Chateau Orquevaux - Our month as Artists in Residence in France!

View of Chateau Orquevaux from the lower field along the walking path.

At some point pre-Covid, my husband Ron and I had applied for an Artist in Residence program at Chateau Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France. At that time, when we made the decision to work on a book together, we didn’t even know what our topic would be, we just knew that it would unfold at the appropriate time. We had started working on going out and painting and writing together in a collaborative process and really LOVED the outcome of each individual session. I began to sense that the two of us would have enough to express about a topic for a book….so we applied to the program. After what seemed like a long wait, we were accepted!! Then Covid struck, and the world shut down….so EVERYONE waited for life to slowly emerge again. We are finally here! While I was considering taking this on, AND after being accepted into the program, I kept searching for as many artist blogs as I could that had written about their experience here, and found it immensely helpful. So I’m hoping that I can be helpful, too- to those of you creatives searching for an experience like this.

As the date for our residency came closer we knew we wanted these writings to be ‘something about war resistance’ in the form of creating art. On our first evening arriving in Paris, we determined our topic and the name of book project: Focal Points - Art as Resistance to War….a heavy topic!!! Can we do this?

Today begins our 6th day here already, so I’d like to share with you what we’ve been working on so far. We have six paintings, and six essays (one from Notre Dame in Paris, before we arrived). We have downloaded them to a platform called ‘Medium’, (for writers), and will share a ‘friend link’ so that you can access them and read along as sort of a working preview to our book. We’re glad to invite you along for the process!

Notre Dame, Paris - under much scaffolding…near the end of a long hot day in the beautiful city.

Our second, and final day in Paris (before we left for Orquevaux) was filled with more sight-seeing, photographing, walking, and…getting an ‘official Covid test’ in order to join our residency. They are (fortunately) very strict about getting tested before you arrive…and during the time here as well! I’m certain we covered at least 15 miles on foot in Paris that day, but Ron tells me it was probably more like 8 miles! Late in the afternoon we had made our way over to Notre Dame to see it under the scaffolding - and decided this would be our topic for our first day. Ron’s essay is “A Synchronicity of Fire”, and can be found on our ‘Medium’ platform, click here for the link.

The view from the chateau, overlooking the village or Orquevaux. “Wide Awareness” is the painting and accompanying essay.

As artists we go through periods of stagnation, and periods of great intense growth as well. It seems everyone coming to this art residency has their own personal goals to achieve in their artist’s journey. Mine is to increase my comfort zone with watercolor. I want it to feel the same way it did after painting in oils for thirty years…..like breathing. That only comes from brush mileage - LOTS of it. My students often wonder “how long will it take me to be good at this?”. That is quite the subjective question, but I do tell them, that your journey starts as soon as you pick up that brush…and it never ends as long as you are painting. There is no “THERE” (as in ‘when I get there’). There is only the current place on your journey. We grow through exploration and study…and painting DAILY (or as often as humanly possible). Like our handwriting, our painting comes out in slightly varied styles.

We began our painting and writing process as soon as we arrived at the Chateau and unpacked. This painting is the view of the village from our studio…and actually painted from the front yard within a little tuck of shade. Ron explains the concept of “Wide Awareness” in his accompanying essay, found at this link.

“Flow”, painted during the second morning (July 2nd) of our stay.

On our second morning we discovered a lovely view of the river coming between two buildings. At that time of day there were brilliant reflections of cool blue light and brilliant lime green light along the water that flowed through this narrow passage, spilling over some rocky passages along the way. To read Ron’s essay called Flow click here. I’ll continue tomorrow with more posts, as well as photographs from our travels at our art residency.