CHATEAU DE LA FLEUNIE

Posted on November 1, 2011 by splashingpaint

After our stay in Aix en Provence we boarded a coach and made our way through the French country side to Chateau de la Fluenie. The Chateau was built in the 1300’s and extended in the 1600’s. It is a beautiful old building set on manicured, spacious grounds just outside the small village of Condat in the Dordogne

The main dining room

After a hard days painting it was nice to relax and enjoy drinks on the terrace as the sun went down.

We were fortunate to have access to a large conference room,should the weather turn bad. Fortunately we had only one foggy morning where staying indoors made painting a lot more comfortable.

The Chateau had its own heard of deer and a collection of very small goats.

Further down the paddock were a pair of friendly pigs

The small village of Condat, just down the road from La Fleunie, was a great place to paint. There was a bar, coffee shop and restaurant in the village, so we were well looked after.

Lunch in Condat

Butterfly disguised as dandelion.

Hand hewn timber in the roof of an ancient Condat farm building.

Trees in the region were getting ready to loose their leaves – some were bare, some where still green and some had fantastic colors.

We visited the medieval town of Sarlat – beautiful old buildings, markets, shops and restaurants, plus a wealth of painting subjects. A great place to spend the day.

Behind the Cathedral we found a quiet spot with a great view of one of the towns Medieval houses.

La Roque-Gageac was another medieval town tucked under a cliff on the bend of the Dordogne River. It seemed a strange location for a town, but looked spectacular reflected in the water. We spent most of the day painting there, then went to visit the Lascaux Caves. No photos due to copyright restrictions according to our guide?!

After the workshop we traveled to Bordeaux airport where everyone headed off in different directions.

Dianne and I stayed a couple of days in Bordeaux and after the luxurious accommodation we were used to, the view from our room came as a bit of a shock.

Bordeaux has some beautiful buildings, but not far from where we stayed was the building below. It must be the ugliest building in France, built from checker plate metal, freeway crash barriers and funny little windows.

Bordeaux fruit stand

OVER AFGHANISTAN

Posted on October 19, 2011 by splashingpaint

On our way to Europe we were lucky enough to fly directly over Afghanistan just as the sun was setting. The flight information screen put us half way between Kandahar and Kabul at 30,000 feet. The country was amazing – incredibly rugged with very little vegetation except for a few cropped and settled river valleys.

A military transport plane crossed under us at about four o’clock and, within a few seconds, disappeared out of sight. A cold reminder that, down among the cracks and crevasses of this beautiful landscape, a war is going on.

ACROSS THE USA

Posted on August 3, 2011 by splashingpaint

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Favourite shots from US domestic flights criss-crossing the country

GLEN DAVIS

Posted on May 26, 2011 by splashingpaint

A couple of weeks ago I joined large format photographer, Tony Lewis, for a few days painting and photographing up over the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Our subject was the ruins of an old oil shale works tucked under the escarpment at Glen Davis. It’s a spectacular location and Tony and I plan to base an exhibition on these and other abandoned ruins in the area.

The dominating structure at the old shale works is the abandoned retort building. Its interesting brick work, steel strapping and monumental scale give it a unique and menacing presence.

The contrast between the hard, geometric ruins and the soft, organic landscape make stark and beautiful subjects as the sun goes down.

Tony waits for a shot through the early morning fog. Large format photography is a time consuming business – calculating exposure, loading film, framing shots and then waiting for the perfect light.

We were lucky to have atmospheric foggy mornings and mostly clear days while we were there. The fog soaked everything, saturating the colors and stretching the tonal contrast – ideal conditions for taking photographs.

We started and finished each day in the dark. My intention was to do a few watercolor sketches, but there was so much interesting stuff to record , I only managed one painting of the old retorts.

I’m looking forward to getting back down to the area with Tony and exploring some more of these old ruins he has discovered.

Tony’s large format images can be seen on his website “A Brief Vision of Time”

SMALL DREAMS

Posted on July 4, 2010 by splashingpaint

After a few months of editing, adjusting and tweaking, I have finally got this project off the ground.

It is a collection of photographs woven into a tale describing the thoughts and dreams of a dozen kids growing up in a rundown mining town on the fringe of a desert in outback Australia.

Hope you enjoy it.

Small Dreams by John Lovett | Make Your Own Book

VIA HONG KONG

Posted on June 9, 2010 by splashingpaint

After the busy pace of the workshop, we figured a week relaxing in Hong Kong would be a good idea. The idea of relaxing in a city that only seems to run at full speed, was probably misguided. So, rather than relax, we went for the full on shopping, galleries, bars, tours type of recreation.

Hong Kong seems to run full paced 24 hours a day.

The Harbour is spectacular, serving as a transport route and recreation area at the same time.

The citys heart is buzzing with lights and color, while above street level is the patchwork of balconys, windows and washing that make up the high rise appartments of the inner city dwellers.

The shops are interesting but some of the names don’t translate too well to English.

Across the boarder into Shenzhen, pressure from street vendors increases as does the number of taxis waiting at the local rank.

The Rickshaw may have disappeared, but the chicken delivery cycle has sure taken off.

The humble push bike in China has resisted the temptation to switch to light weight aluminium and carbon fibre construction. Instead, preferring the solid reliability of braced and reinforced steel.

For me, the most fascinating area of the city is the food markets, which in the Mon Kok district seem to blend with the bird, goldfish and pet markets. These live sea snakes fall into the food category.

This bag of tasty live toads are also classed as food (and delicious according to the store owner).

These weird, distorted goldfish are from the pet market…

…as is this strange little kitten.

Strangely distorted rabbits are also available from the pet market

At the bird markets you can pick up birds from all over the world. There are bags of live grass hoppers and packets of writhing grubs available to keep your bird in top condition.

The food markets not only sell live produce, but will chop up almost anything for you to take home and barbecue.

Store holders engaged in a game of some kind of checkers.

This man, sitting on a tiny stool with a handful of tools, will fix up your worn out shoes in next to no time for a couple of dollars.

In the half light through our hotel window, primitive bamboo scaffolding contrasts starkly with the modern high rise construction. It seems to sum up the strange, diverse character of Hong Kong.

STREETS OF PALERMO

Posted on June 6, 2010 by splashingpaint

We had planned a day painting in Palermo, so after some questioning, decided the Plaza Marina was the place to go. After a long stop start procession through the town our bus driver stopped by a small park surrounded by dilapidated buildings. We couldn’t work out why and, after some head scratching, discovered it was a “photo stop” – the only problem being there was nothing worth photographing!

After a traffic snarled circuit of the waterfront we decided to head out to Mondello to paint. That was our introduction to Palermo which tainted our enthusiasm to stay there before flying back to Rome. However, intriged by the infamous mafia history, we stayed a day to have a look around.

We were told that, around the time two high profile, anti mafia judges were killed, there was a 12 month period in Polermo that saw almost 1000 murders! This grisly fact also influenced our perception of the city.