below..) and sorry that it was coming to an end. This is my piece selected to be in the permanent collection of AIR...

I am in Vernazza Italy in a region called Cinque Terre. Vernazza is one of 5 quaint villages along the coast and, along with the town of Manarola, one that I have done paintings of. The area is beautiful and I set out today to hike between these 2 enchanting villages. I took the long route starting from Vernazza to Corniglia, and then straight up and across the mountain along the top and back down to Manarola. I took my time and enjoyed sweeping vistas accompanied by bird song, olive trees and...

For my birthday I went to 3 cities that featured some of this the oldest and best preserved of Roman ruins. First stop Nimes to see the arena where gladiators fought in earlier centuries and now host bullfights. It is a formidable structure, beautiful and imposing. I spent the afternoon touring  it and had dinner outside it's walls thinking about all the history contained in those stones. Next I went to the Maison Carré which served as a temple to the emperor of Rome who was regarded as a god....

I took a narrow gauge train ride from Nice and gently climbed north north through villages  until we came to the enchanting town of Entreveaux. Entreveaux rests at the base of a rocky mountain with the river Var snaking around it. Weathered pine, flowers and shrubs of anise spring from the stoney terrain all around while above  a fortress silently watches and guards her. We had a lunch of delicious crêpes in the town before our climb to the citadel looming above. The path to the top of the...

In the studio here in Vallauris I started working as I always have with Terra cotta clay and bas relief, but have wanted for years to find a more open approach and more contemporary look to my work. I don't want to abandon what I have spent the last 15 years developing, but expand the work that I have been doing. Then, The atmosphere of light and color that is everywhere came to rest in my paintings. A new vision is something that I was looking for in this residency I think that this will stay...

This is the scene outside my window, and typically people hang their clothes from windows to dry. There are spikes on the gutters above to prevent the ubiquitous pigeon population from sitting upon their thrones on high and selectively pooping over your fresh laundry. So thinking this is a good idea I hung my tidy whities out of the window, on the line provided, and took off to the studio to get some work done, only to return and find that my freshly washed clothes were a bit spotted, and not...

This walled medieval hill town provided me with tons of photo opportunities beginning at the 13'the century entrance gate through it's narrow winding streets ending at the cemetery where the artist Marc Chagall is buried. There are many side streets to wander down with beautiful flowers growing from slender vines out of tiny pots and filling the walls of century old houses. This village is very much a tourist trap but one that caters to art galleries, food, clothing and especially to it's own...

I shared a rental car with 2 other artists' in residence and went to the Gorges de Verdun, which is called the Grand Canyon of France. It is spectacular, but not as deep or wide as our own, with very quaint villages along the way. From Vallauris I went through the town of Grasse which is famous for it's perfumes and made it to Castallane at one end of the gorge. The town is on the river and has this huge promentory beside it with a church at the top. There is a walking route to the top which...

I went to the older part of Nice and visited it's market where fresh vegetables, fruit, olives, cheeses, pastries, pies, spices, jams, flowers, mushrooms, and all sorts of other delicious and wonderful items were sold from market stalls. Along the street restaurants were serving enticing menus while people took a leisure lunch and watched the world go by. The French here enjoy taking long lunches followed by a siesta that often lasts until 4pm. I wandered through a dense network of narrow...

Today I went to a show at the local Picasso museum and got inspired by the work of several artists. Vallauris has been a great center for ceramics and Picasso worked here for a number of years decorating ceramic vessels that he had made for him by a local pottery. His confidence is apparent in the vessels I saw and his marks are fluid and purposeful showing a strong decorative ability. He was instrumental in revitalizing ceramics in Vallauris and there are many clay artist who work and exhibit...