The One with the Barrel

The One with the Barrel

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

Happy 2016!  Most of us with kids at home are back to an educational system-imposed schedule at this point (can you tell I prefer having my daughters around?). As today is the day ours went back to school, it's my back-to-art cue (which I like almost equally as well as my girls, but really, my girls win). 

This is another little Provence piece in the vein of The One with the Blue Shutters. These names make such sense to me because this is how we referred to these apartments and villas while we walked around and admired them. Sometimes they seemed very similar, but close attention revealed that each had wonderful details and individuality that set it apart from the others (hmmm...kind of like my daughters!).

-julie davis

The One with the Blue Shutters, study

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

Taking two months off from posting was never my intention.  I promise that much has been going on beneath the surface. Like a duck's feet paddling underwater, I've been invisibly at work (and play), and I'll send out a newsletter soon with more about that (sign up for it on my website: www.juliedavisstudio.com), but it's time to get back to posting.

I came across this little apartment on our trip to St. Remy in Provence a while back, and admired the blue color they chose for the shutters so much that I stopped to take pictures. I decided to only paint the upstairs--there was not much going on at the street level. I think I envy whoever lives there. 

-julie davis

Look Both Ways

Look Both Ways

nfs

Architecture is such  different form of problem solving from pure "land" scenes.  Somehow to me it's more like doing a giant math problem--one specific step at a time--get too loose with one step and it all falls apart.  Trees, grass, or hills are more easily manipulated to an artists' needs.  As much as I dislike math, I appreciate the order of these scenes--and they do have their freedoms, just in a different way.

-julie davis

*This is St Remy, France. The orange building is a shop called Florame (essential oils), and the one directly to the left is the local Farrow & Ball (lovely paint and wallpapers) store.

Hilltop Village

Hilltop Village

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

My first go at a European village. This is the town of Gordes in southern France--one of the most beautiful little villages in the Luberon because of its location on the edge of a plateau. My family was fortunate enough to get to tour it last summer, and it's taken me a while to get up the courage to paint it.  For me, the challenge was to refrain from using too much detail, while still getting enough in there.  

-julie davis

French Countryside

French Countryside

sold

It seems I can never get enough of hay bales.  They are as ubiquitous in the French Countryside as they are in the Texas Hill Country, and I ate it up when we were there in July.  If this seems familiar in feel to In the Round, it's because it's a scene from a different part of the same field.  

-julie davis

Van Gogh's View

Van Gogh's View

9 x 12 oil on panel

sold

You might notice this piece is the larger version of a 6 x 8 study I posted on October 27th (still available)...it's a partial view of the lavender field and gardener's cottage that Vincent Van Gogh would have seen from his hospital window in St-Remy-de-Provence.  Van Gogh's View belongs to a dear friend now, and I couldn't be more delighted.  I will get to visit it (as I do her) often. :)

-julie davis

Well-Traveled Path

Well-Traveled Path

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

Another piece from our time in France.  Though this is a simple scene, I was so over-stimulated with beautiful landscape there.  Since I began painting a few years ago, the very first thing I notice when I visit a new region is the trees--and then the colors in the landscape, which added an entirely new aspect to travel for me.  I chose to study this familiar scene because it was a family trip with little time to paint, but I'm definitely looking forward to a trip back someday to work on the less familiar aspects of the landscape there. 

-julie davis

The Window

The Window

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

During our time in Provence last summer, we came across so many intriguing doors and windows in the old sections of the various towns we visited.  The use of color on doors and shutters juxtaposed with the neutrals of the old building materials was beautiful, and the personality of each, unique.  These blue shutters made this window one of my favorites.

-julie davis

The Pool House

The Pool House

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

Drawing on resources from this summer, I'm posting a piece that I painted in Provence.  As our vacation was a family one and in no way a painting trip, I smuggled the smallest pochade box I could find into my luggage and pulled it out during occasional breaks in the family action.  This was my first piece of the trip, painted in the yard of the beautiful little "mas" where we stayed with another family.  Wish I could snap my fingers and be back there right now....

-julie davis

Garden Cottage, Study

Garden Cottage, Study

6 x 8 in., oil on panel

sold

I was fortunate enough to travel to Provence last summer, where we saw gorgeous lavender and many beautiful old....really old structures.  This small cottage was on the grounds of the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh spent some time. In fact, it was a large part of the view from his bedroom window.  Not a terrible place to recover.

-julie davis