Gaillac Workshop Day 7

Sunday arrived and brought the inevitable feeling that our time at the Gite would soon come to a close. We took a quick trip to L'isle sur Tarn where the marche was set up in the village square...

a medieval parade strolled by...

We held a last critique/discussion before lunch and made plans for a last painting session in the afternoon. Some of us headed for the sunflowers...

Pat found some shade sitting next to the van

Pat's spectacular watercolor

Margo working on another masterpiece

Margo's Sunflowers

Dori

Dori's Sunflowers

my view

my sunflowers

Cocktail hour...

Our last dinner at the Gite... time to pack...

What an extraordinary group! But we need to photoshop Susan into the photo!

Thanks for all your help Susie!

And Thanks Chantal and Marc! a bientot!

Gaillac Workshop Day 5

On Friday the rental van needed some tire damage assessment... so we used the morning to continue work on the paintings at the Gite as well as making a trip to the Gaillac market...
After a lunch of Jambon de pays, Jambon blanc, fromages, salads, fruits... several options were offered for the afternoon...

painting at the Gite-

Linda's Donkeys (the start)

Suzy's river view

painting hay bales-

  

Hay bales- the start...

after more work, in the studio...

For dinner, we had Magret de Canard au barbecue... Chantal's piece de resistance, along with haricots vert aux lardons fumees... ice cream and petits gateaux... hmmmmm..
The reason we served duck in many forms throughout the week, was that Chantal had purchased 5 whole ducks and served every little piece of them at different times during the week. The Magret, or duck breast, is truly unlike anything we can find in the U.S. It tastes more like steak than poultry...

Gaillac Workshop Day 3

On Wednesday morning we awoke to a somewhat overcast sky so we headed into Gaillac center in the morning where several people set up down to paint by the river.

Dori painting by the River

Betsy painting the other direction

Betsy's finished painting...

Suzi painting the buildings in watercolor

A few of us then did a little tour of the village, the church, art supply store and the camera shop.

Back at the Gite for lunch, we enjoyed our saucisson, jambon, melon, salde, carottes rapees, and more...
Wednesday afternoon was painting at the Gite… I gave Chantal and Pat a lesson in oils...

Chantal's 1st oil painting!!

Pat preferred to work in watercolor, but she ended up with an amazing first oil painting...

Pat's pigionier

We held an informal group critique where we talked about our goals for next few days of painting...

Dinner consisted of saumon tartare and ratatouille, berries and icecream for dessert along with les petites galettes...

Beautiful sunset serenaded the evening walkers...

Gaillac Workshop Day 2

Castelnau de Montmiral and Le Lavande...

The Market...

Everyone seemed to awaken Tuesday refreshed- although not completely adjusted to the time change, the "stagiaires" were ready to go.  After a scrumptious petit dejeuner of croissants and confiture at the Gite we left around 9 for Castelnau de Montmiral.  This quaint medieval village was less than 20 minutes away.

 It was market day in the village so after a quick tour of the village, everyone picked a spot to set up and paint. 

Suzy and Elaine

Margo

 It was a perfect weather day of bright sunshine  around 80 degrees. Chantal serenaded  us with her accordion... 

 

Chantal with her accordion

Linda and Pat had many young admirers stopping to chat..

The painting I started at Castelnau de Montmiral..

Around 12:30 we headed back to the Gite to have a dejeuner of Salade de riz, melons, du pate, fromage, and of course les baguettes!

 People took a break, took a swim, then we headed to some nearby lavender fields by le chateau de mauriac around 4 PM.  We painted there for about 3 hours. We then headed to Chantal’s charming house in nearby vineyards for apperatifs... We had Gaillac doux and caviar d’aubergine sur crouton.

Dori painting the Lavender

We headed back to the Gite and had dinner around 9. It was a delicious stew of meatballs- boulettes de "Gaby", (tomatoes, onions, chorizo & jambon fume). Pommes de terre,  followed by fromage, then cookies and ice cream for dessert.

Gaillac Workshop Day One

Workshop Day 1...Monday, July 2... we met the group at the airport! No bags were lost!

We discovered that the 7-passenger van was not really big enough to carry 7 people because there was no leg room in the back seat. We managed to fit everyone in the van and Marc’s car with the ton of luggage and headed back to the Gite.

Everyone unpacked and had their first dejeuner of the week.

Lunch- salade, pate de campagne, des tomates, saucisson

At 4 PM I did a painting demonstration, working on a small painting of the “pigionier” in the vineyard. I was set up in the sun so it was a little difficult for people to sit in the hot sun watching, but all in all it was a good start.

 Dori began a painting at the same time.... she set the pace early as she was rarely not at her easel during the week.

The start of Dori's first paintingof the week...

 I hope to post a photo of her final painting here later... As was the case for nearly all of the artists, We were able to begin many paintings, but there were very few finished oeuvres... that may have to wait for a couple of months.

The first evening we also had a wine-tasting by the Gite vineyard owner. He let us taste a bubbly white, known as "cremant" - Mousseux de Matens, and a red – Matens, midi et soir

We had appetizers of Boudin and Tarama on croutons...

Our first dinner consisted of Aiguillettes de canard- strips of duck breast sautéed along with salade, and les petits cocotes de legumes. We then served some fromage followed by dessert- surprise gateau au chocolat to celebrate Betsy’s birthday.